CARDOZO

CARDOZO, U.S. family distinguished for its jurists, descendants of prominent colonial American Sephardim. ISAAC NUÑEZ CARDOZO (1751–1832), American Revolutionary patriot, was one of four sons of AARON NUÑEZ CARDOZO (d. 1800), a London merchant who migrated to New York in about 1750. Born in London, Isaac Nuñez was brought to New York by his mother in 1752. He was among the company of Jews who helped defend Charleston harbor against the British (1776) during the American Revolution. For a time he resided in Easton, Pa., where he was a tailor of men's fashions. He married Sarah Hart (1763–1823). Isaac's brother, DAVID NUÑEZ (1752–1835), patriot of the American Revolution, was born in cardozo New York. He settled in Charleston in about 1775. Enlisting in the South Carolina Grenadiers, David Nuñez saw action against the British repeatedly, and was taken prisoner once. Two other brothers were MOSES (1755–1818), and ABRAHAM (1758–1816). David's son, JACOB NUÑEZ (1786–1873), economist, was born in Savannah, Ga. He lived in Charleston from 1796 to 1860 and during the Civil War spent time in Atlanta and Mobile. Jacob had a distinguished career as a journalist, and was an important Union partisan in the States-rights Nullification controversy in South Carolina in the 1830s. He was one of the most able economists of the classical liberal tradition in early America. His writings include Notes on Political Economy (1826). Philadelphia-born ALBERT JACOB (1828–85) was the grandson of Isaac Nuñez. He was educated in New York City, where he began to practice law in 1849. In 1863 Cardozo was elected to the Court of Common Pleas on the Tammany ticket, and in 1867 became a judge on the New York State Supreme Court. In the wake of the Tammany Hall exposé in 1872, the state assembly recommended Cardozo's impeachment, and he resigned. He collected a magnificent law library, which he bequeathed to his son, benjamin nathan cardozo (1870–1938), lawyer and justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ERNEST ABRAHAM (1879–1947), attorney, born in New York City, was the son of an attorney and first cousin once removed of Benjamin Cardozo. He graduated from Columbia College (1899) and Columbia Law School (1902), and practiced law until 1916, when he retired. He was buried in the Catholic rite. His son, MICHAEL HART IV (1910–1996), law professor and attorney, was born in New York City. Cardozo served with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1938–40), with the Justice Department   (1940–42), with Lend Lease (1942–45), and with the State Department (1945–52). He joined the law faculty of Cornell University in 1952. Cardozo wrote Diplomats in International Cooperation, published in 1962. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.L. Blau and S.W. Baron, Jews of the United States 1790–1840 (1963), 626; Columbia, Harvard, Yale Law Review (joint issue) (Jan. 1939); J.R. Marcus, Early American Jewry, 2 (1953), 218; Stern, Americans, 23.