Tell It In Bay Ridge

Christopher Columbus, MOT! As we approach the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot - and as we pass by Indigenous Peoples Day, observed by New Mexico's (and many Elsewhere's) Native Peoples - we sorta skip over what used to be, and in some places still is, the traditional Italian Holiday of Columbus Day.

But today (actually on Yom Kippur!) everything changed. Italians have been dispossessed, and Columbus Day has been restored, for better and for worse, to its rightful owners: The Jews.

ICYMI - Graham Keeley of The Times of Israel (and everyone else) just reported some version of the story -

Study finds Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe 

Researchers analyze DNA fragmented remains believed to be world-shaping explorer’s; they say any further narrowing down of his origins remains elusive

MADRID (Reuters) – The 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe, Spanish scientists said on Saturday, after using DNA analysis to tackle a centuries-old mystery.

Several countries have argued over the origins and the final burial place of the divisive figure who led Spanish-funded expeditions from the 1490s onward, opening the way for the European conquest of the Americas.

Many historians have questioned the traditional theory that Columbus came from Genoa, Italy. Other theories range from him being a Spanish Jew or a Greek, to Basque, Portuguese or British.

To solve the mystery researchers conducted a 22-year investigation, led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente, by testing tiny samples of remains buried in Seville Cathedral, long marked by authorities there as the last resting place of Columbus, though there had been rival claims.

They compared them with those of known relatives and descendants and their findings were announced in a documentary titled “Columbus DNA: The true origin” on Spain’s national broadcaster TVE on Saturday.

“We have DNA from Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We have DNA from Hernando Colón, his son,” Lorente said in the program.

“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.” 

Abq Jew is sure that the first question to cross your minds, already disjointed from reading Abq Jew's entertaining and informative blog posts, is -

What's the Nafka Minah?, the Jewish Chronicle explains, is

... a colloquial, yeshivish question meaning "What's the practical difference?" It has no neat English equivalent. You might say "What's the nafka minah if she's Christian or Wyccan? The children still won't be Jewish" or "I still can't taste the nafka minah between Coke and Pepsi."

The Talmud frequently asks mai nafka minah (meaning literally "what goes out from it" in Aramaic) to identify the practical halachic consequences of abstract or theoretical arguments. 

For example, it gives three answers to the question of which biblical verse teaches us that a Succah may not be higher that 20 amot (about 30 feet.) A nice theoretical discussion; but then the Talmud wants to know what the nafka minah of the contrasting positions might be in terms of how a succah should be constructed.

The phrase embodies a characteristically talmudic sensibility; that thought, however abstract, should effect or express some practical consequence in the world.

Abq Jew would like to point out that he first argued for Columbus's Jewish identity in his now-classic May 2012 blog post Christopher Columbus, MOT?. 

The new research (many say, but others, of course, don't) only builds on those arguments that Abq Jew presented way back then. 

So. Columbus the Jew or Columbus the Italian - what's the nafka minah? Abq Jew can think of two. Ok ... three. There may be more, but Abq Jew cannot think of them right now.

1. Bay Ridge must be told.

For those of you, Abq Jew's loyal readers, who are not from New York - Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Originally settled by the indigenous Canarsee Indians, Bay Ridge is now home to a lot (that's a technical term) of Italian Americans.

For whom Columbus Day is practically a religious holiday, even though it started out as a one-time celebration that President Benjamin Harrison thought up to placate Italian Americans and ease diplomatic tensions with Italy.

That was in 1892, the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage, following lynchings in New Orleans, where a mob had murdered 11 Italian immigrants.

2. Borough Park must be told.

For those of you, Abq Jew's loyal readers, who are not from New York - Borough Park is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. 

Borough Park is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside Israel, with one of the largest concentrations of Jews in the United States. Orthodox and Haredi families have an average of 6.72 children, none of whom heretofore have had reason to celebrate Columbus Day.

3. Columbus Circle must be told.

For those of you, Abq Jew's loyal readers, who are not from New York - Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South (West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the southwest corner of Central Park.

Columbus Circle is (of course) named after the monument of Christopher Columbus in the center, and  is the point (who knew?) from which official highway distances from New York City are measured.

And NYC's Columbus Circle is but one of very, very many places, things, and events named after the First Colonizer. 

So now we must ask -

or

You may have noticed that these days, joyful celebration of Columbus, Columbus Day, and pretty much anything Columbus is ... restrained. 

If not outright hidden or prohibited.

Sure, Columbus was a great man who did great things. But he also did bad things. The result is that we here in America have not been able to come to terms with Columbus the man. 

Or with our Founding Fathers, for that matter.

In the years and years when Columbus was celebrated for the great things he did - he was Italian. Why is it that now that Columbus is Jewish - all we talk about are the bad things he did?

Columbus the Admiral sought to serve Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the Catholic Monarchs of a newly-unified Spain. 

Columbus The Jew was a different man entirely. 

Will Columbus The Jew be good for The Jews?

Seasons of Love

The People of Israel Live: The October 7 pogrom opened an old Pandora’s box. The questions asked about G-d during the Holocaust and through our long history of persecutions were raised again on that black day. 

Where was G-d? Where was His infinite mercy in our moment of need? And why do we keep talking to Him even when He doesn’t seem to be responding?

As we approach Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement, these are questions that we Jews all over the world are asking now, have always been asking, and will be asking until the arrival of the Messiah. And perhaps afterward.

Lubavitch International Editor-in-Chief Baila Olidort offers one response.

Editorial: The People of Israel Live

By Baila Olidort

It was a sunny, balmy day when I visited the site of the Nova Festival, and the Nahal Oz army base several months ago. As we stood in the charred remains of the observation room, where the young IDF heroines on duty on the morning of October 7 were burnt alive, a rabbi recited the Kaddish. 

The place was a charcoal shell, soot, ashes and the smell of smoke still filling the air. I heard myself uttering the plea–which we now say every day in the prayers between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: Avinu Malkeinu, our Father or King, avenge the spilt blood of your servants. 

It reminded me of my visit to Poland some years back when I walked through the barracks and stood speechless at the ovens in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The earth outside was covered in a carpet of fresh green grass, as if to conceal what happened there, as if to silence the voices of the murdered millions who continue to call out. 

But I heard. I heard their voices “crying out from the ground.” The sun was setting, the buses were leaving, but I couldn’t tear myself away. I owe them, I thought, as their unheeded cries thrummed in my head.

The October 7 pogrom opened an old pandora’s box. The questions asked about G-d during the Holocaust and through our long history of persecutions were raised again on that black day. Where was G-d? Where was His infinite mercy in our moment of need? 

Yet at the funerals of all the murdered, mourners chanted the Kaddish: Yitgadal v’Yitkadash Shmei Rabbah they said while burying their loved ones who were slaughtered when no one came to their help. 

The prayer extolls G-d’s greatness. Although confused by what felt like His absence, I too found myself crying out to Him to avenge the spilt blood of our people. 

A year later, when hostages are still being held and Israel continues to fight for its life, I am not sure how to understand this. 

How do we understand the Jews of the Shoah who went to their deaths with the Ani Maamin–”I believe”–on their lips? What was this declaration of faith about? Why do we keep talking to Him even when He doesn’t seem to be responding? We deeply want to keep Him in our lives, to maintain our bond with Him even when we feel He fails us. Why?

I am not the first to wrestle with this question and I won’t be the last to accept that it remains unresolved–that I cannot plumb the depths of the mystery around this relationship, and around the unrelenting faith that the Jewish people continue to avow in times of great darkness and profound uncertainty. 

Just listen to the songs Israelis have been singing in recent months, and again on October 7. 

The lyrics are optimistic, promising that Israel will prevail. They are about our unshakable faith in G-d and His unbreakable covenant with us, his eternal people. About our strength to withstand all the attempts to destroy us. 

One song that has become wildly popular since October 7 declares the eternal survival of Israel: “For even in our highs and lows and in our most difficult hours, Hashem watches over us and none can overcome us . . . The people of Israel live.” 

On the first anniversary of October 7, I listened to Israeli radio. All through the night, every individual who was killed in this attack was named, talked about and remembered. 

That’s how it is in Israel–every person counts, every death leaves a vacuum. The void is therefore huge, with Israel in profound mourning. And even as it mourns, it is pursued by persistent, powerful and ruthless attempts to annihilate us. 

Why haven’t we given up? What is it that keeps the people of Israel going against an avalanche of evil bent on destroying us?

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks considered this question. 

He suggested that perhaps it is not certainty that defines our faith, but the courage to live in its absence. 

Maybe that is why, as ravaged as Israel was by the October 7 massacre and the subsequent attacks, its people have become stronger, not weaker, more determined, not hopeless. 

Going into Yom Kippur, it is good to know that even as our questions stand in all their fullness, we are right to deepen our conversation with G-d. 

For it is especially in the great uncertainty of our time that this mysterious reservoir that we call faith makes it possible for us to gain and grow. Maybe this explains how we carry on instead of caving in, and why the brutal and barbarous enemies that surround us on all sides fail always to crush us.

Am Yisrael Chai. 

May the Jewish nation be inscribed and sealed
in the book of life and peace. 

 And then there was this surprise from NYC's Park Avenue Synagogue.

Park Avenue Synagogue introduced a new practice during Rosh Hashanah to mark the end of a Jewish year that included the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 and the war and turmoil that has followed: 

A cohort of Broadway performers sang “Seasons of Love” from the popular rock musical “Rent” on the bimah. The performance took place during services on Thursday, Oct. 3, the first day of Rosh Hashanah. 

According to Cantor Azi Schwartz, it was the first time Park Avenue Synagogue hosted Broadway performers on the bimah during High Holidays. He told the New York Jewish Week that he wanted to tell the congregation that 

“Broadway can be your home, the sanctuary at Park Avenue can be your home and Judaism is your home — and they all exist together.” 

“Our year has been filled with sorrow and strife. How can we celebrate? How can we kvetch, knowing the pain of the hour? Our response, authentically, is by way of love, seasons of the love,” 

said the congregation’s senior rabbi, Elliot Cosgrove, introducing the performers as they began singing from the back of the room, making their way to the bimah. 

Cleared for Publication

A Poem: By Israeli poet Dael Rodrigues Garcia. Translated by Michael Bohnen, Heather Silverman, and Rachel Korazim. One of two poems read by historian and writer Simon Schama at the London October 7th Memorial.

* Announcers on TV and radio say this before reading the names of the soldiers killed on a given day. It means the families know already. The word hutar is used here and in the line referring to “open season."

**Hidden places: The poet noted that this is a reference to a Talmudic discussion of Jeremiah13:17 “If you do not heed this, my soul will cry in hidden places because of pride.” Our sages explained that God has a hidden chamber where He weeps for Israel’s pride which was taken from it and given to other nations. The sages questioned the presence of weeping, since I Chronicles 16:27 says that “it is joyful in His place. They explained that the innermost chambers are for hidden weeping, while in the outer chambers there is no weeping. Talmud Hagigah 5b.