Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe

[Vogon_Glory]

31. Columbus may have had Jewish ancestors

But I suspect that his family was probably culturally Catholic for at least a generation or two. While members of minority religions may celebrate those people who kept the faith of their fathers (and mothers) over the centuries after conquest and persecution (examples: Jews and Christians in the Levant and North Africa, Jews in Europe), others chose to join the majority religion for various reasons.