October 11th, 2026, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Join Rabbi Shlomo Pereira for a fascinating exploration of one of history’s most pivotal moments—the year 1492. This presentation examines the dramatic intersection between Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the Americas and the expulsion of Jews from Spain, two watershed events that occurred within days of each other.
Discover the remarkable Jewish figures who made Columbus’s expedition possible: Rabbi Abraham Zacuto, whose astronomical tables saved Columbus’s life; Don Isaac Abarbanel, the brilliant court financier who fled Portugal for Spain; and Luis de Santangel, the converso who financed the voyage. Learn how the Almanach and astrolabe solved critical navigation challenges, and explore the complex world of Jews, conversos, and Marranos in late 15th-century Iberia.
The presentation addresses compelling questions: Were there Jews aboard Columbus’s ships? How was the second voyage financed with confiscated Jewish wealth? Was Columbus himself Jewish? Through careful examination of circumstantial, mystical, and genetic evidence—alongside scholarly critique—this lecture provides balanced historical analysis of a persistent theory.
Rabbi Shlomo Pereira received his rabbinical ordination in Jerusalem in 2004 and has served in the last two decades as assistant rabbi and education director at Chabad of Virginia, Richmond. He has taught extensively on topics ranging from Jewish history and law to Jewish philosophy and mysticism. He is the author of two widely circulated texts, “Hadrat Melech” and “Chachmei Halacha” on the history of the Jewish legal tradition. In addition, for the last five years, he has circulated a weekly historical note on the continuing Jewish presence in the Land of Israel, “Jewish Moments in the Land of Israel,” now a regular feature of the Time of Israel biogs.
Rabbi Pereira has a longstanding research collaboration with R. Eli Rosenfeld, head of Chabad Portugal, to bring to the limelight the contributions of the Iberian rabbis of old. This collaboration has resulted in the publication of several bilingual books: in 2018, “Jewish Voices from Portugal,” a book of sermons on the Torah portion based on the writings of rabbis who called Portugal home in the late 1400s; in 2020, “Jewish Ethics from Portugal”, focusing on the commentaries of the same rabbis on Pirkei Avot; in 2023, “Letter from Lisbon,” a book on the brief passage of the Lubavitcher Rebbe through Lisbon in 1941, as he fled the nazi onslaught in Europe; and, in 2025,“Monuments of Paper and Parchment,” a volume on the history of Hebrew printing in Portugal.
An economist and university professor by trade, in 1987, R. Pereira received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego. From 1995 until his retirement in September 2025, he served as a faculty member at William & Mary, with the title of Thomas Vaughan Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Policy. His primary research and teaching interests were in the economics of the public sector, specifically on taxation, infrastructure policies, and environmental issues. Having collaborated over the years with multiple international organizations and Portuguese governments on a variety of public policy issues, R. Pereira served in the last decade as technical advisor to the Portuguese Ministry of the Environment and played a key role in the design and implementation of the taxation of carbon dioxide emissions in the country. Ranked among the top 5% of economists in the world, he authored 136 refereed technical research articles published in international journals and 10 policy books throughout his economics career.
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