Christopher Columbus was genetically Jewish, Spanish researchers say

(JTA) — Christopher Columbus was likely Jewish, Spanish researchers have announced in a splashy new documentary aired on Spain’s national broadcaster on Saturday.

According to the documentary, the researchers spent 22 years researching Columbus’ national origins before concluding that bones buried in a Seville cathedral are in fact the famed explorer’s — and that his DNA suggests that he likely came from a Jewish family.

“We have DNA from Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We have DNA from Hernando Colón, his son,” the lead researcher, José Antonio Lorente at the University of Granada, said in the documentary, according to Reuters. “And both in the Y chromosome (male) and in the mitochondrial DNA (transmitted by the mother) of Hernando there are traits compatible with Jewish origin.”

Whether the findings are accurate may never be known. The forensic scientists have not yet released their raw data, and their report was not peer-reviewed before the documentary aired, a standard in scientific research. A Spanish report says the research will appear in an international scientific journal in the near future.

Researchers who study Columbus say the purported findings are of only limited significance, even if true: DNA evidence would show only Jewish heritage, not identity. And Columbus’ own writings express both Christian beliefs and praise for the decree expelling Jews from Spain.

“I encourage people to read his own writings to appreciate his complex identity — he was an autodidact, who took advantage of the explosion of knowledge after the birth of printing to create an eclectic theology that had many Judaic elements — but in a deeply Christian, mystical vein,” Ronnie Perelis, a Yeshiva University professor who has written about Sephardic Jews of the era, told the Jewish News Syndicate after the documentary aired. “Genetics doesn’t make someone Jewish.”

Still, the claims add a sheen of scientific credibility to longtime speculation about Columbus’ national origins, which has included repeated arguments that he may have been Jewish.

Ninety years ago, a prominent Spanish historian charged that Columbus was not Italian, as had long been believed, but Spanish, and the son of Marranos, Jews who converted to Christianity to escape the Spanish Inquisition.

More recently, a Georgetown University professor named Estelle Irizarry analyzed Columbus’ known writings and concluded that marks on some pages and other quirks suggested that his native tongue could have been Ladino, a Jewish language.

Others have noted the proximity of Columbus’ departure — Aug. 3, 1492 — to the date on which the Alhambra Decree, issued by his sponsors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in March 1492, went into effect. The decree gave Jews a choice among expulsion, conversion or death.

Undisputed is the fact that several members of Columbus’ crew were Jewish or prominent Marranos.

The new documentary came on the Spanish national holiday marking Columbus’ exploration. It also came on the eve of what was long known as Columbus Day in the United States, the date chosen to commemorate Columbus’ arrival on the continent. The date is increasingly known as Indigenous People’s Day in honor of the native people whose communities, health and culture were decimated by European expansionism.