Historians Still Debate Whether Christopher Columbus Had Jewish Roots

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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's remains.

00:09Here we see a box containing those remains in Seville, Spain in 2003.

00:13According to Newsweek, forensic expert José Antonio Llorente began the analysis then,

00:18but the scientific techniques available at that time were not sufficiently advanced.

00:22CNN reports that Llorente now says that DNA from both Columbus and his son Hernando Colon have

00:28"...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 Pais.

00:52Alonso said,

00:53Unfortunately, from a scientific point of view, we can't really evaluate what was in the documentary

00:58because 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.