Jewish Pirates?

It's true that for better or worse, Hollywood forms the images we have of our history. For instance, when you look at pictures of the old west, you really don't find many people who look and dress like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry.

Pirates are all the rage now and if ethnicity is an issue at all, it is presumed that pirates are of Anglo-Saxon extraction, but a new book explores pirates who were Spanish Jews who fled the Inquistion. Surprisingly, Jean Lafitte was a Jew.

Ahoy, mateys ! Thar be Jewish pirates!

...[T]ales of Jewish piracy, which stretch back thousands of years, aren't in the public's consciousness, and Hollywood even has been known to remove a pirate's Jewish background. As a result, we're stuck with portrayals of pirates as wayward English seamen on a murderous rampage.

But now a forthcoming book hopes to change that image by focusing on Ladino-speaking Jews whose piracy grew out of the Inquisition. "The Jewish pirates were Sephardic. Once they were kicked out of Spain [in 1492], the more adventurous Jews went to the New World," said Ed Kritzler, whose yet-untitled book on Jewish pirates will be published by Doubleday in spring 2007.

Kritzler has studied pirates for 40 years, and said that the public is fascinated with them because they're "rugged individuals in a world of conformity. They carved their own identity, independent of the rules and strictures of society."

What a surprise...

Pirates love gold and booty - Jews love gold (money) and booty!

Good find Grady!

How interesting is that! Doesn't come as too big a surprise though, through out history, several religious groups practised piracy against their percieved, or actual, enemies. The Knights of Rhodes, later Malta; are the ones who spring imeadiately to mind.

I look forward to seeing this book next spring.

Oy Vey! and a bottle of rum me hearties!

Shiver me timbers and pass the rum mateys.

I knew this for 50 years or longer.

One of them thar piriates sold me my own spinner hubcaps at a flea market on Maxwell street in Chi town in 56.

Originally posted by Ezekiel
What a surprise...

Pirates love gold and booty - Jews love gold (money) and booty!

Actually, we (jews) love gold booty.

To quote a friend's father "jews love the sea" when referring to his soon to be daughter in law's preference for beaches over blacktop.