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. 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. His 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. There are those within Orthodox Jewish circles who have claimed that in recent years Cardozo's opinions on the tenets of Judaism have grown further and further away from conventional Orthodox thought and custom. Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, a rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union and blogger, has  even referred to Cardozo as "[having] now 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, himself, however, explicitly states that while there is much to be learned from the different Jewish religious movements and thinkers, he, himself, does not accept the Reform or Conservative ideologies. Quotes about Rabbi Cardozo. “Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo has emerged as one of the most thoughtful voices in contemporary Judaism. He is a man of deep  faith and wide intellectual horizons, unafraid to confront the challenges of the age with the quiet confidence of one who is attuned to the music of eternity.” (Rabbi Professor Jonathan Sacks, former Emeritus Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Britain and the Commonwealth) “Rabbi Cardozo brings an unusual - perhaps unique - collection of talents and cultural sensitivities to his sacred work. He embodies Ashkenazi training, Sephardi heritage, European dignity, and the English speaking idiom.” (Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, PhD, author, lecturer at Hebrew University, Executive Editor, Intermountain Jewish News, Denver) “Rabbi Lopes Cardozo has earned a well-deserved reputation as  a brilliant and profound teacher, lecturer and author. Audiences around the Jewish world flock to hear his lectures on Torah and Jewish philosophy. Rabbi Cardozo’s insights into, and understanding of, Judaism and the modern world are refreshing as they are thought-provoking.” (Rabbi Dr. Sholom Gold, Dean of Jerusalem College for Adults Rabbi of Kehillat Zichron Yosef, Jerusalem) "I have friends who were profoundly impacted by Rabbi Cardozo in his early days as a master lecturer in "hashkafah" (Jewish philosophy) at a famous Jerusalem yeshiva. I think that all of us one way or another benefited from Rabbi Cardozo ’s early writings, as an expositor par excellence of authentic Torah perspectives, using scholarly academic tools to reach the minds of those who otherwise would not appreciate the material. We are quite saddened by Rabbi Cardozo’s departure from this model and his embarkation on a path of subverting Torah teachings and Torah authority. We long for the previous Rabbi Cardozo to reemerge and again spread the light of genuine Torah wisdom." (Avrohom Gordimer, writing for Cross-Currents.) Writings. Cardozo has authored and edited many books, among them: 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.