The true story of the Jewish pirate

Steven Plaut of The Jewish Press has written a fascinating piece about the new interest in Jewish pirates. This is one of those extremely interesting stories that, while slightly publicized, have not become public knowledge. It’s a shame. The history of Jewish pirates is intriguing, and not all bad:

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). …

They often maintained Jewish lifestyles at sea, he writes. They were buried as Jews, as revealed by the Jewish stars and Hebrew inscriptions adorning tombstones in pirate graveyards in Jamaica.

But even more interesting are the individual stories, such as that of our namesake’s relative, David Abrabanel:

A pirate named David Abrabanel, evidently from the same family as the famous Spanish rabbinic dynasty (which included Rabbi Isaac Abrabanel), joined British privateers after his family was butchered off the South American coast. He used the nom de guerre “Captain Davis” and commanded his own pirate vessel named The Jerusalem. According to at least one report, he was the person who discovered what is now called Easter Island.

Or the anti-Spanish Moses Cohen Henriques:

…who participated in one of history’s largest sea heists against Spain. In 1628, Henriques sailed together with Dutch Admiral Piet Hein, of the Dutch West India Company, who hated Spain after having been held as a slave for four years on a Spanish galleon. They raided Spanish ships off Matanzas Bay in Cuba, commandeering large amounts of gold and silver.

Henriques set up his own pirate “Treasure Island” on a deserted island off the Brazilian coast on which Jews could openly practice their religion. (He also served as adviser to Henry Morgan, perhaps the most famous pirate of all time; Errol Flynn played Morgan in the movie “Captain Blood.”) After the recapture of Brazil by Portugal in 1654, some of these Jews would sail off to set up a brand new Jewish community in a place called New Amsterdam, now known as New York.

Then there was Moroccan Jewish leader Rabbi Samuel Pallache:

Born in The Hague, he was son of a leading rabbi from Cordoba who ended up in Morocco. From there he was sent to Holland as envoy of the Moroccan sultan, who was seeking allies against Spain. He became a personal friend of Dutch Crown Prince Maurice, who commissioned him as a privateer, and served for years as a pirate under a Netherlands flag and with Dutch letters of marque. Rabbi Pallache recruited Marranos for his crews.

Or the famed Jewish pirate Sinan, who rose from pirating to commander of the navies of the Ottoman sultan:

…known to his Spanish prey as “The Great Jew,” [Sinan] was born in what is now Turkey and operated out of Algiers. He first served as second in command to the famous pirate Barbarossa. … Their pirate flag carried a six-pointed star called the Seal of Solomon by the Ottomans.

Sinan led the force that defeated a Genoan navy hired by Spain to rid the Barbary Coast of corsairs. He then conquered Tripoli in Libya, and was eventually appointed supreme Ottoman naval commander. He is buried in a Jewish cemetery in Albania.

Since you read this far, we’ll reward you with two pictures of real Jewish pirate Jean Lafitte (yep, the same man who helped Andrew Jackson defeat the British in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815).