Rabbi David Abraham Jessurun Cardozo was born in Amsterdam on March 29, 1896 to Abraham Jessurun Cardozo and Marijtje Serlui.
He attended the Sephardic Seminary Ets Chaim there and Jews' College in London, as well as the universities of Amsterdam and London. From 1920 rabbi Cardozo served as spiritual leader of Sephardic Communities in Londons’ East End and the Montefiore synagogue in Ramsgate from 1929 to 1936.
Rabbi Cardozo came to the United States to assist Rabbi David de Sola Pool from 1936 to 1943 at Congregation Shearith Israel (the eldest Jewish congrecation in the US) at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue at Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. Rabbi Cardozo was selected in September 1943 to succeed Rabbi Newman at Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, one of the oldest synagogues in the US.He later served as Rabbi of Sephardic Jewish centers in the Bronx and Queens. He wrote and lectured on the culture, history, customs and music of the Sephardim and had been a vice president of the Union of Sephardic Congregations.
Rabbijn David Abraham Jessurun Cardozo werd in 1947 door Koningin Wilhelmina benoemd tot Officier in de orde van Oranje-Nassau vanwege zijn inspanningen voor Nederland tijdens WOII (o.m. radiouitzendingen naar Nederland vanuit V.S. en inspanningen voor vluchtelingen naar de V.S.). Hij was de oprichter en voorzitter van Netherlands Jewish Society 1940-1945.
Rabbi Cardozo had been secretary of the World Federation of Sephardic Communities, descendants of the Sephardim, or Jews who left Spain in 1492 rather than change their religion. When Jews were again permitted to reopen a synagogue in Spain in 1953, Rabbi Cardozo, as a descendant of the exiles, was invited to Spain to lead services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The services he conducted, reaching out to the 400 Spanish-speaking Jews in Madrid, were the first since the Alhambra Decree of 1492 which expelled Jews from Spain.
( the Spanish Inquisition lasted over 450 years ; the silver tray (see photograph) Rabbi Cardozo received for performing this historical act is permanently shown at the American Sephardi Federation in New York).
Rabbi Cardozo died at age 76 on August 31, 1972 and was survived by a brother and two sisters.