Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

~ Edward Kritzler (Author)
Key Phrases: pirate rabbi, confi ded, confi ned, New World, Port Royal, States General (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Historian and journalist Kritzler brings the political and religious ramifications of Caribbean pirating into a whole new context while explaining how the Jewish diaspora funded piracy to advance their religious (and financial) freedom in the New World. Through a deft combination of factual overview and anecdotes involving some of the more colorful figures of the time, Kritzler paints a unique picture of this perhaps over-exposed period of history. For centuries in Europe, Jews were shunted from country to country, exploited by penurious rulers for their financial acumen and promptly persecuted after the country became solvent (most egregiously in Spain). By financing piracy, the Jews ensured their own survival, as well as monopolizing the most lucrative income sources Europe had seen in centuries. While figures like Henry Morgan and Barbarossa will leap out at readers familiar with pirate lore, the little-known "pirate rabbi" Samuel Palache will excite just as much interest. Though Kritzler tends to leap from topic to topic, he covers an impressive interdisciplinary range-combining politics, economics and religion-that should satisfy fans of religious history and swashbuckling true stories.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com What we have here is the obvious inspiration for Mel Brooks's next movie. Forget Capt. Jack Sparrow. How about Capt. Jacob Sparrowitz, swashbuckling around in a tricorn yarmulke, drinking, wenching and never paying retail? Alas, Edward Kritzler, a writer and tourism promoter in Jamaica, describes no such hi-jinks in this, his first book. Nor does he present much evidence of genuine piracy on the part of Jews in the Caribbean. What he gives us instead is an earnest but rather disjointed retelling of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and their flight to such refuges as Holland, Brazil and Jamaica, where they played a growing role in trade during the 16th and 17th centuries. True, some interesting Jewish seafarers crop up in this volume. Moses Cohen Henriques, a Dutch privateer, captured a Spanish silver fleet off Havana in 1628. Sinan "the Great Jewish Pirate" allied with the Barbary pirates in the mid-16th century. As a young man, Samuel Palache attacked Spanish ships and later, as a rabbi, helped found the Jewish community in Amsterdam. That was apparently enough evidence for Kritzler and his publisher to give the book its catchy title. They would have us believe that masses of Sephardic Jews took to the seas to wave a defiant cutlass at their persecutors. To make this stretch, the author blurs the lines between those accused by the Spanish Inquisition of being secret Jews (or "conversos") and those who actually were, between those who owned buccaneer ships and those who manned them, and between outlaw pirates and privateers who had legal backing from a sovereign state. Still, Kritzler usefully reminds us of the scholarly heritage that gave birth to Jewish astronomers and cartographers without whom Columbus (and wasn't he at least part Jewish? The debate goes on!) could not have sailed. Mel Brooks's Inquisition ("History of the World -- Part 1") may be more entertaining, but Kritzler should be commended for making us rethink a few historical assumptions. What's "Aarrgh!" in Yiddish, anyway?
Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (November 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385513984
• ISBN-13: 978-0385513982
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,863 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, November 19, 2008

By	Anna M. Foer (Annapolis, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is true that some famous pirates such as Jean Lafitte and Sinan were Jewish, but did you ever imagine there would be a serious, non-fiction book with such a title? Although the title is perhaps a bit "Hollywoodesque", this is a well-researched and well-written account of a chapter in history that continues to fascinate. Perhaps an equally playful title could have been "Raising Cain in the New World" as early Jewish settlers became heavily involved in sugar cane production and export and some of them did cause trouble--especially for Spain. Furthermore, to a certain extent, they survived and were successful because they were their brother's keepers, and remained faithful in their own communities.
There were pirates of the Caribbean, some of whom were Jews and there truly was a Port Royal in Jamaica, but don't expect Long Jonathan Silvermans or Captain Jacob Sparrowsteins to come careening across the deck or fling themselves from the rigging with cutlass in one hand shouting "Ahoy Vey". You will find some swashbuckling adventurein Ed Kritzler's account, which took place in the time when Spain and her rivals began to explore and settle in the Caribbean and the New World.
After centuries of a relatively fruitful existence in Iberia, hundreds of thousands if not millions of Jews found themselves in a precarious situation as the Catholic Empire reunited and re-established itself over the Moors. Jews were forced to convert or leave and many were tortured or murdered through the Inquisition. Columbus was likely a Jew and his three ships left the day of expulsion, headed to the New World and what eventually became a haven for the oppressed Jews and other people of Europe.
In those turbulent days of discovery, conquest and exploitation, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews used their linguistic, financial and trading skills, along with their associations with co-religionists in other ports to establish footholds in the new colonies, and especially in Jamaica, which is the fulcrum of this book. They were investors, ship owners, sailors and even soldiers and spies for the enemies of Spain, whether they were Dutch or British. Some of these adventurous Jews, including the larger-than-life Samuel Pallache, a rabbi and leader of Amsterdam's thriving Jewish community, did capture Spanish ships and treasure.
As for the beautiful and well situated island of Jamaica, it was originally deeded to the heirs of Columbus and fell in and out of favor with the Spanish and then the English. During the heyday of the pirates, as fictionally portrayed in the hit movie and the popular Disney ride, Port Royal was also home to many Jews. We learn that the popularized and fictionalized accounts of this raucous town as a cauldron of pirates, wenches, unbridled trading and rum may actually not have been far from the mark.
Major historical figures including Oliver Cromwell, Peter Stuyvesant, Captain Henry Morgan, King Charles of England and King Phillip of Spain enter into this story, sometimes in surprising, important and even crucial ways.
I think that as interest grows in the history of piracy and the early history of Jews in American, more will be written about the seafaring and port-histories of Jews in this period. Without spoiling anything, readers may wish to know that aside from the treasures of historical research and documentation that Kritzler brings to light, there just might even be a lost treasure of gold still waiting to be unearthed. You'll have to read the book to find out more.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Knew?, January 3, 2009

By	S. Kessler - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I really enjoyed this book. I have read many histories of the period (16th and 17th centuries), and the Jews generally get an historical footnote, if anything at all. What fun to read this previously unknown history of an important period in the development of Jewish identify and independence, and how the actions of a significant group of heroic Jews eventually led to full acceptance and legal recognition of the Jewish people in both the old and new worlds. Of course, it's a source of pride to learn of the important role my fellow religionists played in the development of the western hemisphere's culture and economy. You don't learn this stuff in school, and every person of a particular ethnic persuasion looks for "heroes" to look up to. So this was not only an informative and fun read, but has contributed to my sense of ethnic pride.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hidden History, April 3, 2009

By	DJ (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Edward Kritzler has dug up historical facts about the treatment of the Jews in the 15th - 17th centuries that for most of us lay people has amounted to a sentence or two in our high school history books indicating that "Jews were persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition". His stories of actual Jewish people and their situations and the extent of their revenge makes for very informative reading, and helps explain the remnants of the Sephardic Jewish presence still in Latin America and in the Southwestern United States. His writing style is not that great; he is difficult to follow because of his lack of continuity in the various episodes. It is more of a "brain dump" of factual information, but the facts he does present overcomes his poor style.