Columbus the Jew by B'nai B'rith, 1926
Source: Jewish Reference Book: B'nai B'rith Manual
Edited by Samuel S. Cohon
Cincinnati, Ohio
1926
pp. 248-250
THE JEW IN AMERICA BY SAMUEL S. COHON
The Jewish Role in the Discovery of America — While many Jews are recent immigrants, the Jew is no new arrival in this country. In point of length of residence and of service, he is the equal of any white man on this continent. That he played an important role in the discovery of America is a matter of history.
In recent years, the conviction has grown in the minds of scholars that Columbus' blood was partly Jewish. His mother, so it is alleged, came of a well-known Jewish family — the Ponte Rossi. And "Collom," which is the real name of Columbus, was that of an Italian Jewish family. As it was not safe in those days, in Spain, to be known as Jew, he called himself a "Genoese navigator." Though his origin is still a mooted question, it is pretty certain that he associated with Jews and was the recipient of their aid in his great work. When he failed to induce Ferdinand and Isabella to assist him in his undertaking, he turned to the Marrano, Louis de Santangel, the chan-celor of Aragon, for assistance. Together with his relative, Gabriel Sanchez, the royal treasurer, and his friend, Juan Cabrero, the royal chamberlain, also of Jewish blood, Santangel entered energetically into the plans of Columbus. He showed the queen the advantages to the crown and'to Spain of the discovery of a short route to India; the immortal fame and the limitless wealth that would be theirs.
Inspired by this glamor, the queen consented to pawn her jewels in order to raise sufficient funds for the expedition but she did not have to go that far. Santangel modestly requested to be permitted to advance the needed money out of his private treasury and accordingly advanced, without interest, 1,700 ducats (which is equivalent to $160,000 in our money). In view of these facts, Prof. Herbert B. Adams appropriately coined the fine epigram: "Not Jewels, but Jews were the real financial basis for the first expedition of Columbus."
Santangel's zeal was prompted, not only by his high-mindedness, but also by his Jewish loyalty. Two of his uncles were burnt by the Inquisition because of their Judaism and he himself, as may be well imagined, suffered greatly because of the mask of Catholicism which he was forced to wear. The condition of the Jews of Spain was near-ing its highest point of misery. Ferdinand and Isabella were preparing to expel all the Jews from their provinces. On August 2, 1492, about 300,000 Jews who refused to become Christians left Spain; and on the following day, Columbus, with the aid of Santangel, set sail in search of what turned out to be a haven of rest for the wandering Jews as for all the persecuted.
Columbus took with him the astronomical charts and instruments prepared by Abraham Zacuto, a Jewish professor at Salamanka. These were of incalculable service to the navigator and, on one occasion, saved the lives of the whole company. At least five members of the expedition, including the surgeon, Marco, the ship's doctor, Bernal, and the interpreter, Louis Torres, were Jews. Torres was the first European to tread on American soil and also the first to discover the use of tobacco. He won the good-will of a Cuban chief and received from him large grants of land and many slaves as presents. Columbus' recognition of his indebtedness to the Jews is shown also by the fact that the first detailed account of his discoveries was addressed to his Jewish patron, Louis de Santangel, and a similar letter was sent to Gabriel Sanchez.
Columbus' second expedition (1493) was again financed by Jewish funds. This time the money came not from the pocket of a rich Jewish patron, but out of the funds realized from the sale of the confiscated possessions of the Jews that were expelled from Spain.
"At least five members of the expedition, including the surgeon, Marco, the ship's doctor, Bernal, and the interpreter, Louis Torres, were Jews. Torres was the first European to tread on American soil and also the first to discover the use of tobacco. He won the good-will of a Cuban chief and received from him large grants of land and many slaves as presents."
Father Bartolomé de Las Casas, who wrote extensively about the Taino culture and their interaction with the Spanish invaders, sailed to the West Indies with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage. The Spanish fleet also carried more than 1500 adventurers, former prisoners and ex soldiers with battle experience in the wars against the Moors of North Africa.
Father Las Casas wrote:
“...God made all the peoples of this area...open and as innocent as can be imagined. The simplest people in the world, unassuming, long-suffering, unassertive, and submissive. They are without malice or guile...Never quarrelsome or belligerent or boisterous, they harbor no grudges and do not seek to settle old scores; indeed, the notions of revenge, rancor, and hatred are quite foreign to them...They own next to nothing and have no urge to acquire material possessions. As a result they are neither ambitious nor greedy, and are totally uninterested in worldly power...They are innocent and pure in mind and have a lively intelligence…
“It was upon these gentle lambs, imbued by the Creator with all the qualities we have mentioned, that from the very first day they clapped eyes on them the Spanish fell like ravening wolves upon the fold...The pattern established at the outset has remained unchanged to this day, and the Spaniards still do nothing save tear the natives to shreds, murder them and inflict upon them untold misery, suffering and distress, tormenting, harrying and persecuting them mercilessly.
“They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were so many sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual's head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers' breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders into a river, shouting: 'Wriggle, you little perisher.'
“They spared no one, erecting especially wide gibbets on which they could string their victims up with their feet just off the ground and then burn them alive thirteen at a time, in honor of our Savior and the twelve Apostles, or tie dry straw to their bodies and set fire to it...The way they normally dealt with the native leaders and nobles was to tie them to a kind of griddle consisting of sticks resting on pitchforks driven into the ground and then grill them over a slow fire, with the result that they howled in agony and despair as they died a lingering death.
“It once happened that I myself witnessed their grilling of four or five local leaders in this fashion (and I believe they had set up two or three other pairs of grills alongside so that they might process other victims at the same time) when the poor creatures 'howls came between the Spanish commander and his sleep. He gave orders that the prisoners were to be throttled, but the man in charge of execution detail, who was more bloodthirsty than the average common hangman (I know his identity and even met some relatives of his in Seville), was loath to cut short his private entertainment by throttling them and so he personally went round ramming wooden buns into their mouths to stop them making such a racket and deliberately stoked the fire that they would take just as long to die as he himself chose. I saw these things for myself and many others besides.
“...It is reported that the butcher-in-chief arranged for a large number of natives in the area and, in particular, one group of over two hundred who had either come form a neighboring town in response to a summons or had gathered of their own free will, to have their noses, lips and chins sliced from their faces; they were sent away, in unspeakable agony and all running with blood...”
www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Columbus%20Day.htm
... great find, and many thanks...
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Thank you for posting that video. Also, see this:
Top Jewish Scholar & Rabbi Marc Lee Raphael Says Jews "DOMINATED" Slave Trade