Sefardic Activist Cries Bias: Claims Sonia Sotomayor Would Not Be Supreme Court's First Hispanic – Claims Sefardic Jew Was

But is he right?

Sonia Sotomayor NOT the first Hispanic for US Supreme Court
The 'New York Times' Challenged by Shelomo Alfassa and Responds
By Shelomo Alfassa for the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

(May 26, 2009) - The media is making a huge mistake reporting that Sonia Sotomayor, chosen by President Obama, will be the first Hispanic to be chosen for the US Supreme Court. Yet, Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870-1938) was the first Hispanic Justice in the US Supreme Court. Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew, served on the Supreme Court from 1932 until his death. He was born in to a Jewish family which immigrated from Portugal via the Netherlands and England to America. He was a long time member of the 'Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue' in New York City, home to 'Congregation Shearith Israel,' which was founded in 1654. Cardozo was a cousin of the poet Emma Lazarus whose poem "...Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..." resides on the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of legal immigration into the United States of America.

~~~~~

Shelomo Alfassa contacted Peter Baker at the New York Times who responded in part: "...This is certainly an interesting issue. My colleague, Neil Lewis, has a sidebar addressing this very point in tomorrow's paper. Thanks again for the note." Here is the article they responded with:

"Was a Hispanic Justice on the Court in the ’30s?"

Problems with the NY Times response:

1) Prof. Mair Jose Benardete, the first Sephardic scholar in America, authored "Hispanic Culture and Character of the Sephardic Jews" in 1952. Throughout his scholarly book, he uses the word Hispanic to refer to Iberian Jews, Jews from Spain and Portugal (living in New York). Hispanic can certainly refer to Jew from Iberia, meaning both Spanish and Portuguese.

2) Tens if not hundreds of thousand of Spanish Jews were sent into Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. Many of the Jews in Portugal later escaped, this includes the Cardozo family who has a tradition that their ancestors were secretly forced to convert to Christianity--but did escape religious persecution in the 17th century. The Cardozo family took refuge first in Holland and then in London. Later members of the family emigrated to the New World.

That a Sephardic scholar used the word Hispanic in 1952 to refer to all Jews from the Iberian Peninsula (the normal Jewish definition of the term) doesn't mean anything. It isn't relevant in any way. Cardozo's family lived in Portugal – which means he doesn't fit the classic secular definition of Hispanic.

Notice Alfassa writes, "Tens if not hundreds of thousand of Spanish Jews were sent into Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. Many of the Jews in Portugal later escaped, this includes the Cardozo family who has a tradition that their ancestors were secretly forced to convert to Christianity--but did escape religious persecution in the 17th century."

But nowhere do the Cardozo's claim to be of Spanish descent. Their family tradition is that they are from Portugal and lived as Christians for a time before leaving for Holland. There Jews in Portugal before the Inquisition.

The Cardozos left Portugal in the 1600s, going to Holland and England and from there to America, arriving here before the American Revolution.

Using what passes for Alfassa's logic, Cardozo was also the second Egyptian and Middle Eastern on the court (after Louis Brandies) because, like all Jews, he has ancestors who were slaves in Egypt and who later lived in the Land of Israel.

Past that, there is a reason Shearith Israel has been known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue from time immemorial. There is a very real difference between Spain and Portugal, one that includes completely different languages and cultures.

In modern Jewish parlance, Cardozo is Sefardic. So is Alfassa, even though it would seem he is of Moroccan descent. But that does not in actuality make Alfassa truly Sefardic. Only descent from Jews who lived in Spain pre-expulsion can do that.

And the Jewish definition of Sefardic has nothing to do with the secular meaning of Hispanic.

It is one thing to make Alfassa's claim as a joke or as a bit of party banter. It's quite another to behave as a wounded ethnic warrior bleating about the wrong done to your people – a people Alfassa may not really belong to.

Comments

[ML]

I also believe that the term "hispanic" was not in common use around Cardoza's time.

I could be wrong but this was added to census forms in the late 60's or early 70's. Anyone know?

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Portuguese people are Lusitanics, not Hispanics.

[maven]

"Alfassa's brand of bizarre uber-ethnic-nationalism isn't just stupid – it's toxic, and it's the last thing America needs."

Oh, really now. Slow news day?

I knew several kids of Sephardic background who tried to get into colleges using the "hispanic" line, but didn't get very far. Besides, isn't it enough that Jooz served on the bench?

On the other hand, you are probably right about the name Alfassa. Fez was the "non-Sepharadi" stronghold in Morocco, as opposed to places like Meknes, which were Ladino speaking. The Rif technically wasn't Sepharadi, I believe. Though that trick doesn't work either, I had Moroccan friends who tried to use the "African-American" box on their college applications, and that didn't go too far, either, they still get classified as "caucasian" (ie Jooz).

[itchiemayer]

I really don't care. I am sick and tired of the first this and the first that. Instead of Sotomayer being nominated to be the first hispanic on the court, why can't we say she is nominated to be the 56th American on the court, or whatever. I don't care about the first black this, the first Jewish this, and the first hispanic that. Whatever. Frankly, I never really thought of Portugese people as Hispanic.

[Harold F]

I'm waiting for someone to discover that Sotomayer is a descendant of crypto-Jews who fled the Iberian peninsula.

[pierre]

R. Azose in Chicago area was in a book called "Americanos", I think it was, about different Hispanic people and groups in El Norte.

[Martin]

We are not hispanic. We are Jews.
How stupid.

[none]

"Alfassa's brand of bizarre uber-ethnic-nationalism isn't just stupid – it's toxic, and it's the last thing America needs."

oh please.

dismount from your horse and stop revolting me.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

I never liked Elfassa. I don't really care wether Sotomayor or Cardeuzeu (as they would pronounce his name in England) was the first latino to make it to the U.S. supreme court.
Infact, all this trepidation is not typical of us Sefardis.
It's pure ashkenaz hyper everything. Always outraged always on the outlook of who is out to stab us and whom we should be on the outlook to counter stab.
Normally we leave the list of Nobel Laureates to the Ashkenazim. They can even take Canetti and Rene Cassin for all I am concerned.
So is Alfassa right? No, of course not! First and best lists is always Ashkenaz (reading of this statement to be delivered preferably with hysteria- yahwoll herren ashkenaz brothers)
Sefardis can't be best of anything, to begin with, they don't exist. Jewish? They don't even speak Moses lingo: Yiddish!
If we are talking first of anything, first Latino, Arab, Korean or anybody, when it's first, it's got to be ashkenaz.
(more hysteric spasms)

[Dr. dave]

Remember - Jesus Alou was great - but Moises Alou is better (O.K. they're Hatians, but where else are you gonna find a famous Jesus and Moises related)

[Michelle]

B"H

"In modern Jewish parlance, Cardozo is Sefardic. So is Alfassa, even though it would seem he is of Moroccan descent. But that does not in actuality make Alfassa truly Sefardic. Only descent from Jews who lived in Spain pre-expulsion can do that."

Alfassa is Turkish, BTW, not Moroccan. His family still speaks Ladino. And, BTW, most Moroccan Jews came from Spain. I know my family came from Spain, and we are Moroccan.

[Steven]

Let Alfassa go to the South Bronx or Spain and see if he will be called a "hermano" (brother) or more likely, a "judio sucio" (dirty Jew). Either we are one Hebrew people, or we are not a people at all. Jews from Spain and Portugal are Semitic, not Hispanic. Does anyone remember the term "limpieza de sangre"? The Spanish never considered the Jews as Spanish.

[Shmarya]

Alfassa is Turkish, BTW, not Moroccan. His family still speaks Ladino. And, BTW, most Moroccan Jews came from Spain. I know my family came from Spain, and we are Moroccan.

Alfassa means of or from Fez. Most Jews in Fez were not Ladino speaking and are part of the pre-expulsion Jewish population of Morocco.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Marrano woman (apologies to Santana)

Got a black-robed Marrano woman
Got a black-robed Marrano woman
We've got a black-robed Marrano woman
Hide her so Torquemada can't see
That she's a smart Marrano woman
She's actually a crypto-Sephardi

Don't bang your gavel on me chabibi
Don't bang your gavel on me chabibi
Nu don't bang your gavel on me chabibi
Stop messing round with your legal briefs
Don't bang your gavel on me chabibi
You just might lock up unlucky thieves

Got your hamsa on me chabibi
Got your hamsa on me chabibi
Yes you got your hamsa on me chabibi
Turning my heart into pita
I need you so bad, Marrano woman
I can't leave you with Justice Alito

[jake]

Africa for any benifts etc is based on subsharan Africa,And black skin.

A white person who was born in subsaharan Africa does not get any benefits.

From the Wall Street JournalIn a speech published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal in 2002, Judge Sotomayor offered her own interpretation of this jurisprudence. "Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases," she declared. "I am . . . not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, . . . there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
There will be 7 Catholic Judges and no Protestants.

We need a black hispanic Protestant justice.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Alfassa means of or from Fez.

alfassa is a distorted way to describe a man from fez. the rif was r' yia'haq alfassi.
could be people from fez were called alfassa by turks. but please fellows don't generalise. remember that the ar'i was ashkenazi, yet most ashkenazi today (except vladimir ashkenazi it seems) or askenazi or eskenazi are really spanioli speaking sefaradim.
my favorite name that causes lot of confusion are the names shneiur, schneer, shneerson are a misreeding of the name senior in hebrew script.
otherwise what are shnei-ur? two lights? and why not one light or 3 or 16 lights?
shneiur was the hebrew transliteration of the family name senior in sefardi literature and many tomstones from turkey to saloniki to curacao island.
that would have given us a sefardi moskioch were it not for the fact that he was failed. no?

[Itchiemayer]

DD - It should really come as no surprise but Jesus Alou was the worst of all of the Alou brothers/son-nephew.
1. Moises (probably took roids)
2. Matty
3. Felipe
4. Jesus

[Dr. dave]

Rhoids?

No way. Moises just took the two tablets that he was given. (Actually he was given four. He had dropped and broke the first two).

[justayid]

I find it odd that some folks here say if you are Jewish you cant be hispanic. I've known Jews from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Argentina. Native Spanish speakers. They are hispanics by US definitions of the term (which are not racial or religious). That said Cardozo was not hispanic, because he was not from Hispania - little Spain - just as someone migrating to New York from Madrid is not Hispanic. Hispanic does NOT mean Spanish (leaving aside the whole Portugese question).

I am not sure though why this historical quibbling is so offensive though. If it calls attention to Cardozo, a great jurist and famous Sephardic Jew, thats educational.

[justayid]

"Alfassa means of or from Fez. "

The man doesnt have a mother? A paternal grandmother? President Obama has a Kenyan name, yet he has anglosaxon Kansas ancestry. You are being a little rigid, shmarya.

[Yochanan Lavie]

We need a black hispanic Protestant justice.

Posted by: jake | May 28, 2009 at 12:42 AM

How about Herman Badillo? He is a Conservative, Protestant Puerto Rican.

[justayid]

I am old enough to remember when Badillo was a liberal

[Yochanan Lavie]

Me too.

[alternative childcare]

Justayid: Most of the Jews from Argentina (and Venezuela and Uruguay) are actually Ashkenasim, which makes it even more amusing that they are more likely to qualify as Hispanic.
Of course, most of the Hispanics are more Indian than "Spanish". But really, what does it matter to us? At any rate, despite the odd reflexive Rush Limbaughisms of much of this group (the various archies and itchies), Sotomayor ruled for the placing of menorahs in parks.

[AaronfromWG]

Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Gibraltar and a very small southern part of France).

[Don Cardoza]

Cardoza is a Basque name, and the Basques are not related to the Spanish. The 'za' means 'children of' and the 'cardo'
means 'watcher'.