Prosecutor, judge, and mayor: Seymour Gelber dies at 99
Seymour Gelber passed away Thursday. He was known for his time as a Miami-Dade juvenile judge and mayor of Miami Beach.
prosecutor, juvenile judge, and Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber was a local luminary. But by his own account, he was simply a streetwise kid from Brooklyn who used enough smarts and a little bit of luck to get ahead in life.
Gelber cut a self-effacing figure, disguising a shrewd legal mind that made him a heavyweight in jurisprudence who took his work seriously — but never himself.
“I never liked it,” he quipped about law school. “Never thought I would like to be a lawyer.”
His doubts faded as he ascended the ranks to become a respected jurist who shaped Miami-Dade’s juvenile-justice system. He later served as mayor of Miami Beach while the city emerged from a tuFormer multuous period rocked by corruption in the early 1990s. In the coda to his life of public service, Gelber provided a steady hand to guide City Hall.
Gelber died Thursday at age 99, his family said. He
leaves behind a legacy that looms large in courtrooms and local government.
A World War II veteran, prosecutor, jurist and mayor, Gelber began his life as a young mischief-maker in New York and ended in pleasant retirement in Miami Beach. In between, he served a tour of duty in the military, donned a judicial robe to oversee the creation of a legal system for juveniles in MiamiDade and served three consecutive two-year terms as Beach mayor. He returned to City Hall in 2017 to swear in his son, former federal prosecutor Dan Gelber, as Miami Beach mayor.
“When it comes to dads, I won the lottery,” Dan Gelber said in a statement Thursday announcing his father’s death. “From any angle and for every moment, my dad never disappointed. He was always authentic, honest, and caring, and as a role model I will always be grateful that he lit the path so brightly for me and so many others.”
Seymour Gelber sat for his final interview with the Miami Herald in January 2018, taking a place in the corner office at Miami Beach City Hall currently occupied by his son.
Leaning back in the mayor’s chair, he remembered strolling through South Beach during the 1972 Republican National Convention, passing by a wide array of political activists and counterculture groups, making sure there were no problems. At a time when police “maintained order solely by nightstick,” as he wrote in his memoir, he played peacekeeper as he learned to tell the difference by smell between the strains of marijuana each group smoked.
Gelber remembered bucking the political winds when in 1992 he welcomed Nelson Mandela for a visit to Miami Beach. Two years earlier, other local governments in Miami-Dade County had snubbed Mandela after the South African icon was criticized by the Cuban-American community for voicing support for Fidel Castro. Gelber honored Mandela with a proclamation.
But the near-centenarian, known for his straightforward demeanor on the bench and on the dais, laughed when he spoke of his New York roots.
“I was just a wise-ass kid in the street,” he quipped as he recalled his formative years. He just roughhoused his way around the neighborhood with friends from his basketball team, snatching food from the kitchen at bar mitzvahs, pulling pranks.
Born to Austrian immigrants who met while working in a Manhattan bakery, Gelber grew up in the eastern European / community of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The draft placed him in the the Army before World War II. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor just after he finished basic training in Georgia. Through the war, he excelled in organizing morale activities for troops here and abroad, such as sports leagues. Gelber, a buck sergeant in the Army Air Corps, would’ve seen combat only if the U.S. had invaded Japan.
“I never heard a shot fired in anger,” he told the Herald. “Never fired a shot in anger.”
After the war, he longed for a new adventure and a sense of accomplishment, so he took advantage of a benefit for World War II veterans that allowed them to go to law school without needing an undergraduate degree. He enrolled at the University of Miami.
His long career in public service began in 1953 when he took a job as a legislative aide in Tallahassee and ended in 1997 when he finished his tenure as mayor of Miami Beach.
Along the way, he forged a strong reputation during a distinguished legal career when he served as a prosecutor, an assistant attorney general and a juvenile court judge. Known for his calm, laid-back yet quickwitted demeanor, Gelber was seen as an even-keeled leader when Miami Beach was swamped with corruption and scandal in the early 1990s. He was elected mayor three times in a row.
Gelber also met the love of his life, Edith, a schoolteacher in Miami Beach. Some recall her as the “popular one” when they remember the couple.
“She loved it,” said Michele Burger, who has served as chief of staff to both father and son during their mayoral terms. “Seymour didn’t like going to events, but Edith did, and people loved her for it. She made him look good.”
He lovingly agreed in his last interview. He doted on his wife, who passed away in 2006, claiming that a major accomplishment in his life was managing to get her to overlook his many faults. In the interview, he reserved the widest smile of the afternoon for his remembrance of Edith.
After his term as mayor, Gelber retired to a quiet life in Miami Beach before re-emerging in the spotlight as his son ran for mayor. The senior Gelber made his last public appearance in 2017 when he swore in his son.
In trademark good-humored style, he cracked a joke while complimenting the career and personality of his newly elected son.
“These qualities will allow you to be the best mayor this city has ever had — present company included,” said the older Gelber.
Known for his easygoing manner and wry humor in his early career, Gelber was an apt foil for his assertive boss, State Attorney Richard Gerstein. As a prosecutor, his lawyering prowess fell more on the academic side. He was the first to admit he wasn’t a skilled trial lawyer — but he fashioned an enduring legacy with his brainy approach and personnel decisions.
As Gerstein’s assistant in Miami-Dade, Seymour Gelber hired a young woman named Janet Reno and gave her a project: to set up the juvenile courts system.
After a stint in Tallahassee as assistant attorney general, he returned to Miami to serve on the circuit court bench.
He was appointed judge in the juvenile court division he helped create, a tenure memorialized in the juvenile courthouse that bears his name today, along with the name of one of his closest colleagues. Together with Judge William Gladstone, who died in 2015, Gelber laid the groundwork for today’s children’s justice system.
“He certainly challenged me. He made us better lawyers,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Karen Kallman, the general magistrate in the children’s court, who clerked for Gladstone and practiced as a young prosecutor in Gelber’s courtroom.
“I’m still in juvenile court, so I’ve spent pretty much my entire trying to live up to their expectations,” Kallman said.
Judge Jeri B. Cohen also remembered when Gelber’s cerebral approach to addressing young offenders set a precedent. Gelber would author many articles on criminal justice and six books. One of them, “On Behalf of Children,” tells the history of MiamiDade’s juvenile justice system.
“They really set the tone for judges being therapeutic in their practice,” Cohen said. “They became the paradigm for what juvenile judges would be.”
When he was required to retire in the early 1990s, he punctuated his public life with three terms as mayor of Miami Beach. He was elected to office at a tumultuous time riddled with corruption and scandal. His predecessor, Alex Daoud, was convicted of taking bribes. Gelber, with his signature bow tie nestled beneath his chin, was seen as an elder statesman who could bring stability to City Hall.
“He restored dignity and ethics to city government,” said Neisen Kasdin, a land use attorney who was elected to the Beach commission in 1991, the same day voters made Gelber their new mayor. Kasdin recalled a time of breakneck change in Miami Beach, a development boom tempered by a measured and scandal-free approach firmly guided by Gelber.
“It was through his leadership the business of the city was conducted in a businesslike manner,” Kasdin said.
Kasdin would eventually succeed Gelber in the mayor’s seat, but not without first weathering a classic Gelber moment that echoed his days of challenging young lawyers in his courtroom.
In 1996, Gelber told Kasdin he was done after two two-year terms as mayor, advising his younger colleague to make a run at replacing him.
A flattered Kasdin started making calls and exploring a run. But not long after, Gelber threw a curveball during a speech at a Miami Beach Taxpayers Association luncheon.
“Due to popular demand, I will be running for a third term!” Gelber told the crowd, to applause.
Kasdin laughed as he recounted Gelber’s knack for lovingly putting people in their place — a sometimes brusque man who is still fondly remembered as a fair, caring mentor, both in his legal and political careers.
“Sy had a way of keeping you on your toes,” Kasdin said.
Apart from his mother, Edith Gelber seemed to be the only one who kept Seymour on his toes, an arrangement that underscored their 52-year marriage. In a dedication he once wrote to his mother, Rosie, and Edith, he acknowledged both women’s immense impact on his life.
“Rosie struggled endlessly to keep him going. Edith, at first an innocent bystander, slowly trying to undo his negatives, hopefully able to fashion a new, better product,” Gelber wrote. “A monumental task, indeed. Thanks a lot, ladies.”
He is survived by his three children: Judy Gelber, her spouse, Steven Kurtzer and two children, Joshua Lee and Zachary Lee (Zachary Lee predeceased in 2000); Dan Gelber and his spouse, Joan Silverstein, and three children, Sophie Gelber, Hannah Gelber and Max Gelber; and Barbara Gelber and her spouse, John Barker, and three children, Madeleine Barker, Claudia Barker and Benjamin Barker.
The family will hold services Sunday, but details were not available Thursday. The services will be open to the public.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Miami Beach PAL’s Kindergarten Cop Program. Contributions can be mailed to Miami Beach PAL at 999 11th St., Miami Beach, FL 33139 or through https:// www.beachpal.org/paythru-paypal.