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Columbus (Continued)
Background on Christopher Columbus
The case for Columbus's Jewish origins is not presented solely by Jews. The consensus of Spanish and Vatican historians seems to be for the position, while that of Italian historians is against it. Weird, no?
Italian historians assert that Cristoforo Colombo was born in Liguria. There position is that his father, Domenico Colombo, was a tower sentinel in Genoa and later a weaver in Savona.
Spanish historians insist that Cristobal Colon was the son of Domingo Colon, a wool trader, and Susanna Fontanarossa, both of Pontevedra, Spain.
Was Christopher Columbus Jewish? Some circumstantial evidence.
What follows is not a scholarly piece of work.
There are a couple of reasons beyond the obvious, I am not a scholar. I've collected much of this information over at least two decades for my own amusement and failed to note the sources. Another is that while the same information can be found in several places on the internet, I haven't identified the original source material. As and if I do, I will add references.First some background. He was named Cristobal Colombo at birth. His parents are believed to have been conversos. By the way, one Internet source raised the possibility that King Ferdinand himself may have been Jewish. It suggested that his mother was the grand daughter of a Jewess of Paloma of Toledo. This source has a strange but consistent "Jewish Conspiracy" twist to its contents so I'm not going to reference or quote from it.
His last name, as presented at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella was "Colón", a Jewish variation of the more common Spanish "Colom" or "Colombo".
His official report of his first voyage to America to Ferdinand and Isabella began with the following words:" And thus, having expelled all the Jews from all your kingdoms and dominions, in the month of January, Your Highnesses..." A strange beginning statement for someone that just returned from a remarkable, supposedly impossible voyage. Of course the reference to January was just as strange.
Luis de Santangel, probably a Marrano or Converso, but certainly a recent convert to Christianity loaned the crown 17,000 ducats for Columbus' ships for the voyage in time to leave before August 2nd.
Columbus employed uniquely Jewish dates and phrases. Instead of referring to the "destruction" or "fall of Jerusalem," he used the phrase "the destruction of the second house." for the destruction of the second Temple using a literal translation of the Hebrew "Bayit."
He also employed the Hebrew reckoning of 68 a.d. instead of 70 a.d.
Columbus is said to have used a unique triangular signature similar to inscriptions found on gravestones of Jewish cemeteries in Spain and South France.
And perhaps most importantly, in the upper left corner of his letters to his son Diego, was the Hebrew letters "Bet Hey", which stand for the Hebrew blessing "Be Ezrat Ha Shem," or "with G-d's help."
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This page was last updated on 05/09/2000
