Dissing Benjamin Cardozo? http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/dissing-benjamin-cardozo/ The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor has some observers asking if a former Jewish justice was really the first Hispanic member of the U.S. Supreme Court. en-us aeden@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-05-26T;23:49:00-05:00 Comment by Judy Simon heyjude0701@verizon.net To add yet another level of confusion, Sotomayor is a name that Sephardim and conversos used, so it could be that Sonia Sotomayor has Sephardic ancestry too.  Thus, Cardozo and Sotomayor may both have ancestry going back to Iberia during the Inquisition.  It is possible that around the same time Cardozo’s ancestors fled the Inquisition to New York, Sotomayor’s ancestors may have fled the Inquisition to Puerto Rico.  From that point to the present, of course, the Cardozo and Sotomayor families’ experiences differed from each other, but I think it is fair to say that both families have Sephardic roots.  Whether you use the term “Hispanic” to define Cardozo depends on how you define the term, and it has have several definitions over the centuries. To add yet another level of confusion, Sotomayor is a name that Sephardim and conversos used, so it could be that Sonia Sotomayor has Sephardic ancestry too.  Thus, Cardozo and Sotomayor may both have ancestry going back to Iberia during the Inquisition.  It is possible that around the same time Cardozo’s ancestors fled the Inquisition to New York, Sotomayor’s ancestors may have fled the Inquisition to Puerto Rico.  From that point to the present, of course, the Cardozo and Sotomayor families’ experiences differed from each other, but I think it is fair to say that both families have Sephardic roots. 

Whether you use the term “Hispanic” to define Cardozo depends on how you define the term, and it has have several definitions over the centuries.

]]> 2012-02-10T;12:44:00-05:00 Comment by dtm freak@jta.org Cardozo’s forefathers left Spain in 1492, 500 years ago! If he is considered Hispanic, then so are many many other Jews. His great etc. grandparents on both sides arrive in the U.S. before the American Revolution! To call him Hispanic just because his family never changed their name is quite a s-t-r-e-t-c-h! (See comment on Justshmooze.com) Cardozo’s forefathers left Spain in 1492, 500 years ago! If he is considered Hispanic, then so are many many other Jews.
His great etc. grandparents on both sides arrive in the U.S. before the American Revolution! To call him Hispanic just because his family never changed their name is quite a s-t-r-e-t-c-h!
(See comment on Justshmooze.com)

]]> 2012-02-10T;12:44:00-05:00 Comment by Michael G. Dworkin dworkinmg@msn.com When NBC first broke the story Tuesday morning they identified Ms. Sotomayor as the “first Hispanic” nominee and then within minutes retracted the statement by noting the appointment of Justice Cardozo nearly 80 years ago. However, whoever it was who made the correction did note that Cardozo was of Portuguese extraction and besides was Jewish. Clearly the latter identification was to suggest he could not have been a “real” Hispanic. Now I know very little about Cardozo’s background, but I do know that even if he were Portuguese, it was almost certainly by way of Spain, following one or another of the 200-year-long efforts to force Jews to renounce their Judaism there, since, in Portuguese, his name would be spelt C-A-R-D-O-S-O, not with a “Z,” but with an “S.” Of course, it is particularly disquieting that after 800 years Iberian Peninsula Jews are still being denied their heritage. They cannot be Hispanic because they were Jews? I have a question for Natalie Morales of NBC’s Today program-- Ms Morales: Is Ms. Sotomayor less of a “real” Hispanic because she lacks a criminal record? Is it true she was not ever in the drug business? Has she not ever been a nanny or gardener. Has she ever stripped a car? Or been a member of a teenage gang? You call that a “real Hispanic?” When NBC first broke the story Tuesday morning they identified Ms. Sotomayor as the “first Hispanic” nominee and then within minutes retracted the statement by noting the appointment of Justice Cardozo nearly 80 years ago.

However, whoever it was who made the correction did note that Cardozo was of Portuguese extraction and besides was Jewish. Clearly the latter identification was to suggest he could not have been a “real” Hispanic.

Now I know very little about Cardozo’s background, but I do know that even if he were Portuguese, it was almost certainly by way of Spain, following one or another of the 200-year-long efforts to force Jews to renounce their Judaism there, since, in Portuguese, his name would be spelt C-A-R-D-O-S-O, not with a “Z,” but with an “S.”

Of course, it is particularly disquieting that after 800 years Iberian Peninsula Jews are still being denied their heritage. They cannot be Hispanic because they were Jews?

I have a question for Natalie Morales of NBC’s Today program--
Ms Morales: Is Ms. Sotomayor less of a “real” Hispanic because she lacks a criminal record? Is it true she was not ever in the drug business? Has she not ever been a nanny or gardener. Has she ever stripped a car? Or been a member of a teenage gang? You call that a “real Hispanic?”

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