Albert Jacob Cardozo (December 21, 1828 – November 8, 1885) was an attorney and an American jurist in New York.

Early background

Albert Jacob Cardozo was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, as the son of Ellen Hart and Michael H. Cardozo,

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

of the Portuguese Jewish community. Sephardi Jews immigrated to the colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The family returned to New York, where Albert Cardozo went to school and read the law; he passed the bar and began practicing law in New York in 1849. He married Rebecca Washington (née Nathan). Her parents, Sara Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan, were also Sephardic Jews in New York. Among their children was a daughter Nell and fraternal twins,

Benjamin Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...

(future U.S. Supreme Court justice) and Emily, 11 years younger. After Rebecca died when the twins were young, Nell had a key role in rearing them.

Career

Cardozo became a justice in 1864 of the Supreme Court of New York, that state's trial court. By 1866, Cardozo was working on behalf of Tammany Hall's

William M. Tweed William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see below), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany ...

ring. Without seeing the applicants, many of whom had questionable citizenship, Cardozo granted naturalization papers for up to 800 persons per day. He was implicated in a Tammany Hall judicial corruption scandal that was sparked by the

Erie Railway The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Eri ...

takeover wars in 1868. The scandal led to the creation of the

Association of the Bar of the City of New York The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

, and to Cardozo's resignation from the bench in 1872. Cardozo was also responsible for allowing

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

of the Erie Railroad to escape most of the debt Gould accumulated while trying to corner the gold market in 1869. Cardozo did this as a favor for William M. Tweed. Cardozo resumed the practice of law until his death in 1885. Albert Cardozo served as vice president and trustee of

Congregation Shearith Israel The Congregation Shearith Israel (Hebrew: קהילת שארית ישראל ''Kehilat She'arit Yisra'el'' "Congregation Remnant of Israel") – often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – is the oldest Jewish congregation in the Unit ...

in New York City; both his and his wife's family had belonged to the congregation, established in the 17th century.

References

* American people of English-Jewish descent American people of Portuguese-Jewish descent New York Supreme Court Justices New York (state) lawyers Jewish American attorneys American Sephardic Jews 1828 births 1885 deaths Lawyers from Philadelphia Leaders of Tammany Hall 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers {{US-state-judge-stub