by Rabbi Norman Cohen, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
The media are crowing about President Obama selecting the “first Hispanic Supreme Court justice”. I have news for the media.
We already have had a Hispanic U. S. Supreme Court Justice.
He was Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, U. S. Supreme Court Justice from 1932 – 1938, a Sephard Jew of Spanish ancestry. His father, Judge Albert Cardozo, was Vice President and Trustee of the famous Spanish-Portuguese synagogue in New York City, Congregation Shearith Israel. Young Benjamin was Bar Mitzvah in that synagogue, and as an adult was proud of both his Jewish and Hispanic heritage.
It is the oldest congregation in the Western Hemisphere, having been founded in Recife, Brazil ca. 1630 and moved to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1654. Its present location is at 70th St. and Central Park West. I spent some of my religious and social activity time there as a teenager in the 1950s, when the Rav was the famous Dr. David de Sola Pool.
One thing that surprised me there were the names on the memorial plaques…they were just like my Puerto Rican friends and not at all like my Jewish friends. Study of this history and culture has become a hobby of mine.
Most American Jews, who are of Ashkenaz origins, neither know of nor understand this important component of the Jewish people.
Jews were a major component of the populations of Spain and Portugal for 800 years (~ 700 – 1500 CE). Ladino, the “Sephardic Yiddish” based on pre-1500 Spanish, is still spoken by 200,000 Jewish descendants around the world, mainly in Mediterranean regions. 45 of the 50 most common Hispanic family names are of Jewish origin. All Hispanic given names ending in “el” are Hebrew phrases with reference to G-d. Like Gabriel, Emanuel, Rafael, etc. Many Spanish words and names of places are of Hebrew origin.
If you represented all Jews who were murdered in the Holcoaust by a crowded Dodger Stadium, those Jews whose family names were Gamboa and Graciano would fill a section of box seats. Gamboas and Gracianos are in Jewish cemeteries all over the world …. even in Poland, Canada, South Africa and Israel. That’s just two Sephardic-Jewish family names.
A recent analysis of the DNA of 20 statistical sample of men of Spain found that 20% have the Jewish genetic haplogroup, viz. they descend from Jews. The only way that this is possible is that there was already massive assimilation of the Jews of Spain in the centuries leading up to the Inquisition.
There are organized groups of b’nai anusim —- descendants of Jewish victims of Inquisitions in Spain, Portugal and Latin America who were forced to convert, or who hid and abandoned their Jewishness out of fear of persecution —- who are clamoring for acceptance as Jewish returnees.
It is estimated that a significant fraction of the Hispanics of the Southwestern USA and Northern Mexico are of Jewish ancestry and don’t know it.
But the media would not think of, nor recognize, Benjamin Cardozo as a “Hispanic”. They want a “genuine” Hispanic, certainly not one who was also a Jew.
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August 8, 2009: A Daily Kos article on Cardozo is an interesting addendum to this article. A Poll at the bottom of the article indicates that 59% of those participating believe that Cardozo was the first first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.
Coast Contact 
Cardoza’s people came to the New World BEFORE the American revolution from Portugal. The term Hispanic only refers to people of Spanish origin and is often (though incorrectly) used interchangeably with “Latino” which refers to Spanish speaking people in Latin America. Regardless, this article is trying to convey a message of anti-Semitism which is inaccurate, meant to foment anger and resentment, and mischievous. His father also had a sullied reputation which Cardoza hoped to overcome. I don’t know what Cohen’s agenda is but it is not honest.
“Shortly after Cardozo was born, his father Albert was implicated in a judicial corruption scandal that was sparked by the Erie Railway takeover wars, in which parties contending for the control of the Erie Railway used the judicial system in a way that perverted the law……… Cardozo not only wanted to enter a profession that could materially aid himself and his siblings, but also hoped to restore the family name, sullied by his father’s actions as a Justice. After two years, Cardozo left Columbia to practice law. He did not obtain his degree in law, which required attendance in a third year of law school……..As far as is known, Benjamin Cardozo led the life of a celibate. As an adult, Cardozo no longer practiced his faith, but remained proud of his Sephardic Jewish heritage.”
I have read this posting a while ago. I have also heard the arguments that Cardoza’s identity was always considered Jewish and that some people consider those of Portuguese origins not Hispanic. They are Hispanic for me but I’ll run with Jewish and let the unquestionably Hispanic have their legitimate day in the sun. I wouldn’t want a mum take away from Cardoza’s Jewishness. Besides, I wouldn’t want an ethnic identity sway any justice’s opinion whether he/she be black,white,brown,yellow or green (well, maybe not green), male or female, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, atheist, etc. I think you get the point.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and to comment! I appreciate the information. It is important to note that being of Portuguese or Spanish ancestry has nothing to do with being Hispanic (originating from Central or South America). Therefore Justice Cardozo having roots in Spain has no impact on Associate Justice Sotomayor being the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. Thanks!
Great article! Thank you for bringing these truthful facts to the light! As a Hispanic(Puerto Rican) and
a descendent of Sephardics, I appreciate very much this information.
Great site…keep up the good work.
Thanks for this post; I would like to add my comments , without offending anyone.
While Justice Cardozo’s family may have “come” from Portugal, it does not deny the Spanish origin of the name. It was, after all, the Spanish Jews who flooded Portugal, after their expulsion from the unified kingdom of Spain in 1492. It is worth pointing out that Portugal was, until the XII Century, part of the Kingdom of Galicia, in north-west Spain, in effect making all Portuguese, originally “Spanish.” After breaking away and through the Reconquista, this new kingdom reached what we today consider the country of Portugal. But those subtle differences are moot because it all has to do with Sefarad, the name of the Iberian peninsula.
It is interesting to note that Sephardic Jews continued the use of Ladino after being expelled from Spain. After 1492, a native of Spain would have felt quite at home in Salonica, Macedonia. One hundred years later, in Holland, Germany, Italy, France, England, and Denmark, “Sephardic Jews” or “Portuguese Jews” as they came to call themselves, used Portuguese and Castellano for everyday language, literary works and the written word. This provides a glimpse into how united these two languages, and their countries of origin were within one specific group of people, whose ancestry and heritage was so intermixed: the Jews of Sefarad.
The spelling of the Cardozo name also gives a clue (though not always necessarily accurate) to the origin of the name. As a general rule (and I will stress “general”), Portuguese names are spelled with an “S” while the same name in Spain is spelled with a “Z.” Cardozo, being spelled with a “Z” would indicate that it originated in Spain. On the other hand, that a name is spelled with an “S” does not mean it “originated” in Portugal: many Jews (and non-Jews alike) changed the spelling of their names to suit the locals’ inability to pronounce the name in its original form. Local phonetics has much to do with the interchange of “S,” “Z,” and “C,” and the misconception of their pronunciation or language identity. To further complicate matters there is the reality that after having fled to Portugal, and forced to convert, many Jews went back to Spain under the cover of their new “Christian” identity. It is a possibility that these Jews, once in Portugal, changed the spelling of their name, from “Z” to “S,” but did not revert the spelling once back in Spain. This gives us a “Spanish” name from “Portugal,” and a “Portuguese” name from “Spain.” Thus we find Gomez and Gomes, Henriquez and Henriques, Cardozo and Cardoso, Hernandez and Hernandes, Mendez and Mendes, and the list goes on. In Justice Cardozo’s case we can add Seixas and Seijas, another common interchange.
Added to this is the theory that names ending in “Z” are “Jewish” names, those ending in “S” are not. If this theory is 100% accurate, it is easy to understand why Jews changed the spelling of their name after fleeing Spain. Under the circumstances at the time, who wouldn’t?
Once in Portugal, Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism. This forced conversion gave the Portuguese Jews an advantage: they were no longer considered Jews, unlike their brethren in Spain. As “Portuguese,” these Jews were able to live with some relative freedom, and travel to and do business with Spain, France and England where Jews were not allowed. Within fifty years, the “Portuguese” Jews had moved to Holland, England, and Germany. Being “Portuguese” meant acceptance; being “Spanish” meant, not only, painful memories but being a Jew, which was not acceptable.
While in today’s lingo and in Castellano (the official name of the Spanish language) it is common, and the accepted practice to interchange Latino with Hispanic, this is a mistake. The word Hispano means, the cultutre, originally from, or related to Spain or the language of Spain. As such, one can say that anyone speaking Castellano is a “hispano,” but that does not a Spaniard make—nor, as used in the context of this thread, is a Hispanic necessarily a Spaniard. Those in the Americas and the Caribbean have for centuries referred to themselves as Latinos to denote the european origin of their colonial language, as opposed to those whose mother tongue is not based on Latin (English, Danish, German, etc.), and at the same time to differentiate themselves from those originating in Spain, whose language they share. While those in Latin America share some heritage and cultural traits with those in Spain, it is also a mistake to assume that all who speak Spanish are one and the same.
Herein lies the confusion: the name of the country and the common name of the language are the same (Spanish the language of Spain). We, in the United States speak English, though we are not English, Australian, Bahamian, South African, Irish, Scot, Canadian, or New Zealander, nor do we want to be considered as such, and much less would the Britons, nor anyone from any former British colony, consider us “English.” Why would those speaking Spanish, and under the same circumstances be any different?
The phrase “Hispanic” to denote someone of Latino origin, be the person from Mexico, Argentina or Puerto Rico, is a new term started in the 80’s, as the politically correct way to denote a poor, more often than not, illegal immigrant, who spoke Castellano (Spanish) and came to the United States either from Puerto Rico or Mexico (with all other Latin countries lumped in the latter). From New York and California the term caught on as more localities with a Latino community adopted its use. While this may be of no significance to many, we need to remember what we, or how we, as Jews want to recognized, identified, and addressed.
In the end, Justice Cardozo was Sephardim, regardless of where his people were born, and yes, it can be said that he was of Hispanic heritage, being that his family emigrated to Portugal from Spain. Cardozo can be Portuguese by virtue of the common usage of that “nationality” by many Jews to avoid association with Spain, and the consequences of that association. Ms. Sotomayor, while not Sephardic she is Latina, and as Latina she is not from Spain, but from a former colony of that country, while at the same time being a citizen of the United States which has nothing to do with Spanish, Spain, and much less with Portugal. In her case, Ms Sotomayor identifies herself as “Hispanic,” so we can safely call her that, and know she won’t be offended. I can relate all this to my own case: my ancestors originated in Spain, from where they went to Portugal, moved on to Macedonia before going to Italy, from where they went to Holland, then to England, then Suriname, Curaçao, United States, Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, Jamaica, Denmark, Germany, France, Venezuela, back to France, Holland, Germany, and the United States, and I speak Castellano, Portuguese, Italian and French, all Latin languages. So what am I?
In the case of Justice Cardozo, his family emigrated from Spain to Portugal, to Holland, to England, and in the 1700s, to the United States. I would bet he considered himself Jewish; his heritage, Sephardic because of his Jewish ancestors; Portuguese because that is what many Jews came to call themselves after leaving Spain; Hispanic for his name’s origin and heritage, but not Spaniard, not Spanish, and not Latino, but a citizen of the United States who spoke English, but not Castellano or Portuguese. Both Spain and Portugal share claim on the Cardozo name, in which case we need to remember that language does not a “race,” “religion,” or “country” make.
This is a direct reply to d. pardo. Though the original article was interesting, yours was beyond fascinating. It left me wishing that I knew you. My background is Ashkenazi and I married a man (separated) who’s background is Sephardic, from Israel, born in Morocco and I guess before that the Iberian Peninsula. My husband says that the language the Jews spoke was something like Maghrebite. In researching this, I did not find it, but did find this. that in Spain they call all North Africans “El Magreb”. So very interesting.
Sherrl, thanks for the kind words.
D.A. Pardo
THE TERM LATINO OR LATIN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING FROM SPAIN OR PORTUGAL . THE ORIGINAL LATINS WERE A PEOPLE LOCATED IN THE CENTRAL PART OF ITALY .THE ROMANS (INQUISITIONIST) IMPOSED THAT TERM ON US. MUCH LIKE DIFFERENT BREEDS CATTLE BEING PUT INTO A CORRAL ,THEY ARE ALL COW’S. I WILL POINT OUT THE ORIGENATOR OF THE INQUISITION WAS QUEEN ISABELLA AND SHE WAS AUSTRIAN BY BIRTH.FROM THE CRUSADERS TO ISABELLA ANTI SEMETISIM HAS BEEN THERE . SOTOMAYOR MAIDEN NAME IS BAEZ AND IS SEPHARDIC READ YOUR HISTORY……………..