Are You or Someone You Know the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew?

Now that you have read about Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus’ Sephardic heritage, you might wonder how one would know if they were a member of this hidden race. I am using the word race because a DNA Test can determine a persons haplogroup. If you are a Spanish speaker - have a last name associated with those killed by the Inquisition, or your last name was found on the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Spain, you discovered that your last name was changed or a letter dropped, or your family has either artifacts or an oral history, your haplogroup might link you with this Jewish population. This scientific way to determine ones heritage cost about $150.


If you are wondering if oral history is valid, I will cite two instances where that history was validated.


1. Janet Jacobs Liebmans thesis, “Hidden Heritage-The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews,” published by Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, where the author describes her visits to those in the Southwestern United States who shared oral history and brought out artifacts that speak of Sephardic Jewish origins.


2. The Smithsonian Magazine article published in October 2008 called “The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley,” reported that several oncologists who meet a few times a year to discuss unusual cases discovered that there was a valley where early onset breast cancer had been occurring from generation to generation. They studied the DNA, concluded that their patients where Jewish, and brought 200 families together to share this fact. Many believed what the doctors said because of things they had seen and heard. Others did not.


One might ask, “Why should I care?” If you think, you might want to make Aliyah to Israel, by petitioning to become a citizen; you need to prove you are Jewish. Also, if you find yourself speaking Spanish with a different inflection you might be relieved to know that there is a people group that does that by mixing Castellan and Old Spanish together as their ancestors before them did. Most important, at least to me and to those I have interviewed is the reality that until each of us full knows ourselves how can we chose a life, a mate, a faith, or determine what we are to believe or become until we know our history. After all becoming all we are to be builds upon everything that came before. For many Sephardim all we are meant to be is not fully realized until they know their heritage.

Two Friends...

Corrine, Janice, and two friends of mine who shared a common ancestry they never suspected when they meet. Common interest and an odd way of saying Spanish words drew them together. It is unclear to me if either of them knew at that time that they were Sephardim, but I suspect not. Each spoke of living in a Spanish enclave during their childhood, and the Catholic Church being where all things religious occurred. Read their interviews below to learn more. While you do ask yourself, “Could this be me or someone I know and if so what does that mean to them or me?”


Corrine’s Voice

I was born in 1929 and raised in downtown Los Angeles. My religious training was in the Catholic Church, as all in our family had done for years. In 1984, my son David, who had research our history, told me that we are Jewish. I paid no attention to him. In 1974, I found myself drawn to Jewish things. When my grandmother died, my mother showed me her baptismal certificate. I noticed that her godmother’s last name was Gold. I asked my mother about that, as Gold is a very unusual last name for a Spanish person to have because godparents are usually family members. She told me that her cousin had told her when she was a child that they were Jews but not to tell anyone. It was then I remembered my grandfather singing in a strange language out by the chicken coops, and my mother saying, “He sings like a cantor!” The realization that we were not what we seemed to be created within me a hunger to know more. Since then I have invested my time and energy to learn all I can about my Jewish roots. That investigation has made me aware of the charges the Inquisitor made against my family, revealed the possibility that they may have come over with Columbus, and the knowledge that they settled in what is now the southwestern United States. Today, through much work on behalf of my family, I have acquired the documents to prove what I am saying. Were it not for the Decree of Alhambra and the Spanish Inquisition, we would still be in Spain, but due to that decree and its effects upon my family and the Jews still hiding, I am willing to state that what man meant for evil, God used for good!


Janice’s Voice

There was a stirring in my heart to follow my mother’s influence and learn about the Jewish people. I remember my fourth grade class in parochial school, where Sister Demetrius instilled within us the fact that the Jews did not kill Christ, but it was our sins that put him on the cross. Between my schooling and Mom’s love for the Jewish heritage, there was birthed within me a tenderness toward the Jewish people. As I reached what some would call middle age, this stirring intensified until I needed to know more. For years, I told people that I was Basque. However, I never went to the town whose name I bore. Then I met a woman whose son was a missionary in Spain. I asked him if he could take me to Ulibarri and he agreed. In 2008, I made the trip to Spain. We traveled throughout the Navarra region until I finally stepped onto the soil that had been home to my family centuries before. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was a strong Jewish presence in that region. Could my mother have been trying to tell me something all those years ago? I will never know for sure. However, my journey of the heart allowed me to look at my heritage and history with new eyes. When I returned home, I told my children, “We have a Jewish heritage.” They rolled their eyes. Months later, my son called and said, “I was waiting for the metro and was approached by a scholarly man who looked at my badge, which identifies me by my last name. He read ‘Mireles’ and asked me if I knew about my name and my heritage. I was able to give him the information you had shared with us. I was stunned when he gave me additional information, which proved to me that what you had said was correct! I called you, and I told my brothers and sisters that what you had said was true.”


Interested in discovering more...

Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing – October 2011


Response to my blog seems to be growing. Read on...

Ron wrote: "I love the way you build suspence like a mystery writer. Instead of "who done it" you ask "who am I, really?" The surprise ending awaits every reader who is willing to embrace and face their own heritage."

~~~~~

When I posted this blog, Inez Aguilar-Davis commented, “I am a Sephardic Jew and happy that I know who I am.”

I responded, “I know you are a Sephardic Jew and I am thrilled to know you! Because many Spanish or Mexicans do not know but think they might be Jewish, this article was written for them. You might want to read it as well, and if you know someone who is uncertain please direct him or her to the blog.”

This evening Inez Aguilar-Davis I read it, and said, “Very good, I am impressed and I will pass it on.”

~~~~~

I am living an authors dream for each of us that write about real people or in this case, real people and their history, could ask for no praise higher than that posted here!

~~~~~~

Gil Dela Cruz commented, “I can imagine how prolific that book is, perhaps that would pave a way of discovering one self that he has a Jewish decent. In Philippines, there are Jews called Marano, historically, they arrived here in the early 20th century from Spain. The first shoe manufacturer in Marikina City was owned by Jewish and today that place has become more prominence on shoe market.”
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Are You or Someone You Know the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew?

Tomorrow...


Now that you have read about Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus’ Sephardic heritage, you might wonder how one would know if they are a member of this hidden race.


Curious? Visit "Year of 5,000 Books" tomorrow and find out...
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Was President Abraham Lincoln the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew? by Paula Rose Michelson

The 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a young, poor, illiterate woman from Virginia. She gave birth to him in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. That infant, whom she named Abraham, grew to become a great but tragic national leader.


Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.


The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.


To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.


The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.


At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.


Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.

But back to Lincoln...

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”


Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.


Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish


Next week...Did Columbus Edit a Book of Prophesy from the Old Testament
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Feedback from “Was President Abraham Lincoln the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew?” by Paula Rose Michelson

The comments keep on pouring in...

Steve L. Nyemba wrote, “Interesting analysis and thought provoking. It opens a whole host of questions related to social contract; socio/religious tolerance; state & religion. Great work!!”

~~~~~

Since WordWolf and several others have asked if I’m writing articles or a historical book about Abraham Lincoln, the Spanish and Mexican Inquisitions, or the Sephardim, I though it wise to post my response to them here.

“I am not a historian, but an author writing historic romantic fiction about a Sephardic girl who flees Spain in 1952 in search of religious freedom. To understand her, I did a lot of research. The first novel, in the Casa Saga, Casa de Naomi - The House of Blessing will be released in October. To build an audience, I have begun posting some of what I learned on my blog. Should you want more information, please invite me to speak and do a reading.”

~~~~~

This afternoon, further praise from WordWulf, "I really enjoyed the opening piece on Lincoln. Are you presenting these separately or as chapters in a total work? Having read everything I can find on Lincoln, I find credibility in your work, certainly a deeper truth about a most magnificent human being and writer."

~~~~~

It was lovely to wake up this morning to rave reviews of yesterdays posting. It’s exciting to post them here. If you have anything to add to this discourse please email me from this blog, post on FB or Tweet me!

Mia Marlowe Emily Bryan, "Fascinating."

Daniel Updegraff, "Very interesting"

Diana Catsoulas, "Very interesting - and VERY plausible - Thank you for this enlightening blog."

More comments...

WordWulf, "Lincoln is my favorite historical person. I read this with interest, find it plausible & worth consideration."

Another visitor to my blog identified themselves as “Mmusingsnprint” commented, “A town named Bostic, in NC claims to be Lincoln's birthplace." My response, although many claim famous people came form their town or suggested other locations, I reviewed Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers Universities extensive research and agree with her conclusion, which stated that Abe Lincoln was Jewish.

If you have not read the blog mention here, it’s directly below this posting...Enjoy!
Category: 1 comments

Was President Abraham Lincoln the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew? by Paula Rose Michelson

The 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a young, poor, illiterate woman from Virginia. She gave birth to him in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. That infant, whom she named Abraham, grew to become a great but tragic national leader.


Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.


The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.


To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.


The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.


At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.


Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.

But back to Lincoln...

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”


Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.


Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish


Next week...Did Columbus Edit a Book of Prophesy from the Old Testament?
Category: 3 comments

Tomorrows Blog – Was Abraham Lincoln a Sephardic Jew? “The Book of Prophesies” Columbus edited, were they the Biblical Prophesies found in the Old Testament?

Interested in discovering the answer to these questions and learning other startling things, check back tomorrow evening!
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Was Christopher Columbus a Sephardic Jew? By Paula Rose Michelson

Columbus is an absolute puzzle. Because some of the stories are so deliberately misleading, one would think that there had been many efforts to obscure his descent and lure investigators away from the truth. Columbus himself may have wanted to keep the world, and to some extent his family in the dark. If so, he succeeded.


Around the age of 25, Columbus turned up in Lisbon and said he was a cartographer, which would imply an extensive knowledge of nautical matters. The question of how he got there has not been settled. However, he said he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Portugal. Since he drew maps and dealt in printed books, some Spanish scholars assert that he must have been born on the island of Majorca for that was the center of cartography and cosmography. Here we see Columbus involved in a science that was practiced by Jews; only on occasion was a Moor or Christian practitioner to be found. Since a lower middle class weavers son (which is how Columbus identified himself at 18) generally did not attend university unless they studied for the priesthood or had a wealth sponsor that paid for private tutors, one wonders how he learned Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Genoese, perhaps Italian, and even Hebrew. Scholars are mystified.


More baffling, at another point, he said that he went to sea at the age of 14 as a cabin boy. A cabin boy received no education in languages or science yet Columbus possessed this knowledge. While in Portugal, Columbus pursued the professions of cartography and calligrapher which were seldom held by anyone other than those who were "Judaized" (Jews that had returned to the Law of Moses as they called the Torah). An even greater mystery surrounds Columbus marriage to a Portuguese noble woman, far above his station in society. Several times in his writings, he mentioned that Castilian was his mother tongue. However, it was said that while on voyages whenever he was dissatisfied with the work of his crew, he reviled the men in Italian. Yet others claim that he spoke Castilian with a Portuguese accent.


The marginal notes in his books make it plain that Columbus was well acquainted with the Old Testament. He cited the Prophets and was privy to information belonging to the intellectual world of Judaism. How did he come by such knowledge? In, "Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum" written by Pope Pius II, his notes reveal that he was familiar with Jewish chronology. He dates a marginal note with the year 1481 and promptly gives the Jewish equivalent, the year 5241. In truth, nobody knows where his learning may have been acquired.


Many scholars have been struck by the way Columbus seems to belabor his religion. In this respect, his behavior was like that of the Converso (Jews who became Catholic to marry or ensure their survival) of that period. They, too, publicly displayed their Christian faith at every possible opportunity. The proof that religious elements played a great part in Columbus's thoughts and actions is evident from all his writings. His concept of sailing west to reach the Indies was less the result of geographical theories than of his faith in certain Biblical texts. He cited two verses from the Book of Isaiah, which he was repudiated to repeat often: "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them," (60:9); and "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17). He felt that his voyages confirmed these prophecies. Isaiah seems to have been his favorite book of the Bible and he was known to quote from the Book of Ezra. In general, he demonstrated a sound knowledge of the Old Testament. This might have been true of any cultivated man of the age. Yet what are we to make of the presence in the Admiral's library of the "Jewish War," the account of the downfall of the ancient Jewish state by Josephus Flavius, or "De Nativitatibus" by the Jewish scholar Abraham ibn Ezra. Then again, his library reveals that he studied a book on the Messiah by a Jewish renegade, the former Rabbi Samuel ibn Abbas of Morocco, from which work he even copied out several chapters, the better to master them. Was Columbus trying just a bit too hard to act, sound, and appear "like a Christian" through studied words and actions?


While the crown debated the voyage that Columbus finally took, he set his eyes on the office of Viceroy, the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and a share in whatever treasures were found. When Granada fell, he intensified his efforts at court. Negotiations stalled because the queen knew that the country could not bear the costs of the expedition. Four men of Jewish descent intervened: Juan Cabrero, Luis de Santangel, Gabriel Sanchez, and Alfonso de la Caballeria offered to put up the money for the expedition. If the crown had not known Santangel, the offer of these Jews would have been rejected and Columbus's voyage would not have taken place. The royal couple needed his help so badly that on May 30, 1497, Ferdinand and Isabella handed Santangel a special charter that protected both him and his descendants for all time from being summoned by the tribunal of the Inquisition. They were accorded a kind of honorary "Aryan" status; their charter was a special "limpieza de sangre" which was so important in Spain at that time.


During this period, the Inquisition was raising and burning Jewish towns and fomenting riots. One would have thought that people of Jewish descent had other matters to attend to rather than aid Columbus, whom they viewed as a foreigner who had come to Castile with some hare-brained notion of touring the Indies. The experts had pronounced his plans risky and unsound. Yet those very Jews and Christianized descendants of Jews, who were reputed to be astute, put themselves behind a man whom the king's scientific advisory council had rejected. Why? This journey involved seafaring and lands about which they knew nothing. Although it was not in their character to give an enormous loan without security, Salvador de Madariaga argued that Columbus was himself a Converso and thus received support from his co-religionists in high places. Since they were descended from Jews, they were threatened just as if they were Jewish themselves. It was only a question of time and men like Luis Santangel knew it. That was why they were ready to throw their weight behind the expedition.


The majority of Spanish Jews did not understand the extent of the hatred that was around them, and denied its existence because it was incompatible with their innate optimism, which for centuries had formed the basis for the survival of Jewry. Turbulent Spain, religious fanaticism culminating in the Inquisition’s victimization of Spain's Sephardic Jews; the forced baptisms; pureblood laws; arbitrary tortures and liquidation; confiscation of property; ended in the final, irreversible decree of expulsion, which coincided precisely with Columbus's momentous voyage of discovery.


All Jews had to leave Spain. They began making their preparations for departure while Columbus prepared to sail. Since the regulations allowed the Jews to take only hand baggage, if they could find a buyer, they sold their property for pennies on the dollar because they needed the funds to pay their way out of Spain. The charge was called an emigration fee. If they did not have the money, they had to stay. If they were on Spanish soil at the stroke of midnight on March 31, 1492, they were killed. With death emanate, while Columbus prepared to sail, Jews were baptized into the Catholic faith. Columbus sailed on August 3, 1492. Before midnight, these hidden Jews secretly board his vessels. Columbus set sail one-half hour before sunrise. The reason for his secrecy was the crown's move years before the Inquisition, which forced Jews who were now being watched by the office of the Inquisition to reside in ghettoes and stay in after nightfall. This might sound like a small matter but to the Jews it meant that if they were discovered to be practicing the Jewish faith, they were dead!


If you are wondering if Columbus were a Jew ask yourself why he mislead people about his country of origin, his personal history, why he made certain that those aboard his ships were Jewish, and why he studied what others did not. Furthermore, considered why he took a Hebrew interpreter with him, which at the time must have seemed decidedly odd since Hebrew was not the language of any country in the known world. The only possible explanation must be that Columbus expected to be reach countries where Jews lived and governed. And why would he be sailing there unless he were a Jewish man trying to aid his disenfranchised people? Although we do not know why he did what he did, we do know that Columbus sent a Jewish interpreter, Luis de Torres, to communicate with the natives. Therefore, we can conclude that after landfall in America the first words addressed to the natives were words of Hebrew.


Columbus did not discover the way to India, although after his landing he was convinced that he had done so and he remained convinced to the end of his life. The natives whom Luis de Torres addressed in Hebrew had not understood the language. The dream of the Jews and Conversos, that Columbus would show them the way to the ten tribes of Israel, was not fulfilled. Yet Columbus was dedicated to exploration and made four trips in all and discovered, America, the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador on his first voyage. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for Spain. Was Columbus a Jew? You decide. However, before you do, consider that the passenger manifests for the three other voyages which reveal as many Sephardic surnames (the last names of Spanish Jews) as the first voyage did.


Bibliography: Wiesenthal, Simon, Sails of Hope, Macmillan
Publishing Co., Inc., 1973
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In the Beginning…Research - by Paula Rose Michelson

At this point writing about research or developing a bibliography for a work of romantic historic fiction would seem tantamount to the kiss of death. However, since it is through research that I uncovered hidden truths and unveiled misconceptions it is pertinent that I mention it at this time. Furthermore, through my research I found many of the facts that gave each characters story a historical bases including where each one came from, how they arrived in New York, their practices in Spain, England, and here. At the apex of all I found was information on the Jews who are still hiding in Spain although, the Spanish crown rescinded the Decree of Alhambra more than 19 years ago.

Today I will share a brief portion of my research experience because it will take at least another entry or two to do justice to every book and article I found, or received and the blessing contained within each of them.

Three Books Used in Researching the Casa Saga...

The first book I acquired was Dr. Dell Sanchez tour déforce, "Aliyah! The Exodus Continues." This slim tome gave me more information than any other volume did in scope and breath of research. Within its pages, I found the answers for many who wonder if they had a Sephardic heritage because Dr. Sanchez’s book lists the names of towns raised, people killed, and the flight paths taken by many who fled Spain and New Spain. Thus making what some want to believe a myth a reality.

Dr. Martin A. Cohen’s "The Martyr -The Story of a Secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century," shed light on the first governor of New Spain, a converso - a Jew converted into the Catholic faith during the Inquisition, who practiced his Judaism at home and called others back to that faith. The Inquisition arrested him on the grounds of being a Judaizer. What happened to him and his family served as a historical reference for the conclusion of the Casa Saga.


"Hidden Heritage-The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews," by Jane Jacobs Liebman was the most startling book I received since I had not order that tome. It appeared on my doorstep instead of the book I had ordered. I was going to send it back. However, being a scribe for the Lord, I decided to peruse it first. I was amazed to discover that while the author interviewed residence of the Southwestern United States for her Doctorial Thesis, many showed her Jewish artifacts, and told her their oral history. This led her, an Ashkenazi Jew, to discover her Spanish roots.


Many say that if you scratch a Spaniard you will find a Jew and some know that the liturgy used today within the Jewish faith was written during the Golden Age of Judaism, which flourished in Spain before the Inquisition. Could it be that by studying the diaspora of the Spanish Jews some scholars might quip, “If you scratch a European you will also find a Jew?” Perhaps we will never know. Beside the better question, the one everyone wants to know the answer to is, “Was Christopher Columbus a Jew and did Queen Isabella give him her jewels or her Jews.”

I have the answers to those questions and will share them with you on my next blog post when I tell you more about the research that made writing these books a joy and a blessing.
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