How Columbus Brought America Its First Jew

For all their clout in the American imagination, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria don't appear to factor much into the American Jewish tapestry. But Christopher Columbus, a devout Italian Catholic sailing at the behest of the king and queen of Spain, was certain that, when he arrived in Asia, he'd encounter descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. And since he anticipated a rendezvous with Arabic and Hebrew speakers, Columbus brought one along. Luis de Torres was the first Jew in the Americas, one of the first Westerners to contact the native population, and maybe even the first to develop a smoking habit when he was offered a New World novelty: tobacco.