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Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says

theguardian.com

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Re: Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says

#41

Post by adastra22 »

woodpanel wrote: post #39

> Neither was there a big Jewish presence in the rest of the Italian peninsula Wait, so the name „ghetto“ wasn’t contrived there? Snark aside, is there any proof or qualification delivered with that quite important yet ambiguous side node, that there supposedly wasn’t any significant jewish presence in Italy?

Depends on how you define a “big population,” no? Prior to 1492 a lot of Jews had been driven out of Italy, and the remaining communities were quite small.

Italian city states took in a lot of Jewish refugees from Spain after the 1492 expulsion. The first ghetto was in 1516. But that doesn’t line up with Columbus’ chronology.

Re: Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says

#42

Post by playingalong »

> acknowledged that he had not been able to pinpoint Columbus’s place of birth

Nit pick.

I don't know it for sure, but if he was able to meet a king and a queen eventually, I assume he came from a wealthy family.

For wealthy families at that time, it wouldn't be an issue to travel. Especially if you turn out to be the most known traveler in human's history.

Thus, I fail to see how come we can even think of establishing the place of birth based on DNA. A likely area where his family came from - sure. But POB?

Re: Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says

#43

Post by 77pt77 »

He was probably a portuguese jew or nobleman.

This place is a a good hint:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba,_Portugal

A place called Cuba in Portugal that predates the arrival to the new world by centuries.

These ideas have been floating around for a long time:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2018/01/19/dn...

Re: Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says

#47

Post by someotherperson »

ywvcbk wrote: post #27
someotherperson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It adds a wild irony to the story considering he's responsible for the expansion of the Spanish and introduced Catholicism to an entire continent. Someone who was punished by the Spanish and forced to convert a generation or two ago turns into its champion and spreads it elsewhere?

He and his son would have faced severe discrimination, wouldn’t even be allowed to hold public office and technically his descendants wouldn’t even emigrate to the Americans had it been publicly known that he was a descendant of Jewish converts (regardless of his religious views). Surely that’s something the Spanish Crown would have used in the courtroom, considering that his descendants were engaged in a ~20 year la…

That's assuming he even knew he was ethnically Jewish. His strong Catholicism and choosing not to immigrate to the Ottoman empire indicates this family history was probably withheld from him.
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