Ellen Pober Rittberg, a first-time candidate for Nassau County's District Court 4th Judicial District, which includes Jericho and Syosset, has many local roots in Jericho, the Plainview resident said in a recent interview.

Rittberg estimates that she spent "most of my waking hours each day in and around Jericho when my three children, ages 20, 19, and 17, were small." Prior to moving to Plainview ten years ago, Rittberg lived in Hicksville for seven years. But her children played soccer in the Jericho Soccer League, and attended nursery school in the Jericho Jewish Center.

"Since all my kids' friends lived in Jericho, it made sense to enroll them in the same soccer league as their friends," she explains.

When her children became school-aged, Rittberg again found herself in Jericho, this time at the Solomon Shechter School on Terry Lane.

"So I guess you could say we were more Jericho residents than Hicksville residents, unless you count sleeping." Rittberg says.

Rittberg says she remembers spending many a balmy spring and fall afternoon in one of the many pocket parks in Birchwood.

"I had moved from Dix Hills, where there were no parks and not anything nearby. Everywhere I went was a 10 minute or more trip by car. I liked how convenient and compactly everything was located in Jericho."

Rittberg also fondly recalls using the Jericho Public Library.

"At the time, I was a freelance feature writer, and I researched some of my articles about social trends and family issues there, where I found the librarians to be helpful and knowledgeable. At the library I remember looking out the large window overlooking several attractive trees where I perused periodicals formulating ideas for articles to pitch to editors."

Rittberg says her training as a journalist was great training for her current aspiration - being a judge - because it "taught me how to be objective, which is what a judge must be. It also trained me to complete a story under tight deadline pressure. Now, as a busy attorney, I have a heavy case load and deadline pressures. I am expected to perform efficiently. By the same token, judges are expected to move through their heavy case calendars efficiently each day."

When her youngest children began attending school full time, Rittberg went to law school, where, she says, she felt she could have a "greater impact on society than as a writer sitting at my computer alone and apart from the world."

Rittberg says she is in court almost every day interacting "with scores of people. There, I see almost every kind of human problem imaginable, and some you would never even want to imagine. But I see it, and deal with it. It's important work, and I take my work very seriously."

A portion of Rittberg's law practice involves representing children. In that capacity she is asked to make recommendations to the judges about very large and important matters such as child abuse, family violence and custody matters.

"Representing children is challenging and sometimes it is rewarding. By being forceful and vigilant, I sometimes make a difference for the better in a young person's life, and that's a great feeling. Part of my job also involves seeing the results of some terribly sad, misguided, selfish behavior of adults. When adults are unwilling or unable to put their children's needs before their own, the children suffer greatly. Part of my role is to advocate for what my clients - the children - want and need. When the parents behavior falls short, part of my job is to demand that the parents behave better, so that my clients' lives can be better. I am firm but fair - my clients deserve that."

Rittberg says that she believes that part of being a good judge means being a good listener.

"When I am asked to make recommendations to judges, I listen and look into the facts before making a decision. I do not prejudge people. The work I do is important and I regard it as a public service. That's why I want to be a judge - to serve the public, to serve the people. Seeing family's lives up close has transformed me as a person and has given me invaluable experience in assessing people and situations."

Rittberg says she believes a judge brings to the position life experience. "Being a mother also helped train me to be a judge. A large part of my adult life included raising my three college-aged children with my husband."

Rittberg says she hopes the voters will come out to vote in November and that they will remember to vote for the judicial candidates.

"It's disheartening to hear that some people don't even bother voting for the judges. Hopefully, I will get to meet as many people as there are voters in the coming months so that they can make an educated decision."