Ilast appeared before a judge 40 years ago when I tried fighting an “unjust” speeding ticket. That didn’t go so well. As they say, “ He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” My takeaway: pay the fine and don’t add insult to injury by paying court costs.

But this year, in the waning days of Elul, when Jews began reflecting about the upcoming High Holiday season, I stood before three different judges — not in traffic court but in immigration court. And not as an attorney nor, thankfully, as a respondent — a foreign-born person charged by the Department of Homeland Security with violating immigration law and facing deportation proceedings.

No, I stood as a privileged white American naturalized citizen. I stood as an online-trained ABA court observer to monitor and document

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