Reviews of Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, #1 pick of 116 books by Overdrive.com, the
leading digital book distributor to libraries. 

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean(On-sale 11/18/2008; 978-0-385-51398-2)
Selection of History Book Club and Military Book Clu
b

Booklist:

"……entertaining and surprising book….yes, there really were Jewish pirates who ran amok, sort of, on the Spanish Main in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Most of them were Sephardic Jews whose ancestors had been expelled from Spain and Portugal, and revenge was certainly a motivation for some. Their natural allies were England and the Dutch Republic, and the major characters were less freewheeling buccaneers than paid privateers. This is a wide-ranging saga filled with attractive and repellant personalities, including a warrior rabbi, a shady arms dealer, and loathsome Spanish inquisitors. Pirates and their exploits lend themselves to over-the-top romantic fantasies. In fact, the navel warfare in the Caribbean was frequently brutal, with no "hint" of pirate honor. Kritzler captures the spirit of that violent, lawless epoch and combines it with an interesting ethnic perspective."

Library Journal:

"….these pirates were Jewish merchants and adventurers who had escaped the Spanish Inquisitions at the dawn of the age of exploration in the 1500 and 1600s. In the New World, they could assume many new identities. They soon became aligned with the Dutch and other enemies of the Spanish in the Caribbean and lived off plunder. One of the more famous Jewish pirates was the Moroccan-born Rabbi Samuel Palache; another eventually founded the first openly Jewish settlement in the New World. Kritzler, a historian and former USA Today reporter who lives in Jamaica, has produced a breezy historical tale ……of swashbuckling exploits……………… he has a journalist’s eye for detail.".

 

Kirkus Review: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

The little-known history of some unintended consequences of the Spanish Inquisition.

At the dawn of the Age of Discovery, writes Jamaica-based historian Kritzler in his debut, Jews had been compelled by the Inquisition to convert to Christianity or suffer the auto-da-fé, but many of these conversos secretly maintained their ancient faith. By the 17th century, some headstrong descendants of the Jews banished by Spain in 1492 emerged as navigators, corsairs and pirates. These adventuresome Hebrews were an interesting lot. They were politicians, international adventurers and licensed privateers in geopolitical competition as much as mere robbers on the high seas. Covert Jews who never really converted, code-named "Portugals" by those with whom they dealt, sailed with Columbus and da Gama and plundered with Cortés and Pizarro. Under Barbarossa, a Portugal named Sinan commanded a fleet of 100 ships. Rabbi Palache kept a kosher cuisine aboard his privateer. Seafaring Jews operated from Holland in its Golden Age and practiced international intrigue from Jamaica, where religion was of no consequence. They settled in Curaçao and New Amsterdam (to the consternation of Peter Stuyvesant. Portugal conquistadores looted Mexico, and converso traders connived with Cromwell and the King of Spain at the same time. Cutlasses at the ready together with the occasional holy text, they traded in the sugar of Brazil and the silver of Peru, with some intentions noble and other motives base. Kritzler ….believes that the fabled gold mine of Columbus is actually on the island of Jamaica, and he and a sponsor have already staked a preemptive mining claim.
Surprising adventures on the high seas with some rogues of the Diaspora.

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Professor Jack Davis, author of The Pirates Laffite
:
 

 In recent years the study of Caribbean piracy has become an increasingly noteworthy field of endeavor, with new chapters opening constantly.  None will be quite so revelatory as Edward Kritzler's JEWISH PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, for in it he details the story of a small group of Jewish merchants and adventurers who pioneered in the Jamaican pirate trade, and helped to create an outpost of religious freedom at the same time.  A wonderful story, never before told."

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Jay Neugeboren, author of 1940, The Stolen Jew:
 

"Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean is a wonderfully informed book of maritime history.  Edward Kritzler is a splendid guide on a voyage through a dark and fascinating era of Jewish history."

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Professor Gail Selinger, pirate historian and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates:

"Ed Kritzler's book unlocks the long buried Jewish heritage of many famous pirates and their fascinating long forgotten empire building activities. This book is a must read for pirate lovers and history buffs alike."

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Robert H. Patton, author of Patriot Pirates and The Pattons:
A Personal History of An American Family:

 

 "Pirate rabbis? Warrior Jews? Sephardic seafarers escaping the fires of Inquisition in quest of gold and freedom in the New World? If, like mine, your knowledge of Europe's fabled Age of Discovery hasn't featured these colorful and, as Edward Kritzler's diligent scholarship demonstrates, historically influential pioneers, then Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean presents a tale as essential as it is entertaining."

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Bernard Diederich, author of Trujillo: Death of a Goat:

 

"What a treasure! Ed Kritzler has literally dived the depth of the Caribbean to bring us a well documented book on a hitherto forgotten role of Jews and their involvement in a most unusual occupation in the New World: Piracy."

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Andree Aelion Brooks, author of The Woman Who Defied Kings and Out of Spain:

 

"Kritzler helps us understand why the pirate era occurred and how the Jews fitted into Caribbean history at that time. He also brings insights to little-understood historical facts, such as what really happened to that famous boatload of Jewish refugees that sailed from Recife to New Amsterdam in 1654; why Jamaica became a haven for Jewish merchants and how this morphed into its development as a center of the pirate trade; as well as the origin of the boucaniers, later known as buccaneers.

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STAFF PICKS (www.overdrive.com)

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

As the Inquisition took hold in Spain, many Jews were forced to flee. This book profiles the group

of improbable Jews who chose to live as outlaws on the high seas.

978-0-385-51398-2 | $24.95/$27.95C | Doubleday | HC | November

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 Read more reviews here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/31/RVCP13MAU9.DTL&feed=rss.books


Contact
edkritzler@yahoo.com or 876-302-0527.

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