Columbus and the Pilgrims: What Exactly is being Celebrated

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Americans (including more than a few who have relocated to Israel) have already begun preparations for the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving. Invitations to both family and friends are being emailed or WhatApp’d, turkeys are being ordered if they have not already been purchased, activities to keep the children occupied are being planned, and National Football League schedules are being checked to make sure of the times for the afternoon and early evening games. And for the record, I am among those Jews who grew up enjoying the holiday as much anyone else.

Not surprisingly, though, what has become a traditional rite that, historically, represents gratitude for the seventeenth century peaceful coexistence between the English migrants who fled to the new world in pursuit of the freedom to practice their preferred way of worship and the native Wampanoags who were already settled there is, to no small extent, a distorted view of reality. The day which traditionally kicks off the Christmas present-buying period has more in common with oppression than with peace on earth good will toward man.

The culinary dishes that represent what might have been the first Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, cornbread, roast vegetables, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie – provide no symbolic indication of the violence and disregard for civil liberties that was inherent in the colonization of what would eventually become the United States of America. Indeed, few American schoolchildren if any are made aware that in 1970 the United American Indians of New England designated the day on which Thanksgiving falls to be declared a National Day of Mourning for Native Americans. And it is not only in Plymouth, Massachusetts where appropriate observances and lamentations are held.

In actuality, Thanksgiving is one of two autumn holidays in the US that indirectly “celebrates” the suppression of indigenous peoples. On the second Monday of October, a federal holiday acknowledges the voyage of the acclaimed navigator Christopher Columbus to the new world. In the days preceding the holiday, dramatic accounts of his journey are reviewed throughout the media, schools put on pageants and presentations featuring his heroic exploration on behalf of the Spanish royalty, and preparations are made for parades and demonstrations crediting him for creating the bridge between the old and new worlds. But as with the travelers who embarked from the Mayflower, the truth of how things truly happened became blurred over time. Indeed, the pedestal upon which Christopher Columbus has stood for more than five hundred years is more than a little shaky.

There was, of course, no known Jewish presence in that first Thanksgiving meal 1621, nor were Jews in any way involved in the relationship and interaction with the natives that were encountered. With Columbus, however, the story is quite different.

For years there have been rumors that the explorer who several nations claim proudful ownership over was in fact Jewish, and that his journey in 1492 was to escape the inquisition that was raging in Spain and Portugal. The mystery surrounding those rumors may, finally, been solved.

Spanish scientists using partial but sufficient DNA fragments have, after many years of research, recently concluded that Columbus was, in all likelihood, a Sephardic Jew. This has generated considerable excitement in the Jewish world, as some pundits have expressed hope that confirmation that an iconic, internationally revered figure such as Christopher Columbus might lower the flame of antisemitism spreading throughout the world. Not so fast!

Just to set the record straight, Christopher Columbus is not as universally treasured as skewered textbooks would have us believe. Vetted documentation has provided evidence that the explorer treated the natives he encountered with cruelty and brutality, and introduced in the new world the practice of slavery. “Chezy” may in fact have initiated the process of apartheid centuries before the term was first formally coined. Not something to be particularly proud of, is it?

Strongly believing that the atrocities Columbus was responsible for cannot be overlooked, Columbus Day has already been replaced in many states by one called Indigenous Peoples Day. Since 2018, moreover, more than forty statues throughout the United States dedicated to the navigator have been removed. And currently being officially considered is a change to the name of the Ohio city Columbus into one less contentious.

These acts of protest (or would woke activities be more appropriate) most certainly have not been without controversy; in fact, in 2020 then President Trump addressed this issue head on and accused the “radical left of eradicating our history”. So, while American schoolchildren are more likely than not still learning that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety-two, revision to the popular history behind Columbus’s undeniably heroic and courageous voyage is most definitely underway. Whether historians will be able to determine, definitively, whether his prime objective was to open a westward sea route to India and Japan or to find refuge as an expelled Jew remains to be seen, but he was clearly not the nice Jewish boy a Jewish mother would be proud of.

I don’t, therefore, share any confidence that the recent discovery which all but affirms that Columbus was in fact Jewish is a potential gamechanger with regard to antisemitism. If anything, the finding may intensify the current acrimony throughout various areas of the United States. As far as I know, there has been no major antisemitic activities among the Native Americans in the United States, and their relationship with the Jewish community has been, for the most part, cordial and respectful. That long- standing line of neutrality, however, may now, unfortunately, change.

Every so often the media tries to excite the imagination by providing “evidence” that one historical notable or another was in fact genetically Jewish. Such unconfirmed rumors have been spread about Leonard da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, and Pablo Picasso, among others. Now, though, we’re facing something that goes beyond harmless fun. I think, frankly, that we’d all be better off if Christopher Columbus’s heritage remained unrevealed.

Which saddens me to no end. We can only hope that the vicious, blatantly antisemitic attack that took place in Amsterdam last week and again more recently in Germany are isolated blips and not harbingers of things to come. But considering the astonishing rise in the level of anti- Jewish – and not merely anti-Israel – sentiment since the start of the multifront war Israel has been engaged in since October 7 of last year, it would be foolhardy to assume that such incidents will not again occur. Other than Israel, there are very few places in the world where Jews can feel truly safe.

Even with the intervention of a Jewish Christopher Columbus.