Supreme Court Justice Ben Cardozo based his decisions on ethics and truth

Sometimes history has a lot in common with modern times, which a play premiering in Sedona will soon point out.

“Marrano Justice,” written by Cleveland playwright Joel Levin, will be performed at Canyon Moon Theatre from Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 9 to Sept. 12, and Sept. 23 to Sept. 26. Levin and his wife, Mary Jane, will arrive in Sedona on Monday, Sept. 6.

Although Levin, an attorney in Cleveland, has written several books, “Marrano Justice” is his first play. The play is about the life of Benjamin Cardozo, a Portuguese Jewish associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who served from March 1932 to his death on July 9, 1938. Before 1932, Cardozo served 18 years as an associate and then chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

“I’ve been going to plays a lot of my life, and thought I could write a play of substance,” Levin said. “I picked Cardozo because I have come to think over the years there have been a handful of transitional judges. They’ve done more to create the fair form of justice than any other faction. Cardozo was one of them.”

Levin wrote the play to show how Cardozo became a transitional judge. He changed the world, and helped make it better after he left, Levin said.

In his years as an associate justice, Cardozo handed down opinions that stressed the necessity for tight adherence to the Tenth Amendment, which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

“This is about what produced Cardozo. Many have great potential. Few have the tools to change the world they live in. Cardozo did,” Levin said. “Cardozo made law serviceable. I think this is a good play for Arizona.”

Essential to Cardozo is his Sephardic Jewish heritage, a culture stressing that sovereignty and duty reside in the individual and truth always trumps expediency.

The play also depicts flashbacks and visits by 15th century Spanish Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada. It reflects Cardozo’s ancestors who were Jews living in Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition. At the time there were forced conversions from Judaism to Catholicism. Many publicly converted but secretly practiced Judaism, including Cardozo’s ancestors. Those who did so were called Marranos.

Levin discovered Cardozo after he began studying philosophy. Also, Levin once lived upstairs from an old man who knew Cardozo, and the two talked about the judge often.

“Marrano Justice” presents a vision of the tensions and difficulties of race, freedom, love and dignity — set to hauntingly beautiful Ladino music of a lost Jewish-Spanish culture. The recorded music features two of the finest musicians of their generation, Jason Vieaux, on Spanish guitar and Franklin Cohen on clarinet. Levin and Paul Ferguson arranged the music.

“One of the things I like about [the play] is putting music to it,” Levin said.

Canyon Moon Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director Mary Guaraldi is directing “Marrano Justice.” The cast includes Mark DeMichele, Robert Bays, Michelle Lambeau, Dion Johnson, Craig Harley and Jaimie Maletz.

Guaraldi said although the play is set in the 1920s and 1930s, it is also a play for today. For example, Cardozo’s opinion upholding Social Security addressed the same challenges of the recent health care debate.

Cardozo wrote, “We must save men and women from the rigors of the poorhouse and the haunting fear that such a lot awaits them when journey’s end is near.”

“The expulsion of his ancestors from Portugal haunted Cardozo. The idea that those seen as alien through looks, dress, believing in different religions and ideas, and excluded from the mainstream by law, religion and politics drove Cardozo to a different vision that recognized little space between law and ethics,” Guaraldi said.

Levin said there is a lot to think about in the play. It addresses many issues we are faced with today.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. each evening and 3 p.m. for the Sunday matinees. Tickets are $19 for general admission.

Full-time students are $11. Call 282-6212.