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The Southern Israelite
Page 7
( olumbus Discovered cAinericu On Succoth
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
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Festival of Tabernacles and Columbus
> no little affinity between them!
live in tabernacles during this holiday,
ripture as a memorial to the days of our
rum out the land of Egypt to the land of
t memorial to the days when the sky was
recurrence
migration
i■! the tni!
the ! t w -
-u<h .t' 1m
forebears
wanderer'
k1 of Succoth, by one of those eternal
of history commemorates another great
i people—or rather it recalls the beginning
i a great migration. On Tisha B’Ab, 1492,
Spain, at the climax of a period of glory,
not been theirs since the days when their
1 w tit in their own land, were reduced to
again. On that day, they were forced by
v to quit forever the soil of Spain. More
larter of a million of people left to beg in
a!y, and other parts of the world for a piece
oi earth mi which to rest and labor.
On tin day following this great expulsion, a man
u of Columbus set out to find a new world,
and in Ins journal he wrote: “On the day their
Majesties ordered the Jews to leave their lands, on the
same day, they provided the means for me to set out
ni my search of new lands.”
I am quoting from memory. The exact words are
slightly different, but the difference will not be found
t" alter the meaning.
Why did Columbus couple the incident in his diary?
s one school of historians which answers
: Columbus was a Jew himself. He was a
Marrano, one of those converted Jews of Spain, who
outwardly professed Christianity, but inwardly clung
!• their Jewishness—one of those many
thousands who in the days of the Inquisition
went to imposing Cathedrals on Sunday and
K I 1 hums and implored the saints and
th iollowing Saturday in synagogues
built in Mibt erranean caverns, prayed for-
t r their prayers on the previous
Nindav
I here
'lid. adhe
' "luniliij.
My g,,
' tin' i
Mnger f,
moving
days to i
"i Milan
and J a " .
XcW \ .
:r,, m th.
' t the X
and mil
Jim
make pa
I'iscr.v,-
At [ •
11 mter
had a i
Hoshan .
after a
a car,:..
It v.
Wh.
{ he Ian
l hing, •
Spanish
had bee:
sighted
that thi
m quite a school, which, as I have
to this theory of the origin of
1 friend, the very scholarly editor
wish encylclopedia, I)r. Isidore
inly credits this theory. In his
1 'se, he once predicted that in the
H-. instead of the swarthy Italians
Cenoa, the Jews of Berditchcff
oid of Keshinoff—now living in
would march on October 12th
nlumbus monument on the East
w York, carrying reproductions
the Pinta and the Santa Maria,
;re flags of Zion.
’bis moment I merely desire to
g r reference to this aspect of the
'it—at this Festival of Succotn—
me more that these three boats
rr of Jews on them and that on
‘ha, the seventh day of Succoth
journey over the uncharted seas,
mied forth on one of the boats.
,e agreed signal of "Land Ho!’’
> this sailor who first sighted
^ e know definitely only one
: hat was—that he was not of
stian stock. We know that it
•mised that the sailor who first
would be given a bonus and
olor in displeasure at the fact
Columbus Day, October 1 2. and Succoth
have something in common. Mr. Schwartz
finds, showing that Columbus landed in
the New World on Hoshana Rabba, the
seventh day of Succoth.—EDITOR.
that the promise was not fulfilled quit his adopted faith
and returned to the religion of his ancestors. So the
historians all tell us. He may have been a Moor and
returned to the Moslem faith, or he may have been a
Jew.
But let us return to the realms of the more un
disputed facts. \\ e know that the interpreter of the
expedition was Louis de Torres. Van Loon in his
history of America has visualized Torres in his first
attempts at holding convers with the Indians as saving—
“huh".
I don't know perhaps Van Loon is right, but when
Torres looked at the high cheek bones of the Indians,
and observed some of their ceremonies, I feel quite
sure that he at least tried to say: "Shalom" to them
For Torres knew Hebrew very well.
We know that the physician of the expedition was
a Jew, and that there were at least several others on
board of Jewish origin.
It may very well have been that a very large per
centage of the crew were Jews, for as Keyserling
points out, the greater portion of the crew was ob
tained from Spanish jails. The whole venture looked
so dubious that the safe, sane and respectable elements
Christopher
Astronomy
weren't at all anxious to go. The king as a result,
ordered that any prisoners who would care to go along,
would be given their freedom.
And during this particular period, the Spanish jails
were largely filled with Jews arrested by the Holy
Office of the Inquisition for the crime of “judiazing",
which meant that some of them bad been found to put
on a clean blouse on Saturday, or eat a little better on
the Sabbath—all going to prove that they were Jews
rather than Christians at heart.
W e knew furthermore that the astronomical tables
which Columbus carried with him were those of the
Jewish astronomer, Abraham Zacuto.
For the financing of the expedition, it is now
generally admitted credit is largely due to Jewry.
The familiar legend has it that Queen Isabella
pawned her jewels to defray the cost of the expedition.
W e now know, however, that ti was “Jews not jewels"
who made the voyage possible.
But there is a debt which the world owes the Jew
that goes even deeper than this. I refer to the fact
that after Columbus had been turned down by their
Catholic Majestic Ferdinand and Isabella, it was a
Jew, Luis de Santangel, who appealed to Isabella that
she alter her decision and so forcefully did he argue,
that lie won his point. Columbus’ gratitude and appre
ciation for this act is revealed by the fact that when
lie returned to Spain after his first voyage, he sent the
first letter announcing his discovery to Santangel.
Who was this Luis de Santangel? He was a Mar
rano, who served as Minister of Finance to the Court
of Spain. As a Jew, he was, therefore, subject to
arrest by the Inqtiisitiors, but their Majesties thought
so highly of him that they granted him a
“special despensation" affording him immu
nity from all judiazing” charges. In brief,
it was an order to the Holy Office to let
Santangel alone. It was well that Santangel
stood so high in the graces of the Court, for
otherwise, he would undoubtedly have met
the sam ■ fate as his uncle, Luis de Santangel,
the first, who was fed to the flames of an
auto da fe.
This elder Santangel had been one of a
group of Jewish conspirators who had at
tempted after all other efforts had failed, to
thwart the work of the Inquisition by assassi
nation. They ha dpleaded with the court to
stop th elnquisition, but their pleas had
failed. They had brought all forms of in
fluence to bear, but with no avail. Now,
they planned to do a little assassinating of
some of the ring leaders of the Holy Office.
And so at Santangel's home, they met and
selected as their first victim one of the
prominent Inquisitors.
In accordance with their decision they
made their way to one of the Cathedrals at
which the Inquisitor in question was in the
midst of his devotions.
Then a scream was heard.
A dagger had been thrust through the
heart of the Inquisitor. He fell dead. But
news of the assassination, instead of stopping
the Holy Office, only put new zest in the
work of the Holy Office and added more
victims to the fires of the auto da fes. The
elder Santangel was caught and burned.
Let us now return to the younger San
tangel, who, as before stated, despite the
deed of his uncle, retained his office as
Columbus at the laboratory of Abraham Zacuto Professor of p inance Minister.
„ the I nwersity of Salamanca whose tables ami charls were used (Continued on Pa K e 21)
by Columbus
