@Walter Hinteler,
Walter Hinteler wrote:
But Columbus was born in Genua, quite a few miles away from Spain.
Look it up.
Yes, he was born in Genoa, Italy; however, his parents spoke Italian with a Spanish accent. Legend has it that his family knew the Inquisition was coming, and they left Spain early on. Why? Legend, amongst some, was that his father was a Spanish Jew.
Anyway, Columbus (aka, Cristobal Colon) claimed the New World for the Spanish crown. There were many things about Columbus that could not be explained, like his not having a university education (Jews were not allowed in the universities). Or, supposedly, he put the Jewish calendar dates in the margins of his ships log. He was also supposed to have had an interpreter of Hebrew on board, because the land in India that he was seeking was supposed to be a place that Jews lived autonomously. There is also a theory that Spanish Jewish financiers financed the expedition, since it was supposed to find this land, so Spanish Jews could go there, in context of the Inquisition (the Spanish national treasury just paid for getting the Moors out of Granada; some doubt it could finance his three ships).
Regardless, Jews lived in Spain since 300 BC, before the Visigoths became the modern Spaniards, and were told they were not true Spaniards, since they were not Catholic. Sort of audacious in some peoples opinion. Just another reason Jews look at their history and believe Israel must continue to exist, since anti-Semitism has been shown to be an intractable condition of the Gentile world for a long time.
Notice that there is a miniscule Jewish community in Spain today. Interesting that Germany is making an effort to bring back a Jewish community, and Spain does not seem to care. Could that be telling that all Europeans are not the same, regardless of the concept of the EU?
