Abraham Lopes Cardozo

• Abraham Cardozo, Sephardic Cantor NYTimes
• Reverend Abraham Lopes Cardozo (1914-2006)

This week we remember Hazzan Abraham Lopes Cardozo. Rev. Cardozo was Hazzan of Shearith Israel From 1946 until his retirement in 1984. He was the embodiment of the Western Sephardic liturgical tradition that was brought to North America from Amsterdam via Recife, Montreal, and the Caribbean, among other places. He was the spiritual and musical teacher of the present Rabbi of Mikveh Israel, R. Albert Gabbai, bringing some of his rich influence to Philadelphia. Rabbi Gabbai would often invite Rev. Cardozo to come to Philadelphia for High Holidays and other occasions after his retirement.

Rev. Cardozo was born on September 27, 1914. His father, Joseph Lopes Cardozo, was the leader of the boys choir at the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam. He was also a violinist, and along with Cardozo and his two brothers, the foursome formed a band that played at various gatherings and communal holiday celebrations. They all could play keyboards and also string, reed, and brass instruments. Of course, Bram, as Abraham Cardozo was known, grew up completely immersed in music of all kinds and had a natural talent. He even played piano as a toddler. As he grew, he could play any piece he heard by ear.

At 18, Bram Cardozo earned his degree as a Hebrew teacher from the Ets Haim Seminary in Amsterdam. A few years later in 1938, he answered an advertisement for a Hazzan who was needed for a congregation in Surinam, Zedek Ve-Shalom. The ad was placed by his future father-in-law, Judah Robles, who was Parnas of the synagogue at the time. After much deliberation over different candidates, Bram Cardozo was chosen because of his credentials and also because the salary, paid for by the Dutch government, and living conditions were appropriate for a single young man. He arrived in Paramaribo, Suriname on September 9, 1939. As it turned out, this appointment saved his life. All of the rest of his family in Holland perished in the Holocaust. Throughout his life, he observed Tisha B’Ab as the Nahalah (anniversary) for all of his relatives that were murdered, as this is the national Jewish day of mourning.

In 1945, Rev. Cardozo took a six-month leave of absence from his job as Hazzan in Suriname, and headed to New York. The Suriname community was declining in the wake of the war, and he wanted to expand his horizons and look for other opportunities. New York City provided the perfect vibrant Jewish community for him to spread his wings. Of course, Rev. Cardozo found his way to the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, Shearith Israel. There, as a visiting Hazzan of a sister synagogue, he was invited to lead services. This led to an offer to join the congregational staff as an Assistant Hazzan, which he accepted. After returning to Suriname to give notice to a very disappointed Mr. Robles, be began his long tenure at Shearith Israel on January 1, 1946.

Immediately on starting as Hazzan, Rev. Cardozo reunited with the daughter of his former Parnas in Suriname, Irma Miriam Robles, who was working in New York and attending Shearith Israel regularly. They shared many of the same friends and grew close over the next few years. In December of 1950 they became engaged, and had a beautiful wedding on March 11, 1951, officiated by Rev. Dr. David de Sola Pool of Shearith Israel, assistant minister Rev. Dr. Louis Gerstein, and Rev. David Jessurun Cardozo, the Rabbi of sister congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia. Of course, the first piece of furniture they acquired for their new home was a piano – a Baldwin Acrosonic upright. The Cardozos had two daughters, Debby and Judy born in 1952 and 1955.

Rev. Cardozo was devoted to and strictly upheld the Spanish and Portuguese minhag, though in his private life he also appreciated other traditions. In many ways he was a living bridge between the Old World represented by the Amsterdam Sephardi community which was made up of descendants of refugees from the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, and the New World in the first congregation in America. As the Amsterdam community was being decimated by the Nazis, Cardozo escaped just in time and continued the traditions in the New World. Rabbi Marc Angel, long time Rabbi of Shearith Israel speaking at his funeral in 2006, said that Rev. Cardozo was an ember that survived the ashes of the Holocaust.

Rev. Cardozo’s passion in life was Hazzanut, and there was nothing he enjoyed more than leading the congregation in prayer using the tunes he knew and loved so well. Sadly though, as he was required to strictly maintain the Shearith Israel minhag, he was prevented from introducing some of the other Spanish and Portuguese melodies from the mother synagogue in his native Amsterdam that he so eagerly wanted to keep alive. Though he was not given the title of Minister of the congregation until late in life, he performed weddings, funerals, and gave eloquent eulogies.

After he retired, he wrote two books, each with an accompanying CD of music. The first was Sephardic Songs of Praise, followed a couple of years later by Selected Sephardic Chants. Many of his friends collaborated to present a petition to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, nominating Rev. Cardozo for the title of “Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau” for his service during World War II, his preserving the traditions and minhag as practiced for hundreds of years in Amsterdam, and his loyal and proud representation of the Dutch Jewish Heritage. He was officially knighted in the year 2000.

In March 2005, Rev. Cardozo fell and broke his hip. Unfortunately, he never fully recovered and passed away on February 21, 2006 (23 Shebat 5766) at the age of 92. Hundreds of people came to the synagogue to attend his funeral and pay their respects to this great and humble man and leader of the community for 60 years. Eulogies were given by dozens of leaders, rabbis, colleagues, close friends and family. Rabbi Angel led the hakafot (circuits) around the coffin in a very moving ceremony, after which the coffin was draped with his Talet (prayer shawl).

I just want to share one very small personal anecdote. I used to lead the Friday night Shabbat service at Mikveh Israel. One time when Rev. Cardozo was visiting for Shabbat at the invitation of Rabbi Gabbai, he led the Friday night service faster than I have ever heard it done. It was so fast, I could hardly follow along. After the service, as I was wishing him a Shabbat Shalom, I remarked on the speed with which he read the service. He replied, with a twinkle in his eye, “they don’t call me the Flying Dutchman for nothing!”.

Bibliography

• Irma Miriam Lopes Cardozo, As I Lived It, 2010
• Shelomo Alfassa, Reverend Abraham Lopes Cardozo z”l, The Jewish Voice – March 3, 2006
• The New York Times, Ari L. Goldman, Published February 23, 2006
• Yedeabraham.com, People Identified on this Site

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lopes_Cardozo

Abraham Lopes Cardozo (1914–2006) was hazzan of Congregation Shearith Israel, the historic Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in New York City.

Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he was the great-grandson of the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic community in Amsterdam. In 1939 he was appointed by Queen Wilhemina to be the rabbi of the Sephardic community in Surinam. He became assistant hazzan at Shearith Israel in 1946 and continued to 1986. On June 7, 2000, he received the decoration of Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Rabbi Cardozo died on February 21, 2006.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/arts/music/23cardozo.html

Abraham Cardozo, Sephardic Cantor, Dies at 91

By ARI L. GOLDMAN

Published: February 23, 2006

The Rev. Abraham Lopes Cardozo, the longtime cantor of a historic Manhattan synagogue and a major force in recovering and preserving the liturgical music of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. He was 91.

Mr. Cardozo had been in failing health since fracturing a hip last year, said his son-in-law Sid Tenenbaum.

Mr. Cardozo was associated with Congregation Shearith Israel, also known as the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, for 60 years. He served as cantor from 1946 to 1984 and was cantor emeritus after retiring.

The congregation, now at Central Park West and 70th Street, was founded in 1654 in Lower Manhattan by the first Jewish settlers in North America.

Mr. Cardozo was born in Amsterdam in 1914 to a rabbinical family that traced its origins to the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century, when the Jews were expelled. His great-grandfather was the Sephardic chief rabbi of Amsterdam and his father was the leader of the boys choir of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam.

Mr. Cardozo earned a degree as a Hebrew teacher at the Ets Haim Seminary in Amsterdam at 18. For most of his life he used the honorific "the reverend," a term now associated with Christian ministers but once popular with members of the Jewish clergy.

In 1939, he became a teacher and cantor in Dutch Guiana, now Surinam. Soon after he left Amsterdam, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, killing tens of thousands of Jews, including Mr. Cardozo's parents and his siblings.

Mr. Cardozo moved to New York in 1946 to join the staff of Congregation Shearith Israel. At his funeral at the synagogue yesterday, Rabbi Marc Angel, the senior rabbi of the congregation, called him "an ember that survived the fire" of the Holocaust.

"Reverend Cardozo was not only the voice of our congregation in prayer but the voice of a community destroyed, the Jewish community of prewar Amsterdam," Rabbi Angel said.

Mr. Cardozo published several books of liturgical music, including "Music for the Sephardim" and "Sephardic Songs of Praise." The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently released a CD of his music called "The Western Sephardi Liturgical Tradition as Sung by Abraham Lopes Cardozo."

Mr. Cardozo is survived by his wife of 55 years, Irma Robles Lopes Cardozo; two daughters, Deborah Smith of Monsey, N.Y., and Judith Cardozo-Tenenbaum of Jerusalem; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

He first returned to Amsterdam in 1975 to participate in the 300th anniversary celebration of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, where he had begun his career. In 2000, he was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his work in preserving Dutch Jewish culture.

http://findingaids.cjh.org//LopesCardozoFamily.html

Abraham Lopes Cardozo

Abraham Lopes Cardozo was born in Amsterdam, Holland on September 27, 1914. As the great-grandson of the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardim in Amsterdam (who preached the last sermon in Portuguese, and who was later decorated by the King of Holland), and as the son of Joseph Lopes Cardozo, leader of the boy's choir of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, it was fitting that he read his first Haftorah at the age of seven in that same synagogue. He attended Seminary Ets Haim in Amsterdam , and became active in Hagomel, a congregational youth society. In 1939 he was appointed by Queen Wilhemina to be rabbi of the Sephardic congregation in Paramaribo, capital of Surinam. On vacation in New York in 1945 he visited Congregation Shearith Israel in NYC and he liked it. It was mutual, for he was invited by the Congregation to become the Assistant Hazzan there in 1946, a position he held for forty years. In 1987, he released a book and accompanying cassette tapes entitled: Sephardic Songs of Praise. On June 7, 2000, he was knighted by Queen Beatrix of Holland.