Jewish pirates wereJewish people who engaged inpiracy. While there is some mention of the phenomenon in antiquity, especially during theHasmonean period (c. 140–37 BCE), most Jewish pirates wereSephardim who operated in the years following theAlhambra Decree of 1492 ordering the expulsion ofIberia's Jews. Upon fleeingSpain andPortugal, some of these Jews became pirates and turned to attacking the Catholic empires' shipping as bothBarbary corsairs from their refuge in theOttoman dominions, as well asprivateers bearingletters of marque from Spanish rivals such as theUnited Netherlands.
Many Jews also gave economic support to privateers that attacked Spanish ships. The pirates stole valuables from Spanish treasure galleons and sold the treasure to Jewish merchants. Those Jewish merchants then sold the treasure and valuables onward for a profit, and used their money to support the pirates' raids against the Spanish.[1] They considered it an effective revenge strategy for their expulsion and theInquisition's continuedreligious persecution of their Jewish andconverso brethren in both the Old and New Worlds.[2]
AncientJewish life was concentrated around in the highlands of theSamarian andJudaean Mountains, located some distance from theMediterranean Sea. Therefore, Jews were initially not very active in seafaring or navigation. After 142 BCE, the JewishHasmonean state acquired ports of their own. Joppa (Jaffa),Ashdod andGaza were added to their domain, and a small number of Jewish sailors developed.
Jewish pirates were first mentioned byJosephus. There is a drawing of a pirate ship following two merchant ships atJason's Tomb inJerusalem. The drawing shows three ships, one of which is a war ship with Jason holding the bow and getting ready to shoot. The painting is dated back at early 1st century BCE.TheSeleucid Empire's decline in the region was a result of theMaccabean war, and was followed by an influx of Jewish and Syrianpirates operating from theLevant.Pompey's journey toJudea may indicate a connection between Jewish andCilician pirates. As a matter of fact there were so many Jews at sea during Pompey's time, some of whom were pirates, that kingAntigonus II Mattathias was accused of sending them out on purpose.[3]
By the end ofFirst Jewish–Roman War, also known as The Great Revolt,Jews who had been driven out of Galilee rebuiltJoppa (Jaffa), which had been destroyed earlier byCestius Gallus. Surrounded and cut off by the Romans they rebuilt the city walls, and used a light flotilla to demoralize commerce and interrupt the grain supply toRome fromAlexandria.[4]
InThe Jewish War, Josephus wrote:
They also built themselves a great many piratical ships, and turned pirates upon the seas near to Syria, and Phoenicia, and Egypt, and made those seas unnavigable to all men.[5]
In July 67Vespasian attacked Joppa. The people of Joppa took to the sea, but a pre-dawn storm wrecked the ships. Many drowned, others killed themselves. Those who survived the wreck, numbering about 4,200, were killed by the Romans. Joppa was destroyed once again.
But some of them thought that to die by their own swords was lighter than by the sea, and so they killed themselves before they were drowned; although the greatest part of them were carried by the waves, and dashed to pieces against the abrupt parts of the rocks, insomuch that the sea was bloody a long way, and the maritime parts were full of dead bodies; for the Romans came upon those that were carried to the shore, and destroyed them; and the number of the bodies that were thus thrown out of the sea was four thousand and two hundred.[5]
After Joppa's destruction for the second time, Vespasian built a citadel there to prevent the Jewish pirates from retaking the city.[6] The Romans considered their victory over Joppa's pirates very important, and commemorated it with a large number of coins for "naval victory."[7][8]
TheAge of Exploration was, in part, enabled by crucial navigational advances developed by the primarily JewishMajorcan cartographic school as well asAbraham Zacuto'sephemerides. Zacuto, Royal Astronomer and Historian of Portugal, left Portugal rather than become Christian.Vasco da Gama even lent his name to his Jewish pilotGaspar da Gama. Many Jews also worked as ship navigators. Suddenly expelled from Iberia, their knowledge and skills in ship navigation made them enemies of the state and were contributing factors to the development of Jewish piracy in that age.[2][9][10][11]
After Jews wereexpelled from Spain andPortugal, many of them settled in the friendlier Muslim lands of the Mediterranean (theOttoman Empire for example). Like theirMuslim compatriots who werelikewise expelled in 1492, Jews were also looking to get revenge against Iberian Christians by sharing with Muslims the newest military techniques and secrets used by Christians. And they also joined in on Muslimanti-Christian piracy of the Mediterranean, such asSinan Reis andSamuel Pallache.[2]
The English State Papers of 1521 bear evidences of Sinan Reis, who sailed withHayreddin Barbarossa:
As to Coron, it was reported at Rome a few days ago thatAndrea Doria was informed that the famous Jewish pirate had prepared a strong fleet to meet the Spanish galleys which are to join Doria's nineteen[12]
Christopher Columbus himself noticed a great symbolism in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and his sea voyages of discovery, when he started his diary with this statement:
In the same month in which their Majesties issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and the territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake, with sufficient men, my expedition of discovery to the Indies.[13]
Today, there are only around 200Jews in Jamaica. However, at some point 20% ofKingston's population werePortuguese and Spanish Jews, whileSpanish Town was founded by escaped Jews.[2] The first Jews colonized the island in 1530 just 40 years after it was invaded byChristopher Columbus. While for a time the Columbus family's rule kept out theInquisition, when their power was eroded and the Church began threatening thecrypto-Jewish populace, they aided theEnglish conquest of Jamaica. Under the English, the city ofPort Royal was home not only to privateers bearingletters of marque against Spanish treasure galleons, some of whom were Jewish, but was also home to a large Jewish community which economically supported the raids against the Spanish.[2]
Jewish pirates of Jamaica named their ships for ancient Jewish heroes and prophets likeProphet Samuel,Queen Esther andShield of Abraham. They targeted Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships. One of the most famous Jewish pirates of Jamaica wasMoses Cohen Henriques, who in 1628, led withPiet Pieterszoon Hein theonly successful capture of theSpanish treasure fleet.[14] He went on to aid theDutch capture of northeast Brazil from Portugal.[2]
Abraham Blauvelt was aDutch-Jewish pirate, privateer, and explorer ofCentral America and the westernCaribbean, after whom the towns ofBluefields,Nicaragua, andBluefields, Jamaica, were both named.[15]
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Sinan, called The Great Jew by the Spaniards, was one such Jewish refugee whose family emigrated from Spain to theOttoman Empire, according to some non-academic authors. He sailed as abarbary corsair underHayreddin Barbarossa. Some attribute to him the defeat of an Imperial-Spanish fleet in 1538 at theBattle of Preveza. Some non-academic authors,[2][9][16][17] mistaking him forSinan Pasha and sometimes again mistaking the latter's place of burial,Üsküdar, forShkodër in Albania (both places bearing the alternative name of Scutari), wrote erroneously that Sinan the Jew is buried in a Jewish cemetery inAlbania.
Yaacov Kuriel was born to a Jewish family which converted to Christianity under pressure from the Inquisition when Yaakov was a child. He was called Diego Da Coreia. As a young man, Yaacov Kuriel was a captain of theSpanish fleet until he was caught by the Inquisition, tortured and sentenced to death. He was freed by his sailors, most of whom weremarranos themselves. For many years after that his only goal was revenge. He had three pirate ships under his command and was based in Jamaica. Later in life, he moved to Israel and became a disciple of theArizal. He is buried near him in Safed. His gravestone bears a skull and crossbones. Little is known about what happened to him later. Some believe that eventually he made his way to theHoly Land, studiedKabbalah and died peacefully of old age.[7][9][18]
Henriques was a Dutch Jewish Pirate ofPortugueseSephardic Jewish descent. Henriques operated in the Caribbean and in total his plunder and haul from his raids on the Spanish is estimated to be about 1 billion USD in current value.
in the same month.
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