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About Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Nathan Lopes Cardozo was born in Holland, and now lives in Israel. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Cardozo is known for his original and often fearlessly controversial insights into Judaism. His ideas are widely debated in social media, blogs, books and other forums.

Born in 1946, 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 the city was under Nazi occupation. Many times she risked her life by convincing 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.

Cardozo spent 12 years studying at various Haredi Yeshivas, including Gateshead Talmudical College. He received his semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Aryeh Leib Gurwitz, Rosh yeshiva of Gateshead.

Rabbi 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 religious issues facing the Jewish People and the State of Israel.

Watch the Video “Lonely But Not Alone: The Story of a Rebellion” by Rabbi Cardozo

Spiritual Journey

Lonely But Not Alone is Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo’s personal account of his spiritual journey from a secular childhood to a life of deep, unconventional Jewish faith. Through reflections on identity, doubt, and belonging, he offers a moving portrait of a soul in search of truth beyond conformity.

Rabbi Cardozo Spiritual Journey

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The Lopes Cardozo Family Album

Rabbi Cardozo's great uncle, Hacham David Lopes Cardozo and his wife - 19th Century.
Probably Rabbi Dr B.I Ritter of Rotterdam, purchased by Rabbi Cardozo from a private collection.
Rabbi Cardozo's uncle Nathan (Nico) for whom he is named. Nico perished in the Shoah.
Rabbi Cardozo's mother, Bertha at age 25.
Rabbi Cardozo's father, Yaakov Lopes Cardozo.
Rabbi Cardozo's father, Yaakov Lopes Cardozo sitting under the portrait of [get name] in his office in Amsterdam.
Original oil painting of Montelsbaan tower in Amsterdam.
Berta Lopes Cardozo, ne Terwee, with son Nathan, Amsterdam, 1948.
Berta Lopes Cardozo, with sons Nathan and Jacques, 1956.
Berta Lopes Cardozo, ne Terwee, with sons Nathan and Jacques Eduard Lopes Cardozo.
Nathan and his brother Jacques, 1956.
Nathan Lopes Cardozo (left) with his brother Jacques (right). Original oil painting by Dutch artist Cor Basart, 1950.
Nathan Lopes Cardozo as a school boy, 1956.
Nathan Lopes Cardozo at 10 years old. Original oil painting by Cor Basart, 1956.
"Playing the piano, my favourite instrument."
Freyda age 5, 1952.
Freyda Lopes Cardozo as a schoolgirl.
Freyda with a friend at Seminar in Lucern.
Freyda dancing at the Cardozo's wedding. Amsterdam, 1968.
Freyda dancing at her wedding. Amsterdam, 1968.
Freyda Regina Lopes Cardozo nee Gnesin at her wedding with Rabbi Cardozo, 1968.
Rabbi Cardozo and Freyda leaving their wedding at the Portuguese-Spanish Synagogue in Amsterdam, 1968.
Yeshivat Bet Yosef, Gateshead England. circa 1965.
Reverend Hazan Abraham Lopes Cardozo and Irma Miryam Lopes Cardozo, ne Fernandes Robles. Congregation Shearit Israel, New York, circa 2015.
Rabbi Chaim Rodrigues Pereira, at Cardozo wedding. Amsterdam, 1968.
Rabbi Cardozo gives a drash at his wedding.
Rabbi Cardozo's father speaking at Rabbi Cardozo's wedding.
Bertha (Rabbi Cardozo's mother) as an infant.
Rabbi Cardozo's parents at their wedding Amsterdam, 1939.
Rabbi Cardozo with his father Yaakov at his wedding, 21 January, 1968.
In the IDF during the Gulf War, 1991.
Family Spijer in the Hague.
Cardozo Academy Think Tank, 1995.
DCA Think Tank 1996.
Rabbi Cardozo's daughter Michal (left) and daughter in law Chanah Naomi (right).

The Lopes Cardozo Family

The Lopes Cardozo Family

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Rabbi David Lopes Cardozo

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