Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: August 05, 2019 02:34PM
It is in the history books--either the history of the New World books, or Jewish history books about the Jewish-related aspects of Columbus's life and achievements.
For the obvious reasons, Jews are deeply unsettled about the atrocities which went on back then, especially since Columbus was of, apparently established, Jewish heritage, and MAY have been "enough" Jewish in his life to qualify, by Jewish standards, as a "hidden Jew." Whether he actually WAS a Jew, or not, is a matter which is revisited frequently in Jewishly-written history books--with each book's "answers" coming down on one or the other side.
For me, the deciding factor was the efforts he made to protect his crew (most or all of whom were of Jewish ancestry, and possibly/probably were at that time actual "hidden Jews"--which means, if true, that each of them was in constant danger of being arrested, tortured, and murdered by the Inquisition--an event which would put their Spanish families in danger, and for the same things as well).
Thinking about Columbus gives me a literal stomach ache, and this is probably true of a great many other contemporary Jews. It's great to have a Jewish hero who will always be an integral part of human history, but what if that person was the equivalent of a 1400s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
No matter what new facts surface, the central problem never seems to change one single bit.
For Henry Abramson's (Jewish history teacher at university level) take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7lds4afgv0Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2019 02:43PM by Tevai.