Jewish pirates [Thread]
The first evidence of ancient Jewish piracy can be seen in Jason's Tomb in Jerusalem. There we can see the painting of a war ship attacking two merchant ships.
This comes from the Hasmonean era, in which the maccabees added the ports of Gaza and Yaffo to their kingdom.
The second big era of Jewish piracy was after the great Jewish revolt, in which the temple was destroyed. Jews expelled from the Galilee rebuilt Jaffa, and from there a Jewish restistence emerged trying to sabotage Roman commerce in the Mediterranean.
These Jewish pirates were so strong that Flavius 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"
Vespasian destroyed the city in 67
But the "golden age" of Jewish piracy came in 1492. With the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Most Jews escaped to the Ottoman empire, others tried to go to Poland, but a few Jews went to the seas, looking for revange. Many with naval experience joined piracy.
Probably the most famous one is Sinan the Jew. Sinan Reis was the right hand man of the famous pirate Barbarossa.
This pirate fleet was directly financed by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman. Reis was so famous that he was also called "The great Jew"
We also know Samuel Pallache, the pirate rabbi, who was pirate, merchant and diplomat.
Pallache was not only a pirate but also one of the funding members of the Jewish community of Amsterdam. We was known for keeping Kosher in the ships.
We also know about Yaakov Kuriel, who commanded 3 pirate ships in the Caribbean. He also was a Baal Teshuva, who got very involved in Kaballah and died in Tzfat.
Finally, we know about Moses Cohen Henriques. Moses was a Dutch pirate who participated in one of the biggest events in pirates' history: the raid of 25 Spanish ships filled with gold worth about one billion dollars today. He was also active in the Jewish life in Jamaica.
Finally, in 2008 an old Jewish cemetery was discovered outside Kingston. There we can see graves in Hebrew with bones and skulls.
Jewish pirates were a consequence of religious persecution, and the pirsut of freedom and revenge. It's important for us to know about these episodes of Jewish history to in order to realize that our history is full of diversity and restistence.
Sources:
jpost.com/magazine/jewis…
esefarad.com/?p=65105
This book is amazing:amazon.com/-/es/Edward-Kr…
These series of videos in YouTube are gold:
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