Fighting the Inquisition: Jewish Pirates on the Spanish Main

If you remember no other date in history, remember 1492.

That year, the rulers of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, bankrolled Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the “new” world and expelled the Jews from Spain.

Edward Kritzler’s rollicking saga -- 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 – lays bare history in a way we never learned it in grade school.

With the bonfires of the Inquisition on one side, many Spanish Jews found it more reasonable to set sail for new worlds. Formerly Spanish Jews became the “foremost mapmakers of the era . . . perfected nautical instruments and astronomical tables the early explorers sailed with.”

Hardly a voyage or a conquest left Spain, Portugal or Holland without Jews among the crew. A single Jewish pilot (Gaspar da Gama) helped explorers Vasco da Gama, Pedro Cabral and Amerigo Vespucci find their way on the oceans. Cortes explored Mexico with five Jewish captains.

The discovery of the Americas made Spain the dominant world power. “In 42 years, their country had swelled from an alliance of Christians fighting over a few thousand square miles to a world empire governing millions.  In the process, Spain had become the richest, most powerful nation on earth.”

Less than 50 years after Columbus discovered America, Martin Luther ignited the Reformation. Henry VIII had left the Catholic Church. Spain’s new wealth and its rabid defense of the Church earned it many enemies -- enemies willing to join forces with Jews to help bring down Spain.

The pirate Sinan, a Jew and Barbarossa’s right-hand man, fought against Spain and helped ferry Moors and Jews to Morocco. Samuel Pallache, whose father had been a rabbi in Cordoba, became a pirate who played the powers of Europe against each other until he moved to Amsterdam where he served as the rabbi of the Jewish community. He always brought a Jewish chef to prepare kosher meals on his travels.

Moses Cohen Henriques helped a Dutch vice admiral capture a Spanish treasure fleet.  In more than 200 years and 50 attempts, only that one succeeded in capturing the treasure. It brought Holland the equivalent of $1 billion in today’s dollars. With Holland wrestling control from Spain, Jews could breath freer and thrive in the New World.

While Kritzler’s book has dry moments, it is a fascinating tale. Not all that we learn is how we prefer to think of ourselves as Jews. Over all, it offers a spellbinding read and a perspective that expands our understanding of history.

Edward Kritzler. 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. ISBN-10: 0385513984. ISBN-13: 978-0385513982
©  Jeannette M. Hartman, 2009