Who Knew?

by Jack Cooper

  The frequent washing and bathing, the soaking, salting and rinsing of meat and poultry for human consumption, the extra care given to the sick, and the prompt interment of the dead all tended to reduce the mortality among Jews exposed to the Black Death.

  All of this did the Jews little good. They were accused of poisoning the wells and many were killed.

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  1. Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (New York: Ballantine, 1978), 94.

  2. Berel Wein, Herald of Destiny: The Story of the Jews in the Medieval Era, 750–1650 (New York: Shaar Press, 1993), 120.

  3. Rabbi Solomon Ganzfried, Code of Jewish Law: A Compilation of Jewish Laws and Customs (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1961). This book is a compendium of Jewish laws distilled from literally thousands of scriptural and Talmudic sources. All ritualistic references cited will be shown in the body of the text with the volume number followed by the page number.

  ...during the Black Plague, killing Jews cancelled Christian debts

  The Black Death, which decimated Europe during the fourteenth century, also provided Christian competitors and debtors of Jews with the opportunity to reap financial gain from the tragic events. A typical example of this type of behavior took place in the Alsatian town of Strasbourg.1 Before the plague even reached the town, the butchers’ and tanners’ guilds, eager to eliminate the competition that Jews represented, attempted to begin their persecution. When the town council refused to go along with the plan, the guild members deposed them and instituted a council more to their liking. The Jews were then all put to death except those who accepted Christianity. The feudal lords went along with the extermination, since the deaths of the Jewish moneylenders meant cancellation of their debts.

  In spite of a formal proclamation issued by the pope, exonerating the Jews from any complicity in spreading the plague, the extermination in Strasbourg was replicated in other places. When the process of extermination was completed, the money the Jews left behind was divided among the artisans of Strasbourg with a portion going to the Church and the cathedral.2

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  1. Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (New York: Ballantine, 1978), 113.

  2. Jacob R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315–1791 (New York: Atheneum, 1938), 47.

  ...Portuguese bigotry was repaid by Jewish kindness

  When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, thousands crossed the border into Portugal. At first they were well received, but the impending marriage between the Spanish princess and the Portuguese prince caused a new order of expulsion of the Jews to be issued. Many settled in North Africa.

  About eighty years later, the Portuguese made an unsuccessful military foray into North Africa and were soundly defeated. Those who were not killed in the battle were offered as slaves to the descendents of the Jews previously expelled from Portugal. The humbled nobles, upon learning that their purchasers were Jews, were very much relieved. They knew that the treatment they would receive from the Jews would be much more humane than the “hospitality” their Portuguese ancestors had extended to their Jewish subjects so many years earlier.1

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  1. Rabbi Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, ed., The Pentateuch and Haftorahs (London: Soncino Press, 1952), 502.

  ...Spanish and Portuguese explorations were made possible by Jews

  In 1492, Columbus’s proposed voyage of discovery was largely dead in the water. Four men of Jewish ancestry came to the rescue. First they convinced the Spanish royals of the merit of the project; then they found a converted Jew named Luis de Santangel to provide the funds.1 To make sure that Columbus got where he was headed, a Jewish astronomer and mapmaker named Abraham Zacuto provided maps and charts to guide Columbus on his way. Another Jewish participant in setting up Columbus’s voyage was Joseph Vecinho, who provided additional technical help to Columbus in a translation of Zacuto’s work which Columbus carried everywhere.2 Shortly after Columbus’s departure, Zacuto was exiled from Spain with all the other Jews. He then settled in Portugal.3

  When Columbus set sail on his epic voyage, he numbered at least half a dozen Jews in his crew. The ship’s physician was a Jew named Maestre Bernal and the ship’s surgeon was a Jew named Marco. The first sailor to sight land in the Caribbean Islands was probably one of the converted Jews. He was supposed to get a reward of ten thousand maravedis, but Columbus apparently kept the money for himself. When he found out he was not going to get the reward, he asked for his discharge, which was granted, settled in Africa, cast off the Christian religion, and returned to his “own faith.”4

  Another member of Columbus’s crew was the newly converted Luis de Torres. De Torres was fluent in several languages and Columbus thought he would need an interpreter.5 Columbus sent him into the interior to deal with the natives. It was here that de Torres found the natives smoking, and he is recognized as the first European to discover tobacco.6

  Upon seeing a wild turkey, De Torres likened it to a peacock and called it by its Hebrew name, tukki, which eventually evolved to the present-day word turkey.7 DeTorres asked for and was granted permission to settle. He received a grant of land and six slaves from the ruler of the island. He also received a yearly allowance from the king of Spain, a pension, and the title of Royal Agent for Spain. One version of his story has him living happily ever after in Cuba with many Indian wives, while others say that he and the thirty-nine other members of Columbus’s expedition who stayed behind in Cuba were all murdered within the year.1

  Meanwhile, having settled in Portugal, Abraham Zacuto was pressed into service by the Portuguese king. Portugal was preparing its own voyage of discovery to India by going around Africa. The expedition was to be led by Vasco da Gama. Zacuto provided da Gama with maps and charts for the voyage and trained the sailors in the use of the astrolabe (a navigation instrument used to determine latitude), which Zacuto had greatly improved by substituting copper for wood.2

  By the time Columbus was ready for his second voyage, the Spanish treasury was filled with the wealth confiscated from the Jews exiled from Spain. Much of the money was specifically earmarked for Columbus’s second voyage.3

  When the Jews were expelled from Portugal, Zacuto, who had done so much for the Portuguese voyages of discovery, was among those expelled. The expulsions of the Jews from Spain and Portugal were not confined to the mother countries. The Inquisition was dedicated to the elimination of any Jews who might be found anywhere in the empires of Spain and Portugal, including the New World.

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  1. Meyer Kayserling, Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries (Albuquerque, NM: Hubert Allen, 2002), 59, 74.

  2. Ibid., 47–48.

  3. “Abraham Ben Samuel Zacuto,” Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-ROM Edition (Jerusalem: Keter, 1997).

  4. Kayserling, Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews, 90–92.

  5. Ibid., 90.

  6. Ibid., 94.

  7. Harry Golden and Martin Rywell, Jews in American History: Their Contribution to the United States of America (Charlotte, NC: H.L. Martin Co., 1950), 9.

  1. Rufus Learsi and Abraham J. Karp, The Jews in America: A History (Jerusalem: Ktav, 1972), 10; Ruth Behar and Humberto Mayol, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba (Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 265.

  2. “Abraham Ben Samuel Zacuto,” Encyclopedia Judaica.

  3. Kayserling, 105–6.

  ...a Jewish astronomer’s charts saved Columbus and his crew

  When Columbus set off on his voyages of discovery, he was equipped with astronomical tables and charts to help him in navigation. The charts had been prepared by Abraham Zacuto, a Jewish astronomer.1

  During Columbus’s fourth voyage, he ran into some serious trouble with one of his ships. The leaky vessel needed extensive repairs, and Columbus and his crew were maroo
ned for over a year. Shelter and supplies were provided by the Indians, but after a period of time, the Indians complained of maltreatment by the Spaniards and began to withhold supplies.

  Columbus asked for a meeting of the Indian chiefs on the evening of February 29, 1504. Using Zacuto’s charts, he began by telling the Indians that their conduct was angering the gods, and as punishment, the gods were going to first remove the moon and then the sun. At first the natives were unimpressed, but as the full moon began to disappear, the Indians became alarmed and begged Columbus to return the moon. Columbus agreed to return the moon, and the Indians resumed provision of food for the Spaniards.

  The Indians had probably seen eclipses before, but what impressed them was the ability of Columbus to communicate with the gods and enlist their aid in a specific problem at a specific time.2 Of course, Columbus had a little help from Abraham Zacuto.

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  1. “Abraham Ben Samuel Zacuto,” Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-ROM Edition (Jerusalem: Keter, 1997).

  2. Ivars Peterson, “The Eclipse That Saved Columbus,” Science News, http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/7809/title/The_Eclipse_That_Saved_Columbus.

  ...Christopher Columbus may have been Jewish

  For hundreds of years there has been speculation on whether or not Columbus had Jewish origins. While the following information does not purport to settle the question for all time, many reputable scholars have arrived at the conclusion that Columbus was a Jew.1

  From Columbus’s years before he came to Spain, there is ample evidence that he was more at home with the Spanish language than he was with Italian. His correspondence indicates that he was thinking in Spanish even as he wrote in Latin.2

  Columbus was fond of making obscure references to the glories of his remote ancestors, and he frequently referred in his notes to certain facts of Jewish history.3 In his will, he left “half a silver mark to a Jew who usually stands at the entrance to the Ghetto of Lisbon...”4

  When Columbus was ready to depart on his voyage of discovery, he delayed his departure from August 2 (which fell on the Ninth of Av, a Jewish day of mourning) to August 3. Why the delay? Most Jews would be reluctant to begin a new enterprise on a day as tragic and unpropitious in Jewish history as the Ninth of Av.5

  Then there is the matter of Columbus’s name. He is variously referred to as Columbus, Colombo, Colom, or Colon. Columbus chose Colon and charged his children not to change it under any circumstances. Anybody acquainted with Jewish tradition would have chosen that particular rendering of his last name.6

  Another linguistic clue is Columbus’s reference to the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem as “the Second House.” Normal Christian usage of that time would have referred to the event as the destruction of Jerusalem. Columbus refers to the tragic event according to the Jewish reckoning as taking place in 68 CE rather than in the Christian rendering of the date as 70 CE.7

  Finally, there is “...at the top left-hand corner of all but one of the letters addressed by Columbus to his son Diego”8 the Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b’ezrat Hashem (with the help of God). No letters to outsiders bear this mark, and the letter in which Columbus omitted the appellation was one meant to be read by the king. Who but a practicing Jew would include that on his letters?

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  1. Cecil Roth, Personalities and Events in Jewish History (Philadelphia Jewish Publication Society, 1953), 192–95.

  2. Ibid., 197.:

  3. Ibid., 198.

  4. Ibid., 199.

  5. Ibid., 200.

  6. Ibid., 205.

  7. Ibid., 206–7.

  8. Ibid., 208.

  ...Renaissance Brits harbored some strange views of Jews

  There has long been a tendency for Christians to harbor preconceived notions, mostly negative, about Jews. A widespread belief held by British people was that Jews were naturally fluent in foreign languages. This belief was fostered by the biblical narrative in Judges 12:2–6 in which a test was imposed by the Hebrews on suspected spies during a war. The suspects were asked to pronounce the word shibboleth correctly. Those who could not do so were immediately identified as unfriendly. Because Jews living in England could pronounce the word correctly, it was widely assumed that they could naturally master foreign tongues.1 This reasoning was based on a misunderstanding, however; the original shibboleth test had to do with varying dialects; the Gileadites pronounced the word with an initial sh sound, while the Ephraimites had no such sound in their dialect.

  Another belief about Jews concerned the centuries-old accusation that Jews used Christian blood to bake matzos for the Passover holiday (ironic given the Jewish prohibition on consuming blood, as stated in Leviticus 17:10–14). Thomas Calvert offered a different explanation. Because of their failure to accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, Jewish men were punished with a monthly emission of blood as are women during their menstrual cycle. The monthly loss of blood creates a need for Jewish men to replace the lost blood. Hence, the murder of Christian children takes place to provide blood donors!2

  The expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 fostered the speculation that the Jews had emigrated to neighboring Scotland. James Howell, author of The Wonderful and Deplorable History, used this theory to explain why “the Scots were so tightfisted, and what else could explain their distaste for blood pudding?”3

  In another bizarre statement, Henry Blount, author of A Voyage to the Levant (1636), wrote, “physical degeneration among Jews caused them to abandon the agricultural professions of their forefathers in favor of commerce.”4 Blount further states that “the Jewish complexion is so prodigiously timid, as cannot be capable of arms. For this reason, they are nowhere made soldiers or slaves.”5

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  1. James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the Jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 30.

  2. Ibid., 37–38.

  3. Ibid., 40.

  4. Ibid., 34. This thesis, of course, does not take into account that prohibitions on Jews owning land usually precluded participation in agriculture, and the guilds’ exclusion of Jewish membership effectively shut Jews out of practicing the skilled crafts.

  5. Ibid.

  ...Henry VIII sought Jewish scriptural opinions in his divorce

  In 1527, England’s King Henry VIII decided that he needed a new wife to provide the much-desired male heir that he lacked. Since Pope Clement VII was against the idea of Henry getting divorced so that he might remarry, Henry enlisted the aid of both Christian and Jewish scholars to prepare a brief to be submitted to the pope. Jews had been banished from England since 1290, so Henry had to send his ambassador Richard Croke to Italy to meet with Jewish scholars.1 After protracted discussions, the weight of the Jewish opinion turned unfavorable to Henry. The rabbis actually sided with the position held by the pope.2 Seeing that he could not win his case within the confines of the Church, Henry split with the Catholic Church and established the Church of England.3

  Had the Jewish scholars sided with Henry, there may very well have been no establishment of the Church of England.

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  1. Michael Pollack, Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries: The Jewish Experience in the Chinese Empire (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1980).

  2. Ibid., 377.

  3. The Royal Household, “Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547),” The Official Website of the British Monarchy, http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheTudors/HenryVIII.aspx.

  ...not all Jewish captives wanted to be freed

  In 1530 Charles V of Spain gave the island of Malta to the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of Saint John.1 Very soon the knights became full-fledged pirates preying on ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Among the booty derived from their piracy were captives, many of them Jewish.

  Among the highest acts of Jewish charity is the obligation of Jews everywhere to ransom captives from wherever they may be. There soon grew up organizations calle
d the confraternity for the redemption of captives, 2 devoted exclusively to the ransom of Jewish captives, mostly from the island of Malta where the majority of the hostages were being held. This organization raised funds and conducted negotiations with the pirates for the release of the captives. There were many such organizations.

  To facilitate their work, the group maintained an office right on the island and was able to furnish the captives with a synagogue complete with Torah scrolls and a burial ground for those who might pass away during their captivity. They were even able to get the masters to permit the slaves to have Saturday and holidays off from work. All the while, the Jewish representatives would be working to effect the release of the captives.3

  In 1666, a group of rabbis was captured. Among them was one Moses Azulai. Unlike other prisoners, Azulai did not demand rapid repatriation. Instead, he stayed to minister to the needs of his fellow captives. He was able to procure a perpetual calendar and an oven for baking unleavened bread. He even wrote bills of divorcement for some of the prisoners.4

  After a time, the piracy tapered off, the number of prisoners dwindled, and Rabbi Azulai, lonely and advanced in years, requested repatriation. Unfortunately, before the process was completed, the rabbi passed away.5

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  1. Cecil Roth, Personalities and Events in Jewish History (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1953), 113–15.

  2. Ibid., 116.

  3. Ibid., 115, 126.

  4. Ibid., 131.

  5. Ibid., 133.