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THE FREEPORT HEBREW CONGREGATION
.......... LUIS DE TORRES
500 years ago, Luis De Torres set foot on the island of San Salvador,
one of the 700 islands comprising the Bahamas. He was Jewish, a Marano,
and the interpreter for Christopher Columbus. Today, in Freeport on
Grand Bahama Island, stands the Luis De Torres Synagogue, the only
Synagogue in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the pride and joy of
this small Jewish Community.
On East Sunrise Highway, between the Lutheran Church and the Roman
Catholic "Mary Star of the Sea" stands this unique Synagogue. Because of
the name Luis De Torres most visitors, of whom there are many,
naturally assume that it is a Sephardic Shul; however it is so named for
a very different reason, and the Congregation falls under two distinct
"umbrellas", as a member of the U.A.H.C., and of the Commonwealth
Jewish Council.
Jewish activity in the Bahamas between the 15th century and the present
time is uncertain, but the Jewish population has been extremely varied.
The island of New Providence (Nassau) has a greater population but no
Synagogue. We, with a resident membership of about 20, and approximately
30 offshore members, maintain services at least during the winter months
and for the High Festivals also.
During a regular Shabbat service the link between the present and the
past is related to visitors by the congregation reciting
..................
In fourteen hundred and ninety two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
And in his crew there was a Jew
.................... and his name was Luis De Torres.
The first two immortal lines are taken from a poem entitled "The History
of the United States" composed in 1919 by Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr.
The third line is added for amusement .....
Luis De Torres was engaged by Columbus as the linguist for the fleet of
three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The man was
supposedly fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, Spanish, Portuguese,
French and Latin. He was a Marano, a "damned" or secret Jew who, to
escape persecution, and death at the hands of the inquisition, converted
to Christianity but, at heart, remained Jewish. He had served a Juan
Chacon, Governor of Murcia, as Hebrew interpreter, Murcia having a large
Jewish population; but with the forthcoming expulsion he would no longer
be required. He was converted from Judaism to Catholicism on August 2nd
1492, so timed to enable him to join the fleet which set sail the very
next day. August 3rd was also an historic day, not only from the
standpoint of the fleet sailing out from Palos, but this was also the
day that Ferdinand and Isabella signed the order of expulsion of all
Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who had not embraced Catholicism; it was
also Tisha B'av. Was it merely coincidental that the three ships on
that very day raised their anchors to set sail for the ""New World"?
At that time there was certainly an awareness of positive Jewish
contribution to the events. Jews figured prominently in the study of
navigational skills such as astronomy and cartography. An Abraham Zacuto
invented the Astrolobe, an instrument which enabled Vasco Da Gama to
reach the Cape of Good Hope. With respect to the Columbus voyage,
naturally there could be no Jewish crew as such, but there were
certainly maranos, amongst them the ship's surgeon, the navigator and
the cartographer. Finally there was Luis De Torres.
How Columbus, an experienced sailor, but from humble Italian beginnings,
convinced Spanish royalty to sponsor the venture is another story.
Basically, he had been negotiating for about ten years with very little
success. Finally, a Luis De Santangel, keeper of the privy purse
(chancellor of the Exchequer) made the argument that since a successful
trip would only cost a Title, and that Columbus would be paid on
commission, it should go ahead. Ferdinand and Isabella were finally
convinced. In fact, had they not been, Santangel himself had offered to
finance the whole voyage himself; he was a Marano, and it is ironic
perhaps that without the help of a converted Jew the voyage would not
have taken place.
There has always been an historic molehill waiting to become a mountain,
and that is the question of whether Columbus himself was Jewish.
Although there has never been any serious evidence for the notion, many
historians have touched upon the subject. It was taken up by Vignaud in
1913, Fransisco Martinez in 1916, Jacob Wasserman in 1929, and became
the pretext for a biography by Madariaga in 1939. Despite the lack of
evidence, the suggestion resurfaced in a book by the famous Nazi-hunter
Simon Wiesenthal in 1972 (Sails of Hope). Although there was no doubt
that he was a Catholic, he came from, and was most likely born in,
Genoa. His parents were a "New Christian" family which, in the 15th
century, often meant Previously-Jewish, and most likely of Spanish
extraction.
The Community of Grand Bahama is small, but dedicated to maintaining its
beautiful Shul, a white stucco building set amidst palm trees, pine
trees and flowering shrubs. Services are maintained throughout the
winter and up to Pesach when a communal Seder is organised. |
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