1492 — Columbus and the Jews: New World Discovery and Expulsion from Spain

The Jewish Study Center hosts a session on 1492, the pivotal year of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the Americas and the expulsion of Jews from Spain, examining the remarkable Jewish figures who made the expedition possible and even saved Columbus’s life. The presentation explores the complex world of Jews, conversos, and Marranos in late 15th-century Iberia and takes up questions such as whether Jews sailed aboard Columbus’s ships and whether Columbus himself was Jewish. From the Portuguese and Spanish courts to the first Jewish congregations in the Americas, it traces how this moment transformed both Jewish and world history.