A new documentary on Spanish television claims that Christopher Columbus was actually Jewish. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman has the story.
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00:00A new documentary on Spanish television claims that Christopher Columbus was actually Jewish.
00:05The claim is based on DNA analysis of Columbus' remains.
00:08Here we see a box containing those remains in Seville, Spain in 2003.
00:13According to Newsweek, forensic expert Jose Antonio Laurenti began the analysis then,
00:17but the scientific techniques available at that time were not sufficiently advanced.
00:22CNN reports that Laurenti now says that DNA from both Columbus and his son Hernando Colon
00:27have, quote, traits compatible with Jewish origin.
00:30In America, Columbus has long been associated with Italy, as he claimed Genoa as his birthplace,
00:35although the modern Italian nation-state was not unified until 1861.
00:39Some have called these new findings into question.
00:42Science Alert relayed a skeptical quote given by Antonio Alonso,
00:45former director of Spain's National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences,
00:50to the Spanish news service El País.
00:52Alonso said,
00:53Unfortunately, from a scientific point of view, we can't really evaluate what was in
00:57the documentary because they offered no data from the analysis whatsoever.
01:01So for now, the idea of a Jewish Columbus is intriguing, but may need further confirmation.