JEWISH DESCENDANT OF COLUMBUS' 1492 CRYPTO-JEWISH CREW

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JEWISH DESCENDANT OF COLUMBUS' 1492 CRYPTO-JEWISH CREW MEMBER A SPEAKER AT VETERANS POST

By Julian "Bud" Batlan

MARLBORO , NJ — The Jewish War Veterans Lt. Seth Dvorin Post 972 (the former Manalapan-Marlboro Post 972) held its 10th Columbus Day Jewish-Italian/Hispanic Friendship Breakfast on Sunday, October 31st in the Marlboro Jewish Center's Chai Educational Building gymnasium.  There were seventy-seven members and guests present at this catered breakfast for the post's continuing efforts to bring about better understanding and good will between these important New Jersey communities. The breakfast program also remembers and honors the crypto-Jews, who, as "New Christians",  were members of Columbus's 1492 crew. The post's Americanism program was presided over by Post 972 Commander Michael Liebowitz, West Point Class of "65, a veteran of the Vietnam War.  Post Executive Director Julian "Bud" Batlan, a WWII veteran, and the charter commander of this  Western Monmouth Jewish War Veterans post that was established in 1987, and who is a past Jewish War Veterans Commander of the Monmouth-Ocean County Council,  served as master of ceremonies.

The ongoing post's  public relations Americanism program for the Jewish community was initiated to help prevent anti-Semitic bigotry and attacks by building bridges of friendship between the Jewish community and the various other ethnic and religious communities in the State of New Jersey.  The Italian community is  the largest single ethnic community in New Jersey, and the Latino community is rapidly growing.  The audience was advised that New Jersey Congressman Robert Menendez, stated in  a previous speech in Marlboro for this post program, that thirty-five or more of the crypto-Jewish crewmen who secretly practiced Judaism, refused to return to Spain to face possible  torture and death by the Inquisition.  History tells us that Columbus left these secret-Jews behind in the New World to become among the Americas' very first European military explorers, pioneers and permanent settlers.

Two observant Jewish direct descendants of one member of Columbus's 1492 crypto-Jewish crew were present for this year's program as the special guests of the Marlboro post.  Englewood, New Jersey Sephardic Jews, David Bernal, who recently returned from Israel on a mission for the Jewish Congress, and his twenty-two year old beautiful daughter, U.S. Army Sergeant Sarah Bernal.  Sergeant Sarah Bernal, who recently returned from the Iraq War, was attached to the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Infantry.  Both are direct descendants of Maestre Bernal, Columbus's personal, Italian physician, and ship' surgeon on the 1492 voyage of discovery.  David Bernal is a native of Colombia, South America where he served in the Colombian military.  Sergeant Sarah Bernal, who was present in uniform, spoke to the audience about her experiences in the Iraq War,  and about the times that she was under enemy fire.  She spoke about her positive interaction with the people of Iraq, and how both the men and women of Iraq were astounded to see a woman giving orders to men.  She said she was greeted warmly by most of the people that she met in Iraq, and especially by the children.   U.S. Army Major Jeff Cantor, Marlboro, who was attached to the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq, followed the speech of Sergeant Sarah Bernal and told of his similar experiences in North Iraq with the friendly Kurds.  He stated that almost without exception, he found that after their fire fights, almost all the enemy dead his unit discovered were not from Iraq, but had identification from other countries, such as Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, etc.

While the Bernal's were present to represent both the Jewish and Hispanic communities of New Jersey, they were joined by American Latino guest speakers Louis Rodriquez, Executive Director of the Latino Chamber of Commere of Monmouth, Inc., and Luis A. Navarro, Manager of the Technical Services Division, Monmouth County Department of Human Resources.  These last two speakers told about the positive experiences of the growing Latinos immigration, and the ongoing successful advancement through education of their eommunity that so closely resembles the  American Jewish immigration experience.

Vice President Ralph Rubinek and Barbara Stonner of the Frank Sinatra Lodge of the Order of the Sons of Italy were present to represent the Italian community.    Vice President Ralph Rubinek, who is also Jewish, gave an inspiring speech about the friendship of the people of Italy and the Italian Jews.   He spoke about how so many of the Italian people risked their lives and fortunes in their successful efforts to protect the Jewish population from the Nazis and the Fascists.

During breakfast the guests were entertained by a recorded medley of Spanish, Israeli, Mexican, Jewish and Cuban music.  

http://www.ahherald.com/news/2004/1104/ ... terans.htm

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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS' VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY:
JEWISH AND NEW CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS
by Joseph Adler

Midstream 43:25 November 1998

The most dramatic and best known of the voyages of exploration was, of course, the one made by Columbus in 1492. The journey was spectacular not only for its length and daring, but because it led to one of the biggest surprises in history - the discovery of America. All of the biographers of Columbus recognize this great feat, but many are rather reticent concerning the discoverer's early years and ancestry. Indeed, many scholars shrink from the possibility that yje great explorer may have had Jewish ancestors. There is however, little controversy that the epoch-making expedition was largely made possible by Jews, New Christians (i.e., Conversos ) and Marranos ( nominally Conversos who secretly retained their allegiance to Judaism). There were many of them.    

In Lisbon, Columbus knew and consulted with Joseph Diego Mendes Vezinho ( 1450 - 1520 ), a Jewish scientist and cosmographer at the Portuguese court. Vezinho, who was later to convert to Christianity, headed a committee of savants and experts on nautical matters chosen to consider Columbus's proposed expedition of discovery. In his work for the Portuguese monarch, Vezinho had helped develop a new and improved astronomical calendar, star tables, and more efficient nautical instruments. Although Vezinho did not favor Columbus's plan, his work for establishing direction and location at sea would prove of inestimable value to the future discoverer of the New World.

Columbus also derived valuable information from Avraham Zacuto ( c. 1450 - 1515 ), a product of the "juderia" of Saragossa, who would be forced by the expulsion of Jews from Spain to flee to Portugal. While still a professor at the University of Salamanca, Zacuto had achieved fame as a scientist, mathematician, and inventor. He is credited with constructing the first metal astrolabe as well as the development of astronomical tables that gave the exact hours for the rising of the planets and fixed stars. His table of ephemeredes was translated into Latin by Vezinho and published under the titile 'Almanach Perpetuum'. This invaluable guide to navigation was used by Columbus on his voyage across the Atlantic. Zacuto met Columbus prior to his first voyage and endorsed the venture, but considered the expedition to be an extremely hazardous undertaking.

Columbus's navigational skills also owed much to the inventiveness of a handful of Jewish scholars of the Middle Ages (actually Greeks and not Jews--CSR). Outstanding among the latter was Levi ben Gershon ( 1288 - 1344 ), Biblical commentator, mathematician, and astronomer. Levi was the inventor of the cross - staff, better known as "baculus Jacob" ( Jacob's staff ). ( Egyptians, Irish and Greeks had this long before the Jews -- they likely "Borrowed" it from Goyim in writings from centuries earlier -- likely in Greek.) This simple instrument enabled mariners to measure angular separation between two celestial bodies. Still another nautical instrument available to Columbus was the "quadrant Judaicus", the brainchild of Jacob ben Machir ibn Tibbon ( 1236 - 1307 )

Indeed, virtually all the nautical aids used by Columbus were the products of Jewish minds. Many of the discoverer's maps, for example, were the creation of Jehudah Cresques ( c. 1360 -? ), at one time head of the National Academy of Palma on Majorca ( a center of Jewish cartography during the 14th century ). In the persecutions of 1391, Cresques was forced to convert to Christianity and was given a new name - Jayme Ribes. He entered the service of the king of Portugal and became the director of the School of Navigation at Sagres - the institution founded by Henry the Navigator that marked the beginning of the Age of Discovery.

In 1485, Columbus suddenly left Portugal for Spain. Almost immediately, he began a search for a sponsor for his proposed voyage of discovery. After several frustrating false starts, he appealed to a nobleman of Andalusia, Luis de Cerda, the count of Medici -Celi. De Credo's hospitality was legendary, and he took Columbus under his wing, sheltering the mariner for almost two years. The count also offered to outfit three ships for Columbus's contacts, Luis de Cerda recommended him to his cousin, Cardinal Pedro Ganzales de Mendoza, bishop of Toledo. The cardinal and the count were related through the same Jewish grandmother, and both men had been subjected to attacks because of their descent.

De Mendoza, in his capacity as chairman of a special commission that met to consider the merits of Columbus's plans, heartily endorsed the mariner's proposals. His cousin, Luis de Cerda, also continued to lobby on behalf of Columbus; he sent a strong letter to the Spanish monarchs urging them to reconsider their opposition to Columbus's proposals and, at the very least, to grant the mariner an audience. De Cerda's appeal yielded results, and in 1486, Columbus was granted a royal audience at Cordoba. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand were not entirely convinced by Columbus's presentation but agreed to submit his project to a commission of scholars. To head the commission Isabella chose her confessor, Hernando de Talavera ( 1428 - 1507 ), prior of the Prado and later archbishop of Granada. Hernando de Talavera was the grandson of a Jewish woman and in his declining years, would be accused of being a Marrano and was brought before the Inquisition. Humiliated, and unable to counter the vicious proceedings of the court headed by Rodriquez Lucerno, the inquisitor of Cordoba, the proud Hernando would die of mortification. Columbus himself suffered patiently for several years, as the so-called experts of the de Talavera commission debated endlessly the feasibility of his proposals ( they eventually rejected his plan.)

It was during these early years of tribulation in Spain that Columbus gained the support of two highly placed and influential Jews - Abraham Senior and Isaac Abravanel. Senior ( 1412 - 1493 ), during the reign of Isabells's predecessor, King Henry 1V of Castile, had served as chief tax collector of the kingdom and was appointed by the monarch to head the Jewish community of Segovia. Along with a number of other influential Jews, Senior had played a key role in arranging the marriage of Isabella to Ferdinand of Aragon. Some years later, in the power struggle between Isabella and her brother, King Henry 1V, Senior, together with a few other notables, succeeded in convincing the commander of the fortress of Segovia to hand over the city to Isabella and her consort. This act opened the way for the unification of Castile and Aragon and, eventually all of Spain.

Once in power, the grateful Catholic monarchs rewarded Senior by appointing him "rab de la corte," i.e., court rabbi and supreme judge of the Jews of Castile. He also received a large pension and was exempted from the restrictions in dress that had been imposed on Spanish Jewry. In 1468, Senior was made treasurer general of the Hermanded, a semi- military organization formed for the maintenance of law and order. In addition, as factor general to the Spanish army, Senior played a major role in facilitating the conquest of Grenada, the last remaining stronghold of the Moors in Spain.

Tradition has it that Senior met Columbus at Malaga, at which time the future admiral outlined his plan to the Jewish courtier. Columbus was well aware that his proposed expedition would require large financial commitments and welcomed the promise of the support of Senior.

Don Isaac ben Judah Abravanel ( 1437 - 1508 ) a close associate of Senior, was another supporter of Columbus at the Spanish court. Born in Lisbon, Isaac was a child prodigy. His many talents eventually attracted the attention of King Alfonso of Portugal, and he became the latter's advisor, as well as the kingdom's financial minister. However, Abravanel's life took an unexpected turn with the death of his royal patron. The new king suspected Abravanel of being involved in an insurrection against his regime led by the duke of Braganca. Abravanel, fearing for his life, fled to Spain (Toledo). When Ferdinand and Isabella learned of his presence in their realm, they invited him to join their court. Some time later, Senior enlisted his aid in tax farming the kingdom's revenues. Abravanel gradually amassed a great personal fortune and loaned enormous sums to the Catholic monarchs in their war against the Moors of Granada. Indeed, it was shortly after the fall of Malaga that Abravanel, in the company of his friend, Senior, met Columbus and was first exposed to the latter's plan for a voyage of discovery across the Atlantic. Although Abravanel favored the mariner's plan, his support would come to an abrupt halt following the issuance of the edict of expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492.

Abravanel, in spite of pressure from Ferdinand and Isabella to convert to Christianity, remained steadfast in his beliefs and immigrated to Naples. When theKingdom of Naples, in 1494, fell to King Charles V111 of France, Abravanel accompanied the deposed Neapolitan monarch, whom he had served as treasurer, into exile in Sicily. After the death of the former Neapolitan ruler, Abravanel moved to Corfu and, in 1496, returned to Naples. Some years later, at the urging of his son, Joseph, he settled in Venice, where he served as a diplomat for the republic until his death in 1508.

Abraham Senior, who had served the Catholic majesties so faithfully for many years, was at first given permission to leave Spain with whatever personal possessions he wished to take along with him. However, steady pressure was exerted by Isabella and Ferdinand for Senior to convert. The queen, in particular, threatened to impose further reprisals against the departing Jews, and Senior, too old and tired to fight any longer, accepted baptism and was allowed to remain in Spain. Taking the name Fernando Munez Coronel, he was further rewarded for his apostasy by being appointed "regidor of Segovia" (governor) and made a member of the royal council, as well as chief financial administrator to the crown prince. He died shortly afterwards in 1493.

Among Columbus's highly placed patrons was Luis de Santangel, a member of one of the wealthiest and influential families of Aragon. An ancestor, Azarias Chinillo, had converted to Christianity in the early years of the 15th century in the wake of the persecutions against the Jews led by the fanatical Dominican friar, Vincent Ferrer. Azarias would become bishop of Majorca.

Luis de Santangel began his career as a tax farmer and courtier. A favorite of King Ferdinand, he was appointed in 1481 'escribano de racion', a kind of comptroller general, to the royal house of Aragon. He would also later hold the post of 'contador mayor' (paymaster general) for Castile.

Although nominally New Christians, the Santangel family's attachment to Catholicism was at best lukewarm, and its members were among the early targets of the Inquisition. Indeed, a kinsman of Luis was accused of complicity in the murder of Pedro de Arbues, canon of the Cathedral of Saragossa and the heart and soul of the Inquisition in Aragon. The kinsman was also charged and condemned for being a secret Jew ( i.e., a Marrano .)

In July of 1491, Luis de Santangel was also accused of being a Marrano. King Ferdinand intervened on his behalf and managed to stop the Inquisition's proceedings.

Luis de Santangel first met Columbus in 1486 and was greatly impressed by the latter's personality and plans for a voyage of discovery. When, some years later, word reached him that Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had once again rejected Columbus's project and had sent him on his way, Santangel immediately requested and received an audience with Her Majesty. With great eloquence, he pleaded for Columbus's voyage of discovery and prevailed upon the queen to have the mariner brought back to the court for further discussions. The queen agreed, and a bewildered Columbus was brought back to the court to once again present arguments for his proposed expedition of discovery.

Anticipating the royal couple's anxiety on how to finance a voyage across the Atlantic, Santangel reminded the monarchs that the Santa Hermandad, of which he was one of treasurers, had a large endowment that could be borrowed against. He also indicated to the Spanish rulers that he was willing to back the Columbus expedition with a considerable sum from his personal fortune. ( He would later also call upon his Converso friends to contribute toward the financing of the expedition.) The tax farmer also reminded Ferdinand and Isabella of an overlooked debt to the Crown. It seems that the community of Palos on the southern coast of Castile had been found guilty of smuggling, and a fine had been levied against it that had gone uncollected. The town owed the Crown three months of service and two caravels. Santangel's arguments proved to be the decisive factor in swaying the Spanish sovereigns to back Columbus's project. A grateful Columbus would not forget his benefactor. It was to Luis de Santangel that he addressed the famous letter announcing his discoveries. Indeed, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand would first hear of the successful undertaking from the lips of Santangel.

An identical letter was sent by Columbus to Gabriel Sanchez, one of the three influential New Christians that Luis de Santangel had gotten to help finance the explorer's initial voyage. grabriel Sanchez (d. 1505)
was the high treasurer of the Kingdom of Aragon, and a member of a distinguished family of Conversos who traced their origins back to a Jew named Alazar Goluff of Saragossa. After the murder of the inquisitor Pedro de Arbues, three of the brothers of Gabriel Sanchez - Juan, Alfonso, and Guillen - were accused of having participated in the conspiracy to eliminate the Inquisitor. Juan managed to escape but was condemned to death in effigy. Alfonso, who was also accused of being a Marrano, managed to flee Aragon before the Inquisition could lay hands on him. The third brother, Guillen, was allowed by the Inquisition to repent. The father-in-law of Gabriel Sanchez, also implicated in the murder plot, was less fortunate than Guillen. He was charged with Judaizing and sentenced to death.

Grave charges were also brought against Gabriel Sanchez. He was accused of having participated in the conspiracy that led to the murder of Pedro de Arbues. Since the allegations could not be proved, and Sanchez continued to have the support of King Ferdinand, he was able to survive the efforts of the Inquisition to tar him as a heretic and backslider.

As in the case of Luis de Santangel, Columbus regarded gariel Sanchez as one of his staunchest supporters. The letter the discoverer sent to Sanchez describing the findings of the first voyage to the New World was reproduced by the high treasurer, and a copy was forwarded to his brother, Juan, in Florence. The latter passed it on to his cousin Lenardo de Cosco, a Marrano, who translated it into Latin and had it published. Within a year, the Latin translation ran through nine editions, thus spreading the news of the New World throughout Europe.

Still another of Columbus's highly placed patrons was Alfonso de la Caballeria. He was the descendant of a Jewish family that had achieved prominence in Spain as early as the 13th century. During the course of the 15th century, a family schism occurred, and eight of the nine sons of the head of the household converted to Christianity. In the succeeding generations, many members of the family achieved fame and fortune in the service of the state and the Church. At the same time, by marriage, the de la Caballeria clan became closely allied with almost all the major Converso families in Spain.

Alfonso, like his father before him, started his career as a counselor at the court of Aragon and rose rapidly through the ranks of the bureaucracy. In the 1480's, he was appointed vice-chancellor of aragon. Nevertheless, in spite of his high office, he was not immune from investigation by the Inquisition. He was accused of having been involved in the Pedro de Arbues conspiracy. Allegations concerning other members of Alfonso's family, many of whom were suspected of being Marranos, were also introduced by the tribunal. Thus, Alfonso's father, Pedro, although long deceased, was described by one Inquisition witness as having posed as a Christian who frequently reverted in thoughts and deeds to his ancestral traditions. Still other members of the de la Caballeria clan were accused of still maintaining close ties with the synagogue and the Jewish community.

The judicial proceedings initiated by the Inquisition would drag on for 20 years. Finally, in 1501, the papacy confirmed Alfonso de la Caballeria's Catholic orthodoxy, and he was completely exonerated. However, the toll of the prolonged trail had been high. He was unable, for example, to prevent the Inquisition's exhumation of the bones of his grandmother, or his wife's appearance as a penitent in an 'auto-da-fe, or the burning of his brother Jaime in effigy.

Completing the list of powerful Conversos who rendered financial support to Columbus when it was most desperately needed, is that of Juan Cabrero, royal chamberlain of King Ferdinand. He was regarded as one of the king's most faithful and trusted retainers. Carero had fought at Fernando's side in the war against the Moors and was an intimate friend as well as advisor to the monarch. However, even this high-placed New Christian official's family could not escape the tentacles of the Inquisition. Juan's grandfather, Sancho de Patenoy, the grand treasurer of Aragon, was accused in the Arbues conspiracy and sentenced to death. Juan Cabrero, using all his influence at court, managed with great difficulty to have the verdict changed to life imprisonment.

In addition to Luis de Santangel, Alfonso de la Caballeria, and Juan Sanchez, two other individuals merit attention as supporters of Columbus at the Spanish court. They are Marchioness de Moya, and Juan de Coloma. De Moya, a close friend and confidant of Queen Isabella, it is widely believed, was a member of a Marrano family. Although hard evidence is lacking, it is known that the marchioness associated with Marranos and Conversos and on several occasions, intervened to save such individuals, from the Inquisition.

Juan de Coloma, a royal secretary, had a hand in drawing up the contract between Columbus and the Catholic monarchs. Although one of the few high officials of "Old Christian" stock involved with the initial expedition of Columbus, his wife was a New Christian - a member of the Caballeria family.

Columbus's connections with the Jews, New Christians, and Marranos, was not limited to court officials. There is the controversial matter that some of his shipmates were of Jewish stock. Five crew members are generally singled out for this distinction; Alonso de la Calle, a bursar, who eventually settled in Hispaniola and whose very name indicates that he was born in the Jewish quarter; Rodrigo de Sanchez of Segovia, who was related to Gabriel sanchez, the high treasurer of Aragon; Marco, the surgeon; Maestre Bernal of Tortosa, a physician who had been reconciled by the Inquisition in 1490, but was forced to witness his wife's death at the stake of an auto-da-fe, and Luis de Torres, the official interpreter of the expedition, who had been baptized a few days before the fleet sailed. Torres had been specifically appointed by Columbus as interpreter because he knew Hebrew, Chaldean and arabic. This knowledge was expected to prove useful if the voyagers came across 'Asiatic" descendants of the Ten Last Tribes of Israel.

Prior to his conversion, Luis de Torres had been employed as an interpreter by Juan Chacon, the governor of Murcia ( a province with a large Jewish population ). Since Columbus's first voyage coincided with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Luis's job with the governor was obviously over. There were no longer any Jews for whom he might have interpreted in their audience with the governor.

When Columbus discovered Cuba, he was convinced that he had found Marco Polo's Cinpangu (Japan). The "admiral", however, was puzzled that there were no silk clad sages, or palaces tiled with gold to be seen anywhere. Accordingly, he decided to dispatch an embassy into the interior of the island, where he believed the cities were located. Tolead the mission, he chose Luis de Torres. The interpreter was given a Latin passport, which he was to present to the chief of the natives ("the Great Khan"), as well as gifts. He also carried letters of credence from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. An able-bodied seaman named Rodrigo de Jerez was chosen to accompany Torres. Two native Arawak Indian guides rounded out the embassy.

The mission into the island's interior proved disappointing to Columbus, for the group found nothing resembling an imperial city, or gold. However, Torres did bring back a fairly comprehensive report of the native people he and Rodrigo had encountered, their customs and manners, as well as a description of some of the island's fauna and flora. Among the wonders that Torres had noted was a strange practice of the natives to put thin rolls of dried leaves ( tobacco) into their nostrils or mouths, lighting them, and blowing out smoke.

Although Luis de Torres's linguistic skills proved useless in carrying out his mission, the resourceful interpreter, not understanding the Amerindian dialect, fell back upon sign language to carry out his instructions. Torres would later seek permission to settle in Cuba as a royal agent. His request was granted with an annual pension from the Crown. By cultivating his friendship with the native ruler of the island, Torres would, in time, aquire large tracts of land and carve out for himself a small empire. He was the first European to visit the inhabitants of the New World in their native setting, and the first to describe their life before it was corrupted by contact with the white man.

Scholars have long squabbled over the question as to why high-placed New Christians and Jews were willing to take on the enormous risk of financing Columbus's initial expedition. One possible explanation that has been suggested is that the discoverer and his patrons had a deep and ineradicable impulse to help their fellow Jews, or in the case of the Conversos such as Luis de Santangel, Alfonso de la Caballeria, and Juan Sanchez, their former co-religionists to whom they still felt linked.

A biographer of Columbus, John Boyd Thatcher, putting it more succinctly, has written; "that the triumph of Columbus ---- was the triumph of the Converso Luis de Santangel, visionary and champion of the perennial lost cause of history --- the cause of the Jews." Other writers ( notably Salvador de Madariaga and Simon Wiesenthal) have speculated that the longings of the Conversos who supported Columbus may have run parallel to the dreams of the discoverer himself, namely, an obsessive dream to find a refuge for the Jews in the lands that he hoped to find across the Atlantic.

What ever the truth, it is a fact that many Marranos and Conversos listened to the tales emanating from the New World following Columbus's epic voyages and flocked to the lands that he had claimed for Iberia. They had board ships secretly, for officially they were strictly forbidden to set foot in the new territories. However, disregarding all the bans and harbor controls, they made their way across the ocean, where they hoped to make a new life.

Joseph Adler, an historian, is the author of 'The Herzl Paradox' and articles that have appeared in the Herzl Yearbook

Sources:
1 Amber, Jane Francis, Christopher Columbus's Jewish Roots.Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc.,
  1991
2 Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain.2 vols., Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication
   Society of America.1961
3 Birmingham, Stephen, The Grandees, New York: Harper & Row.1971
4 Burgos, Francisco Cantera, Abraham Zacuto, Madrid: M Aguilar.1935
5 Costa, Abel Fontoura da, L'Almanach Perpetuum de Abraham Zacuto:Congress International
   d'Histoire des Sciences.1936 pp 137-146
6 Cohen, Martin A, Joseph Vezinho, Encyclopaedia Judaica vol.16.Jerusalem Keter Publishing
   House.1971 pp 81-82
7 Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, 5 vols. Philadelphia;The Jewish Publication Society of
   America.1956
8 Keller, Werner, Diaspora. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969
9 Lebeson, Anita L. Jewish Cartographers, A forgotten Chapter of Jewish history. History Judaica X1,
   1949. pp 155/174
10 Lebeson, Anita l. Pilgrim People. New York: Minerva Press 1975
11 Minkin, Jacob S. Abrabanel and the Expulsion of the Jews feom Spain: New York Berman's
    Jewish Book House. 1938
12 Morison, Samuel E. Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge: Harvard
     Univ.Press.1940
13 Morison, Samuel E. Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown Company.1942
14 Roth, Cecil. A History of the Marranos. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.
    1932
15 On the statement referring to the triumph of Luis de Santangel, see J Boyd Thatcher, Christopher
     Columbus, His Life, His Work, His Remains. vol.1 New York: GP Putnam's Sons.1903-04 p 459
16 Simon Wiesenthal, Sails of Hope: The secret Mission of Columbus. New York: Macmillan
     Publishing Company.1973

Published in Midstream - November 1998

http://www.saudades.org/ccolumbusvoyage.html

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History of the Jews in Latin America
For a list of individuals of Jewish origin by country, please see List of Latin American Jews.

The history of the Jewish people in the Americas dates back to Christopher Columbus and his first cross-Atlantic voyage on August 3, 1492, when he left Spain and eventually "discovered" the New World. His date of departure was also the day on which the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon decreed that the Jews of Spain either had to convert to Catholicism, depart from the country, or face death for defiance of the Monarch.

There were at least seven Jews (either crypto-Jews, Marranos, or sincere Jewish converts to Catholicism) who sailed with Columbus in his first voyage including Rodrigo De Triana, who was the first to sight land (Columbus later assumed credit for this), Maestre Bernal, who served as the expedition's physician, and Luis De Torres, the interpreter, who spoke Hebrew and Arabic, which it was believed would be useful in the Orient - their intended destination.

In the coming years, Jews settled in the new Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean, where they believed that they would be safe from the Inquisition. Some took part in the conquest of the "New World," and Bernal Díaz del Castillo describes a number of executions of soldiers in Hernán Cortés's forces during the conquest of Mexico because they were Jews.

Nevertheless, several Jewish communities in the Caribbean, Central, and South America flourished, particularly in those areas under Dutch and English control. By the sixteenth century, fully functioning Jewish communities had organized in Brazil, Suriname, Curaçao, Jamaica, and Barbados. In addition, there were unorganized communities of Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese territories, where the Inquisition was active, including Cuba and Mexico, however, these Jews generally concealed their identity from the authorities.

By the mid-seventeenth century, the largest Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere were located in Suriname and Brazil.

Today, Latin American Jewry is composed of more than 350,000 people and the community is headed for institutional professionalization. Among the central organizations that operate the region, the Jewish Culture Fund for Latin Americais the most visible and the central organ for Jewish outreach.

Argentina
Jews fleeing the Inquisition settled in Argentina, but assimilated into the Argentine society. Portuguese traders and smugglers in the Virreinato de la Plata were widely considered Jews but no organized community emerged after independence. After 1810, Jews, especially Jews from France, began to settle in Argentina in the mid-19th century. In the late 1800s, just as they did in the United States, many Jews arrived from Eastern Europe, fleeing persecution; they were called "Rusos" (Russians). Between 1906 and 1912, Jewish immigration increased at a rate of 13,000 immigrants per year, with most from Eastern Europe but others from Morroco or the Ottoman Empire. By 1920, more than 150,000 Jews were living in Argentina.

Jews in Argentina quickly came to play a role in Argentine society, but were subject to waves of antisemitism. In January 1919 in Buenos Aires, pogroms fomented by the police as a response to a general strike targeted the Jews and destroyed significant property. In 1946, former Nazi officials begun immigrating to Argentina, allegedly with the authorization of President Juan Peron; in fact, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was later captured in Argentina by Israeli agents. Jewish immigration begun to wane, while at the same time the country established ties with the state of Israel. During the military junta of 1976 to 1983, 1,000 of the people killed by the state were Jewish (estimates of the total number of victims range from less than 9,000 up to 30,000). In the 1990s, the Jewish community was the subject of two terrorist attacks. The Israeli Embassy was bombed in March 1992, killing 32 people (see Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires) and in July 1994 the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 85 people and wounding over 200 (see AMIA Bombing).

Today, around 300,000 Jews live in Argentina, mostly in Buenos Aires, comprising the third largest Jewish community in the Americas. (After that of the United States and Canada)
Brazil
Jews settled early in Brazil, especially when it was under Dutch rule, setting up a synagogue in Recife as early as 1636. Most of these Jews had fled Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands during the re-establishment of the Inquisition in first Portugal, Spain, and again Portugal. Amsterdam and a few other Dutch towns soon had small Jewish communities. However, Jews were barred from almost all guild trades and faced limited opportunities. The community soon had more members than it could support.

To open up trade opportunities and provide a home for Jews unable to support themselves in Amsterdam, the Dutch merchants pushed for an expedition to take Brazil and its rich sugar plantations from Portugal (which was then weakened and under Spanish rule). Despite several years of advance warning from spies, the Dutch expedition easily took control of Brazil and Recife in the Second Battle of Guararapes. For twenty years, the colony prospered and the Jews with it. Despite resentment from Dutch and Portuguese Christians, the Jews were vital to trade as they were the only ones who spoke both Dutch and Portuguese from the beginning. Unlike Amsterdam or Portugal, the Jews of Recife experienced extraordinary religious toleration, including being allowed public processions, a synagogue, religious schools, and a mikvah. A civil war, supported by the Spanish crown, soon racked the colony as Portuguese Brazilians, who were Roman Catholic, fought to remove the Protestant Dutch. As the guerrilla fighting ruined the sugar trade, many Jews returned to Amsterdam, leaving a fraction of the community behind.

The war between the Portuguese and Dutch over Brazil culminated in the surrender of Recife on January 26, 1654. The capitulation agreement provided for a period of safe-conduct for 3 months for Dutch subjects who wished to leave Brazil. While the Jews' safety was guaranteed, they must have been uncomfortable with living under the eye of the Inquisition and having soldiers billeted in their synagogue. Since shipping space was extremely scarce, the victorious Portuguese general extended the safety for Christians and Jews who never had been baptized past the alloted three months. By the April 26th deadline, it appears all Jews residing in Brazil had left for Holland, Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, or North America.

Jews resettled in Brazil in the 1800s after independence, and immigration rose throughout the 19th and early 20th century. In the late 1880s, members of the Zionism movement considered settling many Jews in Brazil to escape Russian pogroms, but strict immigration laws and political strife led to this plan being abandoned. The immigrants who did come to Brazil arrived from many different Jewish communities around the world, making the community in Brazil very diverse, in many ways a microcosm of Brazilian society in general. Generally, the community has escaped major persecution, despite the government banning all organizations of immigrant communities including Jewish communal organizations for a time during World War II.

There are about 150,000 Jews in Brazil today, and they play an active role in politics, sports, academia, trade and industry, and are overall well integrated in all spheres of Brazilian life. The majority of Brazilian Jews live in the state of Sao Paulo but there are also sizeable communities in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná.
Dominican Republic / Santo Domingo
Sephardic Jewish Merchants arrived to southern Hispanola fleeling the inquisition. Over time, this Jews assimilated into the general population. Despite this, Jews still remain from this early infusion of Sephardim Today there remains a functioning Synagogue in Santo Domingo, "Centro Israelita de la Republica Dominicana"

Sosua is a village in the north of the Island which was founded by Ashkenazic Jews fleeing the Nazis. Trujillo invited Jews to the island less for humanitarian reasons, and more for their skills. Sosua has a Synagogue and a Museum devoted to this amazing phenomena.
Mexico
Due to the strong Catholic presence in Mexico, few Jews migrated there until the late 1800s. Then, a number of German Jews settled in Mexico as a result of invitations from Maximilian of Mexico settled in the country, followed by a wave of Eastern European Jews fleeing Russia. A second large wave of immigration occurred as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, leading many Sephardic Jews to flee. Finally, a wave of immigrants fled the increasing Nazi persecutions in Europe.

Today, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 Mexican Jews. There are several sectors in the Jewish community in Mexico. The biggest of which are the Ashkenazi Community (descended from Central and Eastern Europe), the Maguén David and Monte Sinai Communities (descended from Syrian immigrants) and the Sepharadic Community (primarily descended from Turkish immigrants). While most Jews in Mexico are concentrated in Mexico City, there are subtantial Jewish communities in Guadalajara, Monterrey and more recently in Tijuana and Cancún. The "Centro Deportivo Israelita" is a social, cultural and sporting institution which includes members from all Jewish communities.

The Jewish community in Guadalajara is continually shrinking and has approximately 150 families. The community is made up of almost an equal number of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. Originally the two groups had separate synagogues and didn't intermarry; eventually the two groups united and almost all of the younger families are made up of mixed Sephardic-Ashkenazi marriages. There is a community center, similar to that of a J.C.C., which is the center of Jewish life in the city. The center has a sports facility, a Jewish day-school, and also houses the synagogue. In recent years the community, called La Comunidad Israelita, became Modern Orthodox, which caused a sizeable part of the community to break-off and form a new Conservative community; dividing this already small community. Because the Jews of Guadalajara rarely marry outside of the Jewish community, most of the young adults who are interested in getting married are inclined to move to Mexico City, which has a larger Jewish population. This is the main cause of the diminishing population of the community, a similar problem facing the Jewish community of Monterrey which is almost of identical size.

There are also some Mexicans who consider themselves descendants of Conversos, Jews who converted to Catholicism to escape the Inquisition, but retained some Jewish heritage (like lighting candles on Friday nights). For example, the famous painter and Converso descendent Diego Rivera wrote in 1935, "Jewishness is the dominant element in my life. From this has come my sympathy with the downtrodden masses which motivates all my work."
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is currently home to the largest Jewish community in the Caribbean, around 3,000 Jews, supporting three synagogues in the capital city of San Juan: one each Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Jews were prohibited from settling in Puerto Rico through much of its history; a few arrived during World War II, but the majority of the current population are descendants of Jews(Juban) who fled from Cuba (once home to 15,000 Jews) after Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution in 1959.

Like many former Spanish colonies founded soon after the Spanish Inquisition, there is some population of Puerto Ricans who are crypto-Jews (some prefer to be called anusim, or coerced), descendants of forcibly converted Jews. Some of these maintain elements of Jewish tradition, although they themselves are Christian; this includes some members of families with last names like Rodríguez, Gómez, Méndez and Cardoso. [1]
Philippines
The Philippines, which was ruled by the Spanish for about 400 years, also has a small population of people that can trace their roots back to 'moranos'. Some Spanish Jews fleeing from Spain during the Inquisition traveled with colonizers to the Philippines. Unfortunately, many of the Filipinos who have Jewish roots are unaware.
Current populations
Rank
(Worldwide)    Country    Jewish
Population    % of
Jews
5    Argentina    395,379    1%
11    Brazil    95,125 in the 50's and 150,000 today in the XXI century    0.051%
15    Mexico    53,101    0.05%
20    Uruguay    30,743    0.9%
22    Venezuela    25,375    0.1%
24    Chile    20,900    0.131%
31    Panama    10,029    0.33%
44    Colombia    3,436    0.008%
47    Peru    2,792    0.01%
48    Costa Rica    2,409    0.06%
NA    Dominican Republic    250    0.006%

http://en.allexperts.com/e/h/hi/history ... merica.htm

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Abraham Zacuto

Abraham Zacuto (1452-1514), probably of the first Jewish sages who embraced modernity while keeping the unbroken chain of tradition from Abraham to the Talmud scholars to Moses Maimonides. He was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, a leading astronomer who stood at the cradle of great geographical discoveries of 16th century, advised Columbus and guided Vasco da Gama, was a luminary at the Court of Kings of Spain and Portugal, merged science and Kabbala, taught at Salamanca University and lived in the Templar-built mysterious Castle of Tomar, travelled through the Orient from Tunis to Constantinople, to find his eternal rest in Jerusalem. While meeting with kings and princes, he considered himself first of all a Jewish sage in the long line of Jewish sages. The Book of Lineage, or Sefer Yohassin, his Opus Magnum, was completed five hundred years ago after a decade-spanning work. This is the first historical chronicle covering the entire history of mankind from the Jewish perspective, integrating the records of Jewish chronographers. This book provides a unique insight into the world of the Talmud populated by sages, their wives and their disciples, human beings of flesh and blood, the world he learned from his teacher, the great Jewish mystic Aboab, the author of Menorath Ha-Maor, and he knew it exceedingly well. It is also a primary source dealing with appearance of the Zohar in Spain. Thus this book allows to appreciate wonders of the world of Talmud and tradition, as well as those of pre-exilic Spain and Portugal.

 

The editor of this translation, the Israeli writer Israel Shamir, whose previous projects include the Odyssey of Homer, Joyce's Ulysses and the Hebrew Nobel winner S.Y. Agnon,  keeps to the spirit of this time, and moves forward our understanding of tradition and history of Jews in its interaction with their neighbours.

---------

The Enchanting Life of Rabbi Abraham Zacuto
and
His Book of Lineage

 

The author of the Book of Lineage, Rabbi Abraham Ben Samuel Ben Abraham Zacuto III (1452 – 1515), could be the main character of a major film or of a great book; his life was full of adventures and accomplishments. His life is surrounded by legend as befits a Judaeo-Iberian sage, and it is quite difficult for us to separate the hard facts from the embellishments. A Renaissance man and a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci (they were born in the same year), Abraham Zacuto was a scientist and historian, astronomer and astrologer, Talmudic scholar and  man of the world. Zacuto was present at the birth of modernity: he advised Columbus before he sailed West, equipped with Zacuto's astrolabe -- and he advised Vasco da Gama before he sailed East, equipped with Zacuto's charts. Thus Zacuto stood at the gate of the great breakthrough of European civilisation: discovery of America, of the Cape of Good Hope, of the seaway to India.

He was born and brought up in Salamanca, in Castile though the Portuguese dispute it and claim he and his family are from Evora in Portugal. However, he was usually referred to as the Sage of Salamanca, a city of the great University that kept its place of honour next to Oxford and Sorbonne. In 1473, at age of 20, the young Zacuto began his work on his famed solar declination tables, called Ha-Hibur ha-Gadol or Almanach perpetuum coelestium motium (Perpetual Almanac of the Heavenly Bodies), essential for the calculation of geographical coordinates. The tables were completed in 1478 under the patronage of the bishop of Salamanca, Gonzalo de Vivero, who admired Zacuto's extensive knowledge of astronomy and history. In 1481, the original Hebrew text was translated into Spanish by Juan de Salaya, a professor of astrology and logic at the University of Salamanca. Translations into Arabic and Latin followed, and the first printed edition appeared in 1496 in Leiria, Portugal, prepared by Zacuto's disciple, Jose Vicinho, a Portuguese astronomer of Jewish origin. The tables became a popular and necessary tool for navigation, accompanied by a technical invention of Abraham Zacuto, his copper astrolabe – until his time, this ancient instrument was made of wood and did not allow for desired precision.

Zacuto wrote about his deserved success: "When I was in the Kingdom of Spain and also in other Christian kingdoms, my books on astronomy appeared which were titled 'by Rabbi Abraham Zacuto of Salamanca'. And I am permitted to glory in this, as the Sages have said, 'What wisdom is it that has made the [Jewish] scholars important in the eyes of the nations? It is the calculation of times and signs.' And I bear witness to Heaven that they praised Israel very much for this."

When Christopher Columbus arrived in Spain, he met with the great astronomer and received a copy of the tables. This manuscript with the marginalia of Columbus is extant in the Colombian library in Portugal. It is often said that Zacuto was also instrumental in raising a big loan for Columbus with the tycoons Abraham Senior, Gabriel Sanchez and Luis de Santangel. A prominent man of Jewish origin, Senior embraced Christianity, while Santangel and Sanchez were born into a recently baptised family. Zacuto also introduced Columbus to Don Isaac Abravanel, a Jewish notable with great influence at the Court, and he arranged for the navigator's audience with the King and the Queen. Soon Columbus set sail to America, bearing the Zacuto tables with him. The family tradition insists that a young Zacuto, a son of R. Abraham, sailed with him, and accompanied him in all his journeys. If so, this young man was the first Jew on the American soil. It is possible that he advised the Genoese navigator to use his father's tables in the moment of need. During Columbus' last voyage to America (1504), his small fleet was marooned on Jamaica, where the natives did not want to supply him and his sailors with food. The Zacuto's tables provided him with a way out as they indicated there would soon (on February 29, 1504) be a lunar eclipse. Columbus assembled the Caciques (as the native chiefs were called) and threatened them that he will banish the moonlight. The eclipse frightened the natives and they asked Columbus to save the moon. Columbus acquiesced, the eclipse passed and since then the Caciques respected him and provided with all he needed, says the legend.

Meanwhile R. Abraham Zacuto became a professor of astronomy, first in Salamanca and later at Saragossa University. But the dramatic events of 1492 changed everything. After their conquest of the last Moorish kingdom of Granada, the Royal rulers of recently united Spain decided to convert their Jewish subjects, to finish off in one stroke the hundred years drive for Christianisation of Spanish Jews. With the Moors subdued, there was no need for cultural plurality. The conversion, in the view of Ferdinand and Isabella, would unify the people of Spain under one crown and one church. (They repeated it a few years later with the Spanish Muslims, leaving them with no choice at all). But the plan misfired: thousands of Jews left the country instead of agreeing to the most advantageous proposals of the Crown. The Queen and the King did not expect it, but thus their Edict of Conversion became the Edict of Expulsion. Eventually some forty thousand Jews and many Conversos left Spain, mainly for Portugal. Amongst them was the great astronomer Abraham Zacuto who decided to accompany his master, the great sage and mystic Isaac Aboab.

In Portugal, Zacuto's fortunes even improved. His advice was sought and his abilities as astrologer were also employed. He became the Royal Astronomer at the court of King Joao II and advised Vasco da Gama before his voyage to India in 1497. The Portuguese astronomer and cartographer Jose Visinho considered himself his disciple, translated and published his book and helped him to find a proper place in Portugal.

There are many stories of Zacuto's success in Portugal. It is written in the book of Neshmat Haim: once the King Joao II came to try R. Abraham Zacuto's wisdom. He said he intended to travel to Iborra and demanded to know from the  stars through which gate he would enter Iborra. R. Abraham replied, "Whatever I'll say, you will enter by other gate'. The King said, "No, put your divination in writing and seal it with your own seal". He brought a clean sheet of paper and wrote, "The King will open a new gate and enter through it". And so it was - the king wanted to prove his fortune telling is false, and broke a new gate into the city and entered through it. As he entered, he opened the R. Abraham Zacuto's letter and read it out loud, and it was a miracle in his eyes. Another time the King invited R. Abraham Zacuto to his room and enquired about the distance between earth and heaven. He gave the answer: In a year's time the king raised the roof of the room by one and a half cubit and asked R. Abraham: tell me, Astronomer, what the distance between the earth and heaven is, as I forgot what you said. The wise man replied, "Since then, the earth was raised or heaven descended".

Abraham Zacuto spent much time in the Templar-built castle of Tomar, a centre of mystical studies in Portugal. There he established a synagogue which exists till this very day and is known as 'Zacuto Synagogue'.

But the stars did not bode him well: despite his contribution to the successes of Portugal, Zacuto lost royal favour. The last king of Portugal wrote in 1920s of 'great and burning ingratitude' of his royal ancestors to the astronomer. The new king of Portugal, Manuel who came instead of King Joao,  succumbed to the same idea of forced conversion of his Jews. He did not want to lose these active and useful people, but he felt that their faith interferes with their full integration in his country. Many Jews left for Holland, Turkey and North Africa, but apparently the majority could not leave. The bulk of Zacuto family remained entrenched in Portugal. They were baptised and took names of Rodriguez and Nunez, but when some of their descendents left the Peninsula in 16th and 17th cc, they came back into the Jewish faith and into their old family name. Thus Abraham Zacuto Lusitano (or Lusitanus) was born in Lisbon in 1575, studied medicine in the Universities of Coimbra and Salamanca, moved to Amsterdam in 1625 and became a famous doctor and Rabbi before dying on New Year's Day 1642. Another Zacuto, Moses or Enrique Nunez, moved to Holland in the 17th century, and his sons settled in Venice, Hamburg and Poland. His grandson Moses Zacuto became a renowned poet and mystic, known under the acronym REMEZ. He lived in Poland, Amsterdam and Venice before settling in Mantua where he died in 1697. He studied philosophy under Spinoza and Jewish mysticism under disciples of Vital, edited the Book of Zohar and maintained the Portuguese connection as well. Other members of the noble Zacuto family traded and wrote books elsewhere, from Ukraine to Portugal. But let us return to our Rabbi Abraham Zacuto.

Together with his son Samuel Zacuto left for Tunis, and reached this safe haven after many misfortunes, being captured twice by pirates. He pushed a heavy oar on a galley, says the legend, until his captors discovered the extent of his knowledge. Eventually he was duly redeemed by the Jewish community. In Tunis, his son Samuel married into a prominent local Jewish family, and Abraham Zacuto regained some of his peace of mind. His knowledge of Jewish history, astronomy and astrology were combined in his attempts to calculate the End of Days and Coming of the Messiah. His views remained within accepted limits, as he wrote: "Good deeds and repentance save from grief, and Salvation will come sooner if Israel will deserve it". In his calculations, Zacuto predicted the end of the world and coming of the Saviour in 1514. This belief caused him to leave safe Tunis and wander the roads on the Empire – he went to Constantinople, to Damascus and eventually to Jerusalem in 1513; he lived in a theological college (Yeshiva) on Mt Zion, and died in 1514. Thus his world ended and his soul embraced the Messiah,  as he predicted for 1514. His prophecy came true, at least for him personally.

But before that, in Tunis he completed his lifelong work, the historical Book of Lineage, a history of the world from Creation to 1500 from the Jewish perspective. The central theme of the book is the great effort of Jewish sages crowned with the Talmud. R. Zacuto was a great expert of the Talmud, the compendium of Jewish tradition which he learned from R. Isaac Aboab and inherited from his ancestors who came to Spain from Provence, France in 1305. Perfect scholars, they studied the Torah under R. Asher 'Rosh', under his son R. Judah, the Saint of Toledo, and under Rabbi Isaac Ben Shesheth. On his mother's side, there were many renowned scholars, too, among them R. Samuel Valenci. His devotion to the Talmud was so great that he considered his scientific work as  subservient to his Talmudic studies. In The Book of Lineage he attempts to integrate his knowledge of history and geography with Jewish tradition. Zacuto tries to synchronize Jewish and world events. He places Hippocrates, Euclid, and Plato in the time of Mordecai and Esther, and he synchronizes the time of Priam, King of Troy, with the Jewish judges. Even more important, Zacuto founded modern Jewish studies of Talmud as taught today in Jewish theological colleges and universities. In words of his publisher Abraham Freimann he invested huge effort and succeeded in laying a sound foundation for the structure of Talmudic history. In a sense, this book is a wonderful gateway to the strange world of the Talmud, so thoroughly forgotten by mankind, and still so beguiling.

He was a true Renaissance man, open to facts and new ideas as well as attached to tradition. He included in his Book of Lineage some controversial (for his time) ideas and facts. He accepted the great Jewish Gnostic Elisha as an important sage, saying: remember his wisdom and forget his faults. He published the story of the Zohar, how this great book of Jewish mysticism was found in Spain. For this reason, his book was banned for ten years by the Rabbinic authorities and remained out of print for a hundred years, being spread in carefully observed manuscripts. In the 19th century Zacuto was rejected by Heinrich Graetz, an "enlightened" Jewish historian who loathed Orthodoxy and Rabbinic Judaism. His hatred of Zacuto spilled over onto his first publisher, the learned Dr Shullam: Graetz accused him of wasting the money of a wealthy Jewish widow on such an unworthy project as publication of the Book of Lineage. With his usual venom, this secular modern Jew, Graetz, wrote of R. Zacuto: '(A) man of limited understanding, unable to rise above the superstition of his day,... he failed to give a complete sketch of the sufferings of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.' His own idea of 'complete sketch' was much whining and many colourful epithets like cruel, bloodthirsty, innocent, etc. The cool style of Zacuto and his allegiance to the faith of Israel were equally foreign to him and to subsequent secular Jewish historians.

Nowadays, we are ready to accept history for what it was, without attempting to re-write it. Here we find a great friend and councillor in the towering figure of this sage spanning the gap between the Middle Ages and Modernity.
The Book

 
Editor's Preface

 

This project was realised, despite immense difficulties, thanks to guidance and inspiration provided by Dr Vladimir Rozenblit whose interest in the Jewish history and tradition moved us forward. His hands-on involvement brought this work to conclusion after some five years of efforts by many scholars, sages and translators; though the final responsibility for the text in front of you lays with the editor and translator, Israel Shamir.

 

The Book of Lineage was a life-long work of R. Abraham Zacuto, commenced in 1480s in Salamanca and completed probably in 1504 or 1505, half a millennium ago, in Tunis. Its first printed edition came out half a century later in Constantinople, published by the great scholar Dr Samuel Shullam, who added his own pertinent and amusing remarks always beginning with 'Samuel Shullam said'. They appear in our translation in square brackets. In the copyright-free world of 16th century some parts of the text were removed and replaced with a potpourri of other historical chronicles, namely, the Antiquities of Josephus, Josippon, Seder Olam etc; but numerous MSS of the Book of Lineage found their way to the Hebrew reader; they contained the parts removed by the first and subsequent publishers. The Medieval Hebrew/Aramaic text of the Book of Lineage we used was established by Herschel Filippowski (Edinburgh 1857) by skilfully combining the MSS and the printed versions. He also added his interesting notes; they appear marked with his acronym ZHF. Though Filippowski planned to produce a companion volume of sources to the book, it was never published. Still his copy based on the Oxford MS remained the best scientific text of the book and it was republished with extensive notes by Abraham Haim Freimann (Frankfurt am Main 1924). Freimann added The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of the Nations, previously published by Abraham A. Neubauer, subtitled 'Part Six of the Book of Lineage', though the division into six parts was done by Filippowski (as he says in his Introduction) and was discarded in this edition. The polylogue feeling was reinforced by introduction of marginalia by R. Jacob Emden, an important German Talmudist (1697 – 1776). His notes are partly retained here, in square brackets, marked 'Yavetz' (Jacob b. Zvi). There are notes by scholars Dov Goldberg, Thomas Glick and others. We used the text republished with many sources revealed in 2004 by Yarid Sefarim of 6, Mea Shearim, Jerusalem. This was also prepared with the grant of Zacuto Foundation.

 

R. Abraham Zacuto lived in the world that was not obsessed with uniformity and homogeneity. He did not hesitate to spell a word or name in a few different ways on one page. That was the rule in his times: no fixed spelling emerged until advent of printing. Manuscripts did not allow for absolutely precise copy; they always varied. Besides, the names of the Jewish sages are often quite similar: e.g. Rab, Rabbi, Raba and Rabah, or Zera, Zeira, Zeiri etc. As a guidance, we used the great translation of Talmud by Soncino, but Soncino also escapes uniformity and a Hebrew name may have a few English equivalents. These are the rules of this translation:

A reference to the Talmud by default is to the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli), while a reference to the Palestinian Talmud (Yerushalmi) is marked PT. Almost always the majority reading of Soncino is preferred. Thus a reader armed with Soncino (available and searchable online, on a CD and in hard copy) should be able to find the relevant text.

H corresponds to Heh, while A corresponds to Alef. Thus Raba רבא ends with Alef, while Rabah  רבהends with Heh. זירא  is Zera, while זעירא  is Zeira. Wherever feasible, H is employed for both Heh and Heth, following the usual Scripture spelling. Taw is usually represented by TH. We tried to avoid using apostrophes and special signs for Ayin and Alef. The names that appear in the Bible pertain the spelling of King James Bible.

As for titles, we use R. for Rabbi and Rab. These titles are given in full whenever it is necessary to distinguish a Babylonian Rab from a Palestinian Rabbi. Following Buber, we used Master and Disciple for the most important interrelation of the sages rather than 'teacher-student'.

There are very few abbreviations excluding the usual abbreviations of the books of the Bible, and the honorific titles:  for the dead, that is 'obm' – 'of blessed memory' or similar; and 'pbuh' – 'peace be upon him'. Only two-word-long titles of the tractates of Talmud are abbreviated, thus AZ is Avodah Zarah; MK is Mo'ed Katan; BK is Baba Kama; BM is Baba Metzia, BB is Baba Bathra; RH is Rosh Hashana.  

The Soncino translation of Talmud was used for the relevant quotes, unless they had to be modernised, and for spelling of Hebrew names. For non-Jewish names, the spelling of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was preferred wherever available.

 There are very few transliterated (not translated) words in the text, as we tried to make this book accessible to an English reader. The usual terms of Jewish faith, e.g. Torah, Halizah, Trefa etc. can be found in Soncino Talmud Glossary, also available online.

Quote marks are used sparingly, for they were not employed in our sources. Instead of attempting uniformity and abundant but misleading lucidity (this would lead us to employing up to five kinds of quote marks) we tried to achieve a user-friendly translation blurring somewhat vague distinction between a direct and indirect quotation.

The titles of Talmud and Mishna Tractates are transliterated and italicised, thus Shabbath is the Tractate, while the day is called Sabbath, as usual. The names of Hebrew books are usually transliterated, unless well known in their translated name, e.g. Introduction to Mishna by Rambam, but Menorath ha-Maor by R. Aboab.

Round brackets ( ) are employed to facilitate reading, and the words in these brackets are an integral part of the text. Square brackets [ ] are employed to show logically or grammatically needed words; or those present in the source (the Bible, the Talmud, the Book of Tradition and other sources); or available in other MSS and earlier printed editions, as well as marginalia of R. Jacob Emden, notes of Herschel Filippowski, Abraham Freimann and Samuel Shullam. The dates in the square brackets are supplied by us as a guidance only; a year by default refers to the current Gregorian calendar. AD and BC are omitted when obvious. AM is Anno Mundi, i.e. year since the Creation; usually it refers to the Jewish calendar, but in the Chronicles this is often a reference to the older Christian calendars based on calculations of St Augustine and Isidore of Seville. While the world was created, according to the Jews, on Oct. 7, 3761 BC, the Christians moved it back to 5199.

Our main problem was embedded in the frame of reference. Rabbi Zacuto knew his Talmud by heart, and he wrote for equally endowed sages. A word or two would suffice for such a reader to remember an amusing or exciting episode. He had no need to tell the stories, as they were known to his readership. We wished to create a book for a lay reader; thus we had to narrate some of episodes. Usually these stories are relegated to the notes on the margins. Some of them were so delightful that it was difficult to stop. But otherwise this book would grow well over thousand pages. But hopefully our reader will feel encouraged by this presentation of the wisdom and wit of the Jewish sages, and will delve into the sea of Talmud. This was the greatest wish of Rabbi Abraham Zacuto.

http://www.zacuto.org/

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL ZACUTO

What happened to a celebrated scholar who refused to convert.

And what happened to his descendants who became Crypto-Jews

By Harry A. Ezratty

from HaLapid, Fall 2008

 

I was probably nine or ten and sitting in the synagogue when my father called my attention to an elderly gentleman located a few rows in front of us. "Do you see that man over there?" he asked rhetorically. "He's a descendant of Abraham Zacuto, the man who made the maps for Columbus ." It was true, Solomon Zacuto, the man sitting in front of us was heir to that and much more.

It was the first time I was to hear the name of this remarkable Sephardic Renaissance man, a native of Salamanca , Spain , born in 1452. Aside from making maps, Zacuto was also an inventor, astronomer, physician, teacher, religious thinker and advisor as to the nature of the universe to royalty, in Spain and Portugal . Despite these impressive credentials he is not as well known as the Polish, Copernicus, the Italian, Galileo or the Dane, Tycho Brahe. The family name Zacuto is derived from the Hebrew word, "health."

Three decades after my introduction to Zacuto, I was in Puerto Rico 's famed Casa De Libros, (founded by the American bibliophile, Elmer Adler) holding a genuine copy of the legendary "Tables of Zacuto" in my hands. The Tables, or Ephemerides as they are also known in Latin, foretold the rising and setting of the sun and the moon and the movement of the stars, including lunar and solar eclipses. They were used by Columbus ; the Tables saved his life while shipwrecked in Jamaica during his fourth and last voyage to the New World . But more about that later.

The Tables would have fit neatly into Columbus 's desk drawer. Written in Latin, each page is divided into several square blocks with the sun colored yellow. Other heavenly bodies appear in their various movements (on dates Zacuto foretold) located at the top of each box. Eclipses are also shown with their future dates. Columbus 's personal copy is in the museum at Seville with marginal annotations made in his own hand.

After graduating from Salamanca , Zacuto taught Mathematics and Astronomy in his native city's famed University, the oldest in Spain . Amongst his scholar-colleagues he was usually referred to as El Judio Salamantino . It should be remembered that the terrible anti-Jewish riots of 1391 had eroded the once favorable position of Spain 's Jews and Zacuto may have been seen as a marginal citizen, explaining why he was not called by his own name. Or could it have been that his contemporaries were envious of his achievements? Because aside from his teaching position at Salamanca, he enjoyed the admiration and patronage of the Bishop of Salamanca, Gonzalo de Vivero, and Don Juan de Zuniga who was the Grand Master of the Knights of Alcantara. Under their aegis Zacuto wrote many treatises on the solar system. He wrote his famous work on lunar and solar eclipses, De las eclipses del sol y de la luna while in Zuniga's service . Before Columbus set sail Zacuto met him. Afterwards he counseled that the enterprise to the Indies was feasible though hazardous.

So certain of Zacuto's academic abilities was the Bishop of Salamanca that his will directed all of Zacuto's Spanish treatises be bound and placed in the cathedral library. The distinction between the scholar's Spanish and other writings seems clear. Zacuto was a religious man who wrote fluently in Hebrew on subjects relating to Judaism. His most important astronomical work, Ha- Hibbur ha Gadol (The Great Essay) was written in Hebrew and later translated into, Latin, Portuguese, Castilian, Italian and German.

In 1492 when Jews were expelled from Spain , Zacuto left for Portugal . One of his students at the Portuguese court procured a position for him. The move was a bitter experience for him, one he carried for the rest of his life. Like other exiled Sephardim he lamented being torn from his beloved Spain . He later wrote about his personal feelings on the expulsion:

"On Monday the twenty-fifth of June of the year 1492, I left....at noon never to return, because the King, Don Fernando, and the Queen, Isabella , annihilated be their names and memory , banished all the Jews who lived under their rule...."

Zacuto experienced his anguish, and those of the rest of his co-religionists, when he stood with many thousands at the port of Palos on that day making determinations as to where they would go. Within five weeks Columbus 's three ships would sail from this port into the unknown reaches of the Atlantic to change the face of the world, Zacuto could not go to the New World ; his descendants would. Zacuto chose neighboring Portugal .

Zacuto's fortunes rose in his new home. Because of his reputation he was appointed Court Astronomer to King John II and later to King Manuel I. Under their tutelage he made a great contribution to navigation; the astrolabe, the ancient forerunner to the modern sextant, used by mariners to measure the location of sun, moon and stars in order to determine a ship's position at sea, had been constructed of wood. This important instrument was prone to swelling when it became wet from rainstorms or humidity. In dry weather the astrolabe would shrink. These variations rendered the Astrolabe's accuracy unreliable. Zacuto constructed one of copper which neither swelled nor shrank. Before he left for his historic voyage to India in 1496, Vasco da Gama consulted with Zacuto packing the astronomer's charts, tables and the newly perfected astrolabe to take with him.

In the year 1503, on his fourth and last voyage to the Americas , Columbus was shipwrecked in Jamaica . He and his crew made their home in the remains of their ship near the beach. At first the natives were impressed by the Europeans and their swords and knives. There were firearms which they had never seen before, firing shot over many yards. Over time, however they understood that these marooned sailors were vulnerable and refused to co operate with them or provide them with food and water. On one occasion the native Chief confronted Columbus with obvious hostile intent. Armed with Zacuto's Tables, Columbus knew an eclipse was on the way. He told the natives that he would cause the sun to disappear and that it would not return unless they left in peace and continued to provide Columbus and his crew with food. It worked and the hapless seamen were safe for a while.

By 1497 the Jews of Portugal were all forceably converted to Christianity. Zacuto managed to escape with his son Samuel to North Africa . The rest of his family remained behind. The trials of this scholar began anew. Imprisoned by pirates in North Africa with his son on two occasions, this man who faithfully served both Spain and Portugal in their efforts to make new discoveries was hounded by the Inquisition and forced to subsist as a private tutor of mathematics in Tunis .

Towards the end of his life, Zacuto finished a work he had been writing for some time on Jewish law and genealogy, Sefer ha-Yuhasin (The Book of Relations.) He wrote other philosophical religious tracts. Not much is known of his last years. He surfaces in Jerusalem in 1513, where he taught at a Yeshiva. He disappeared thereafter and it is believed he died around 1515 in obscurity.

While Zacuto was able to leave Portugal , others of his family were trapped and forced to lead the lives of crypto-Jews. Two, who were to become influential in Jewish history, were able to leave Portugal and resume their Jewish lives. Both came with their families to Amsterdam . From that city, a haven for Portuguese crypto-Jews there their lives took very different paths.

The Amsterdam Jewish community which the Zacutos and other early conversos from Spain and Portugal encountered was a confusing one. There were few rabbis to assist returning Jews. Early rabbis, who were themselves crypto-Jews, could barely read or speak Hebrew. One Italian rabbi, the Sephardi, Samuel Aboab, characterized the lot of Iberia 's crypto-Jews as having lived in "spiritual servitude." Most crypto-Jews mixed their Catholic upbringing with their new introduction to Judaism. In Spain or Portugal they cited the Shema beneath their breath as they took communion before a priest. They knew that their salvation lay in the Law of Moses and that the images in the church were against Jewish belief, but were unable to explain the basic principles of Judaism. Many crypto-Jews held back joining the Jewish community until they understood what their responsibilities would be or that it was safe to be counted as a Jew in this new country.

One must understand that in the 17 th century, Iberian Jews were only two or three generations away from Judaism; it was easier for the rabbis to determine one's Jewish credentials. It is not the same situation that today's crypto-Jews face, because the passage of hundreds of years and the difficulty of preparing a family tree conclusively proving a Jewish maternal line is almost impossible.

What were the commitments a 17 th century crypto-Jew had to make in Amsterdam in order to join the Community of Israel? Once the rabbis determined there was no need for a formal conversion the newly returned Jew was given Hebrew prayers to memorize. A circumcision was necessary. The newly returned Jew recited the Hebrew prayers, which he memorized and probably didn't understand, before a congregation of fellow Jews after his circumcision healed. He presented himself on that day wrapped in a shawl and tiffilin as an expression of his devotion to Judaism. He was expected to live with and practice the rituals of Judaism. There seems to be no equivalent ritual for women. Nevertheless, after a lifetime of expressing one's self through the rites and prayers of the Catholic Church, newcomers often continued to use them as a comfortable and familiar conduit to demonstrate their devotion to Judaism.

It was something the rabbis needed to combat, sometimes with historic and brutal consequences. Uriel da Costa was punished by receiving lashes in the synagogue for his deviations from Orthodox thought. And Benedict Spinoza was banished forever from the Amsterdam Jewish community under a herem (a rabbinical excommunication) for ideas that varied from Orthodoxy. No Jew was permitted to trade or have any contact with him. Without making comments on the severity of these punishments or if they were even warranted, we have to understand the delicate position in which the leaders of the Jewish community found themselves at that time.

Jews were newcomers to Holland ; they spoke a foreign language and had different cultural and religious practices from the Dutch. They stuck out like a sore thumb. The Dutch had recently seceded as a possession from Catholic Spain. In their rift they enthusiastically embraced a break-away Protestant theology that looked with favor on the Hebrew bible and the restoration of the Jewish people to Jerusalem . It would not do for the Jews to antagonize their hosts whose religion espoused a great devotion to the Hebrew bible or "Old Testament," its Prophets and heroes. In a world where free speech and the free choice of religion were far from universal and accepted concepts, da Costa and Spinoza were potential sources of friction between the Jewish community and the their new government, because of their radical ideas about God, the bible and man's soul.

No wonder many crypto-Jews stood outside the community. They felt they had to until they were secure enough to join it. Some never made the transition, remaining Christians; others vacillated, returning to Catholicism when it was convenient and then Judaism for the same reasons; a few returned to Iberia preferring the life there to a new one in a strange land. Over time, those who chose not to return were beneficiaries of a benevolent and tolerant Holland that extended them the freedom to worship, while it denied that same right to Catholics. It afforded them citizenship and defended and protected them overseas when they fell into the hands of pirates and anti-Jewish governments. To the world these people may have been Jews. To the Dutch they were valued citizens who deserved and were afforded the same protection other Dutch citizens enjoyed. It was to this society that two Zacuto conversos came in the early 17 th century. Their presence enriched the Jewish community.

Moses Ben Mordecai Zacuto was born in Portugal in 1620. Despite several generations of his family's removal from formal and organized Judaism, the young man jumped feet first into his Jewish studies when he arrived in Holland . He soon was able to enter a Polish Yeshiva where he became attracted to Kabbalah. One of the legends surrounding him states that as a young man he fasted for 40 days in order to purge himself of his knowledge of Latin. When he finished his schooling he moved to Italy where he lived in Venice , Verona and Mantua . His life is marked by a great interest in Kabbalah, his writings, poems and his editing of works of other Hebrew authors. Moses Zacuto is credited with writing the first biblical drama in Hebrew, Yesod Olam . He also acted as a rabbi in Venice .

Moses Zacuto is a great example of a crypto-Jew's return to Judaism who helped to enrich his newly acquired religion. Influenced by Dante, he wrote of hell and man's tribulation in that pit of desperation. During his lifetime he enjoyed the reputation of being the leading Italian Kabbalist. Moses Zacuto died in 1697. During his lifetime he saw the return of the crypto-Jew to freedom in Western Europe and the Americas .

Abraham Zacuto, who would become known to history as Zacutus Lusitanus was born in Lisbon in 1575, almost a century after his famous ancestor left Portugal for North Africa . He was born Manuel Alvares de Tavera and enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest physicians in his native city. By 1625 he moved to Amsterdam . Here his life changed drastically. At age 50 he accepted Judaism, dropped his Portuguese name, assumed the name Abraham Zacuth and submitted to circumcision. He continued practicing medicine and during a time when that discipline was primitive, he was known as a first rate diagnostician who described malignant tumors, diphtheria and other diseases.

Zacutus Lusitanus was a prolific writer on medical topics. After his death his works were complied in France . They include a description of all diseases then known, a survey of internal medicine, a description of rare diseases and the famous Zacuti Pharmacooea , a list of drugs which highlighted newly discovered drugs from South America. He died in 1642.

In 1992, American descendants of Abraham Zacuto traveled to Spain to celebrate the 500 th anniversary of Columbus ' discovery of the New World , in which their ancestor played an important role. They returned to Spain carrying a banner which read: DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM ZACUTO Salamanca, Spain 1452-1515: Astronomer. Mapmaker. Inventor. Philosopher. Professor. In the year 1992, Abraham Ben Samuel Zacuto had finally come home

 

Bibliography
Encyclopaedia Judaica Jerusalem , Israel , ed. 1976
Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation - Miriam Bodian - University of Indiana Press, 1994
A History of the Marranos - Cecil Roth - Jewish Publication Society, 1932
Congress Monthly (1992)
A Journal of the American Jewish Committee - (A description of Zacuto's American descendants' travels in Spain )
Farewell Espana - Howard M. Sachar - Vintage Press, 1993
Christopher Columbus's Jewish Roots - Jane Francis Amler - Jason Aronson Inc., 1993
The Mysterious History of Christopher Columbus - John Noble Wilford - Vintage Books, 1992

http://www.cryptojews.com/AbrahamZacuto.lbi

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Notes on the Jewish Crew:
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=15401&p=62618

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Was Columbus secretly a Jew?

By Charles Garcia, Special to CNN  
updated 3:19 AM EDT, Sun May 20, 2012

Christopher Columbus bids farewell to his son Diego at Palos, Spain, before embarking on his first voyage on August 3, 1492

Editor's note: Charles Garcia is the CEO of Garcia Trujillo, a business focused on the Hispanic market, and the author of "Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows." A native of Panama, he now lives in Florida. Follow him on Twitter: @charlespgarcia. Lea este artículo en español/Read this article in Spanish.

(CNN) -- Today marks the 508th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus.

Everybody knows the story of Columbus, right? He was an Italian explorer from Genoa who set sail in 1492 to enrich the Spanish monarchs with gold and spices from the orient. Not quite.

For too long, scholars have ignored Columbus's grand passion: the quest to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims.

Charles Garcia

During Columbus's lifetime, Jews became the target of fanatical religious persecution. On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed that all Jews were to be expelled from Spain. The edict especially targeted the 800,000 Jews who had never converted, and gave them four months to pack up and get out.

The Jews who were forced to renounce Judaism and embrace Catholicism were known as "Conversos," or converts. There were also those who feigned conversion, practicing Catholicism outwardly while covertly practicing Judaism, the so-called "Marranos," or swine.

Tens of thousands of Marranos were tortured by the Spanish Inquisition. They were pressured to offer names of friends and family members, who were ultimately paraded in front of crowds, tied to stakes and burned alive. Their land and personal possessions were then divvied up by the church and crown.

Recently, a number of Spanish scholars, such as Jose Erugo, Celso Garcia de la Riega, Otero Sanchez and Nicholas Dias Perez, have concluded that Columbus was a Marrano, whose survival depended upon the suppression of all evidence of his Jewish background in face of the brutal, systematic ethnic cleansing.

Columbus, who was known in Spain as Cristóbal Colón and didn't speak Italian, signed his last will and testament on May 19, 1506, and made five curious -- and revealing -- provisions.

Two of his wishes -- tithe one-tenth of his income to the poor and provide an anonymous dowry for poor girls -- are part of Jewish customs. He also decreed to give money to a Jew who lived at the entrance of the Lisbon Jewish Quarter.

On those documents, Columbus used a triangular signature of dots and letters that resembled inscriptions found on gravestones of Jewish cemeteries in Spain. He ordered his heirs to use the signature in perpetuity.

According to British historian Cecil Roth's "The History of the Marranos," the anagram was a cryptic substitute for the Kaddish, a prayer recited in the synagogue by mourners after the death of a close relative. Thus, Columbus's subterfuge allowed his sons to say Kaddish for their crypto-Jewish father when he died. Finally, Columbus left money to support the crusade he hoped his successors would take up to liberate the Holy Land.

Estelle Irizarry, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, has analyzed the language and syntax of hundreds of handwritten letters, diaries and documents of Columbus and concluded that the explorer's primary written and spoken language was Castilian Spanish. Irizarry explains that 15th-century Castilian Spanish was the "Yiddish" of Spanish Jewry, known as "Ladino." At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b'ezrat Hashem (with God's help). Observant Jews have for centuries customarily added this blessing to their letters. No letters to outsiders bear this mark, and the one letter to Diego in which this was omitted was one meant for King Ferdinand.

In Simon Weisenthal's book, "Sails of Hope," he argues that Columbus's voyage was motivated by a desire to find a safe haven for the Jews in light of their expulsion from Spain. Likewise, Carol Delaney, a cultural anthropologist at Stanford University, concludes that Columbus was a deeply religious man whose purpose was to sail to Asia to obtain gold in order to finance a crusade to take back Jerusalem and rebuild the Jews' holy Temple.

In Columbus's day, Jews widely believed that Jerusalem had to be liberated and the Temple rebuilt for the Messiah to return.

Scholars point to the date on which Columbus set sail as further evidence of his true motives. He was originally going to sail on August 2, 1492, a day that happened to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av, marking the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples of Jerusalem. Columbus postponed this original sail date by one day to avoid embarking on the holiday, which would have been considered by Jews to be an unlucky day to set sail. (Coincidentally or significantly, the day he set forth was the very day that Jews were, by law, given the choice of converting, leaving Spain, or being killed.)

Columbus's voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi and Jewish statesman.

Indeed, the first two letters Columbus sent back from his journey were not to Ferdinand and Isabella, but to Santangel and Sanchez, thanking them for their support and telling them what he had found.

The evidence seem to bear out a far more complicated picture of the man for whom our nation now celebrates a national holiday and has named its capital.

As we witness bloodshed the world over in the name of religious freedom, it is valuable to take another look at the man who sailed the seas in search of such freedoms -- landing in a place that would eventually come to hold such an ideal at its very core.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Charles P. Garcia.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/opinion/g ... ?hpt=hp_c2