The Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Toe ik deze titel zag, dacht ik dat gaat over de laatste Bernard die een
oplichter blijkt te zijn (Bernard Madoff $50 miljard en 100-en
slachtoffers, waaronder zeer schrijnende, zoals de kersverse weduwe van
een gefortuneerd man die geen raad weet met al dat geld. Bernard wel en
dat 14 dagen voordat hij zichzelf ontmaskerde door zijn twee zonen in te
lichten).

Maar het betreft ECHTE piraten met schepen enzo in De West ;)

Groet / Cees

PS. Heb nog een relikwie uit de USA van de eerste Bernard (Cornfeld) uit
1968(?) die ik ´tegen kwam´, een cheque van de curator t.w.v. een paar
honderd gulden ;)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-21/the-jewish-pirates-of-the-caribbean
by Edward Kritzler
December 21, 2008 | 1:03pm

BS Bottom - Kritzler Jewish Pirates
In his new book, Ed Kritzler unlocks an unknown chapter in Jewish
history—the Iberian Jews who escaped the fires of the Inquisition in the
17th century and conspired with Holland and England to seize a New World
colony. Read an excerpt here.

Growing up in Long Island in the 1950’s, the only thing I knew about my
European relatives was they had lived in shtels, studied Torah, and wound
up in crematoriums. Perhaps because it was a dead world and I was living
in the golden age of suburbia when all was new and possible, I found my
heroes in the tales of the pioneers, in the writings of Jack London and
Howard Pyle, and in cowboy movies. Tarzan and Robinson Crusoe were
favorites and accompanying Lewis & Clark a dream. The New World was my
world. I majored in Latin American history and when I learned about the
Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews, I knew if I lived then
and got kicked out of Spain, I would have headed for the New World. I
always thought, as a Jew, I would have been alone.

Forget the Merchant of Venice—his New World cousins were Jewish explorers,
conquistadors, cowboys, and pirates.

That changed one day in 1967 when I came upon an obscure reference in an
English pirate’s journal. Invading Jamaica in 1643, Capt. Jackson found
the capital deserted except for “divers Portuguese of the Hebrew nation
who came unto us seeking asylum, and promised to show us where the
Spaniards hid their gold.”

I had always learned that New World adventure was the province of Spanish
and Portuguese conquistadors, and that they were all heavy-duty Catholics
carrying the Cross. So what were Portuguese Jews doing in a Spanish
island, seeking asylum from an English pirate?

I was so beguiled by what this portended that I would spend the next four
decades in countless libraries and national archives following leads and
watch unfold an unknown chapter in Jewish history: Forget the Merchant of
Venice – his New World cousins were adventurers after my own heart: Jewish
explorers, conquistadors, cowboys and pirates.

They were similar in spirit as other settlers, but while others came to
conquer, search for gold, and collect a bevy of Indian women, they came as
well to settle a land beyond the tentacles of the Inquisition. This early
history is largely unknown because few knew these pioneers were Jewish.
Iberian Jews posed as New Christians from Portugal, the one settler group
that did not require proof of Catholic ancestry and most went to their
graves with their masquerade intact.

Each New World colony had an underground community of Jews known only to
each other and their brethren in other colonies. As merchants, traders,
and ship owners, they dominated commerce. As long as they pretended to be
Christian and delivered the goods, no one questioned too closely their
religiosity. But once they had established a trade network that spanned
the globe, they became expendable. In the 17th century as fires of the
Inquisition flamed throughout the Empire, covert Jews conspired with
Holland and England to seize a New World colony. Some who were
particularly bold turned to piracy to take revenge on those who would burn
Jews and, not incidentally, to make themselves rich in the process.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean deals with the history of Sephardic Jews
in the early New World who overcame the horrors of the Inquisition and
through guile, bravery and intrigue persevered to gain the rights Jews in
the western world enjoy today. Read an excert here.

Edward Kritzler is a historian and a former New York-based reporter. He
lives in Kingston, Jamaica.

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