Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Nathan Lopes Cardozo (born 1946) is a Dutch-Israeli rabbi, philosopher and scholar of Judaism. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Cardozo is known for his original and often controversial insights into Judaism. His ideas are widely debated on an international level on social media, blogs, books and other forums.

He writes for the
Times of Israel
', ''The Jerusalem Post'' and other news websites.

Cardozo believes that the biblical prohibition against two men engaging in homosexual acts only applies to those wh
are purely heterosexual
which puts him in direct opposition to mainstream Rabbinic Judaism.

Early life and family

Nathan Lopes Cardozo was born on 26 July 1946 in Amsterdam. Nathan was named after his father's youngest brother who was killed in the Holocaust. His father was a secular Jew who was proud of his Portuguese Jewish origin. His mother was an orphan who, when her Christian parents died, was raised by his father’s Jewish family, and though not Jewish, she was an integrated part of the community and spoke their language. Later on, she saved her husband and his family during the Holocaust by hiding them in her apartment in the center of Amsterdam while it was under Nazi occupation. Many times she risked her life by telling the Nazis that her husband and family were already taken to the concentration camps.

Due to his birth to a non-Jewish mother Cardozo was technically not halakhically Jewish either (natural-born Jewish status is conferred through one’s mother), but at age sixteen he formally converted to Judaism through the Amsterdam Rabbinate, formed by Hacham Salomon Rodrigues Pereira, Chief Rabbi Aron Schuster and Rabbi Benjamin Pels. His mother later converted to Judaism as well.

Cardozo spent the next 12 years studying at various Haredi Yeshivas such as Gateshead Talmudical College. He received his ''semikhah'' from Rabbi Aryeh Leib Gurwitz, Rosh yeshiva of Gateshead. He later received his Doctorate in Philosophy from Columbia Pacific University.

Marriage and early career

At the age of 21, he married Freyda Gnesin, a young lady of Eastern European descent whom he met in the synagogue of Haarlem.

While in her 50s, Cardozo's mother converted to Judaism. Cardozo then changed his name from Nathan the son of Abraham (being the standard name for someone not born Jewish) to Nathan son of Jacob.

Later career

Cardozo is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew. Rabbi Cardozo heads a Think Tank focused on finding new Halachic and philosophical approaches to dealing with the crisis of religion and identity amongst Jews and the Jewish State of Israel.

Cardozo has five children and lives in the Bayit V'Gan neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Some within Orthodox Jewish circles who have claimed that in recent years Cardozo's opinions on the tenets of Judaism have grown veered from conventional Orthodox thought and custom. Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, a rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union and blogger, has even referred to Cardozo as " avingnow accepted the approach of the Conservative movement, which postulates that Halacha is not objective divine truth, is not fixed, and that it must change in accordance with the values of the times and with various needs."

Cardozo maintains that his views remain within the acceptable realm of Orthodoxy, and on numerous occasions distanced them from the Reform & Conservative movements.

Writings

Cardozo has authored and edited many books, among them:
*
Thoughts to Ponder: Daring Observations About the Jewish Tradition
'
*
The Torah as God's Mind
'

Judaism on Trial: An Unconventional Discussion about Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel


''The Infinite Chain''
*
Between Silence and Speech
'

Crisis, Covenant and Creativity: Jewish Thoughts for a Complex World

For the Love of Israel and the Jewish People: Essays and Studies on Israel, Jews and Judaism

The Tent of Avraham: Gleanings from the David Cardozo Academy
*
The Written and Oral Torah
'.
In 2016, Rabbi Cardozo wrote an Introduction to the Nehalel Siddur, and a Foreword for A Damaged Mirror: A story of memory and redemption.

His forthcoming autobiography
"Lonely But Not Alone: A Spiritual Autobiography"
is due to be released in late 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardozo, Nathan
1946 births
Living people
Israeli Orthodox rabbis
Jewish Dutch writers
Dutch emigrants to Israel
Dutch Sephardi Jews
Dutch people of Portuguese-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Portuguese-Jewish descent
Writers from Amsterdam
Dutch Orthodox rabbis