Christopher Columbus was Jewish?

 

In fourteen hundred ninety-two

Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain...

Christopher Columbus was probably Spanish and Jewish. So read the headline of a BBC story, also covered by other sources, about a detailed DNA search which has found a high likelihood that Columbus was born in the region of Valencia and that he was an Ashkenazi Jew in origin.  

This announcement was intriguing on the weekend when the United States celebrates Columbus Day in honour of the man who "discovered" America. Of course, he did no such thing given that the Americas were already inhabited by Indigenous peoples. This along with evidence that Polynesians, Vikings, perhaps an Irish monk named Brendan all preceded Columbus. I noted yesterday that the US has officially recognized Indigenous Peoples Day to counter recognition of a European who opened the way to colonization. 

The year Columbus set sail was 1492, as the old poem many of us learned as children states, the same year that Ferdinand and Isabella, monarchs of Spain, expelled Jews and Muslims. A hundred years before what is known as the Alhambra Decree the religious tolerance of Spain was shattered by a massacre of Jews and the conversion of thousands to Christianity in order to avoid persecution

The decree of 1492 resulted in many more conversions and and between 40,000 and 100,000 Jews were expelled. Columbus could well have been part of a family that was compelled to convert in order to stay in Spain. 

The image above shows Columbus arriving in the Americas (probably Bermuda first) with a tonsured Catholic priest at his side. He was explicitly Christian in terms of his religious loyalty.There is a Catholic charitable organization called the Knights of Columbus, formed in the late 19th century, taking the explorer as their patron. He is even entombed in a cathedral.

       The Christopher Columbus tomb in Seville cathedral in Spain. Photo by Menachem Wecker.

There is already plenty of controversy and condemnation regarding Columbus and scores of statues have been removed in the United States and elswhere, sometimes by force. It will be fascinating to see how this latest revelation plays out in a time when anti-semitism is on the rise.