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The Southern Israelite Page 7 ( olumbus Discovered cAinericu On Succoth By DAVID SCHWARTZ MlCC' I toy-11 Wo ; sa>' tin- w in.'i' rn i bnaan 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