Five Hundred Thirteen Years Ago Today
It's not my intention to turn this blog into a kind of "You Are There" wannabe, but today also happens to be the anniversary of two other important events.
On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus and his men set sail from Palos de la Frontera in Spain. He thought he could reach China and the Indies by sailing west, not counting on the fact that there were two continents in his way - the Panama Canal hadn't been built yet. He may have been an intrepid explorer, a greedhead pig, an unbelievable fool - he may even have been Jewish, according to some - but the question we'd ask him if he were around today would no doubt be some variation on "What the hell were you thinking?"
Mention of Columbus' alleged Jewishness brings me to today's other anniversary, also of an event in the year 1492.
On this date, in that year, all Jews were required to leave the Iberian Peninsula by King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Having united their Christian kingdoms and conquered the Muslim state of Granada, these two decided that they a completely Catholic nation would be a nice idea, so they threw out the Jews too. Never mind that between them, the Muslims and the Jews brought Spain almost all of its art, culture, health science and commerce - out they went, and Spain began its long slow decline to the powerless state it finds itself in today.
So Columbus left on the same day that the Jews had to make tracks. This is emphatically not a coincidence. For someone who believes in God, it's even an example of divine intervention - it gave the Jews a place to go and prefigured the great migration of refugees to the United States after World War I.
Columbus' Jewishness has, I think, been pretty well disproved, but there were certainly Jews on board his ships. One of them, according to the story, was the first to come ashore here, and saw a strange bird that looked to him something like a peacock. He referred to it by the Hebrew word for "peacock," calling it a "tukki". Thus the name of that uniquely American bird, the turkey, was a Jewish idea.
So if there's anyone out there who still thinks that the Jews, or the blacks or Latinos or Asians or gays or anyone other than the WASPs, doesn't belong here, today is not your day.
Benshlomo says, Raise your hand if you've ever been thrown out of somewhere you didn't really want to be in the first place.
On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus and his men set sail from Palos de la Frontera in Spain. He thought he could reach China and the Indies by sailing west, not counting on the fact that there were two continents in his way - the Panama Canal hadn't been built yet. He may have been an intrepid explorer, a greedhead pig, an unbelievable fool - he may even have been Jewish, according to some - but the question we'd ask him if he were around today would no doubt be some variation on "What the hell were you thinking?"
Mention of Columbus' alleged Jewishness brings me to today's other anniversary, also of an event in the year 1492.
On this date, in that year, all Jews were required to leave the Iberian Peninsula by King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Having united their Christian kingdoms and conquered the Muslim state of Granada, these two decided that they a completely Catholic nation would be a nice idea, so they threw out the Jews too. Never mind that between them, the Muslims and the Jews brought Spain almost all of its art, culture, health science and commerce - out they went, and Spain began its long slow decline to the powerless state it finds itself in today.So Columbus left on the same day that the Jews had to make tracks. This is emphatically not a coincidence. For someone who believes in God, it's even an example of divine intervention - it gave the Jews a place to go and prefigured the great migration of refugees to the United States after World War I.
Columbus' Jewishness has, I think, been pretty well disproved, but there were certainly Jews on board his ships. One of them, according to the story, was the first to come ashore here, and saw a strange bird that looked to him something like a peacock. He referred to it by the Hebrew word for "peacock," calling it a "tukki". Thus the name of that uniquely American bird, the turkey, was a Jewish idea.
So if there's anyone out there who still thinks that the Jews, or the blacks or Latinos or Asians or gays or anyone other than the WASPs, doesn't belong here, today is not your day.
Benshlomo says, Raise your hand if you've ever been thrown out of somewhere you didn't really want to be in the first place.
posted by benshlomo at 4:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home