Don Quixote a Jew?

Recently I’ve been writing a lot about the influence of the “conversos” i.e., those Jews forced to convert by the Inquisition in Spain in 1492. As it turns out, tennis champion Rafael Nadal is probably a descendant of some of those conversos and my story on Nadal has now gone viral (http://www.abc.es/estilo/gente/20130816/abci-rafa-nadal-periodista-israeli-201308161434.html, http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/140445/is-rafael-nadal-jewish, and http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/rafael-nadal-a-jewish-story/).

I don’t know if Nadal will be reclaiming his Jewish past but the Spanish municipality of Zamora is. Mayor Rosa Maria Valdeon has announced that Zamora will soon erect signs identifying places of Jewish historical interest. Nine places have been identified for sign posting, including the entrance to Valorio Park, the site of a Jewish cemetery that has long ago disappeared. Zamora is beginning to understand that it was once one of the greatest centers of Jewish life on the Iberian Peninsula. In honour of Zamora’s initiative, Abraham Haim, president of the Council of the Sephardi and Oriental Communities, gave a presentation on the encoded references to Jewish knowledge in Miguel de Cervantes’ classic “Don Quixote”.

In the past, Haim joined several academics who believe that Cervantes is of converso descent. He points to references to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot/Tabernacles as the most compelling evidence that Cervantes’ origins were Jewish. To the best of my knowledge, however, the most compelling evidence is the title of Cervantes’ book “Don Quixote”. In Spanish, the term “Quixote” is meaningless. But in a Jewish context it has profound meaning. On every Sabbath, when the Torah is removed from its ark and prepared for reading, this Aramaic term is chanted. It means “truth”. So the words “Don Quixote” literally translate into “man of truth”. The nice thing is that after more than 500 years, the truth about the conversos is finally coming out.

Click here to see my recent article “History Envy” on The Times of Israel.