Putting the Oy Back into ‘Ahoy’ -
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

October 14, 2008 · Filed Under New Books 

A friend pointed this book out to me. It looks intriguing and is coming out in mid-November.  Jean Lafite was Jewish? Who knew?  (Thanks Henya!)  From a review in the Jewish Press:

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

“They did not sing “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Manischewitz,” nor do they ever seem to appear in any of the Disney films about pirates in the Caribbean. The website piratesinfo.com carries not a single reference to them.  

And while September 19 has for a number of years now been designated International Talk Like a Pirate Day (there are even Internet courses available in pirate lingo), none of its initiators seems to have had Ladino (the language spoken by Jewish refugees expelled by the Spanish and Portuguese after the Reconquista) in mind.

Swashbuckling buccaneers who took time to put on tefillin each morning? Better get used to the idea. Long overlooked, the history of Jewish piracy has been garnering increasing interest, with several serious books and articles telling its epic tales.

Many Jewish pirates came from families of refugees who had been expelled by Spain and Portugal. They took to piracy as part of a strategy of revenge on the Iberian powers (though lining their pockets with Spanish doubloons was no doubt also a motive). Many of these pirates mixed traditional Jewish lifestyles with their exploits on the high seas.”

Read the full review here.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Putting the Oy Back into ‘Ahoy’ -
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean”

  1. R O C K Y on March 1st, 2009 12:24 am

    I am very interested on books or paper backs of Jewish pirates. Is there any way that I may acculate books, paperbacks, or any litereature on this subject.?

  2. admin on March 1st, 2009 11:29 am

    Reading Ed Kritzler’s book sounds like a good place to start. YOu might also want to check out http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/jewish_pirates/pirates.html

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