While the entire month of May since 2006 has been the time when our contributions to the USA have been noted, it was on May 27th 2010 that a special reception was hosted by President Obama with the press release stating, “The month serves as an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the range and depth of Jewish American heritage and contributions to American culture, with guests representing the many walks of life that have helped weave the fabric of American history.” That was the press release…who were the invitees? They were members of the House and Senate, two justices of the Supreme Court, Olympic athletes, entrepreneurs, rabbinical scholars (they didn’t put enough postage on my invitation), and there was special mention made of Sandy Koufax who refused to pitch on Yom Kippur the year that coincided with the LA Dodgers playing in the World Series (Koufax surely deserved special mention over the Jewish Supreme Court justices…really??).
President Obama praised “the diversity of talents and accomplishments” that the Jewish community had brought to the United States since pre-Revolutionary times, saying that, “Even before we were a nation, we were a sanctuary for Jews seeking to live without the specter of violence or exile,” from the time “a band of 23 Jewish refugees (arrived) to a place called New Amsterdam more than 350 years ago.”
A number of weeks ago, in my article on Gershom Mendes Seixas, I mentioned Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus who was considered the Dean of American Jewish History. I had the pleasure of having him as my professor. He once asked the question, “Do you know who welcomed the first Jew to the shores of this land?” We were stumped, but Dr. Marcus always had a twist when he asked a question. “The answer is a JEW welcomed the first Jew to the shores of this land!” he said. He believed Jews who left Spain for South America in 1492 came here to trade with the native Americans, and he was pretty sure that among the native Americans themselves was a Jewish presence.
There’s a theory that Columbus himself – or his family - was a Converso, a hidden Jew pretending to have converted to Catholicism. The “evidence” is that he came from Genoa, a town in Italy in which a great number of Spanish Jews had settled following their exile from Spain and Portugal; his name - “Christoforo Colombo” in Italian, “Cristobal Colon” in Spanish – was, as I mentioned during Purim, a name chosen to hide one’s Jewish background because of the “Christ” in the name. Some say Colombo and Colon were also names of Jewish Spaniards and Italians. But there are many who point to his choice of Luis de Torres as his translator. De Torres was a Jew who had converted to Catholicism, a Marrano (he really did convert; he wasn’t a “converso”). He was fluent in many languages including Hebrew. Columbus didn’t know where he would wind up so he figured if anybody had a chance of speaking the language of the natives, de Torres did. What I read was that aside from the practical reason, Columbus wanted a “landsmann” with him. Ya never know!
(Speaking of Jewish American Heritage Month, or not…There was a blackout in 1965 which I recall vividly. From Canada to Baltimore, especially New York, there was no light to be seen anywhere. Just before it happened, Max was in his apartment, screwing in a lightbulb when the power suddenly failed. His wife jumped up, ran over to the window, and saw that all of New York was in pitch-black darkness. “Max,” she wailed, “now look what you did!”)