Jews in The New World – Part Two

Jewish Pirates had operated in the Mediterranean for many years.

Rabbi Samuel Palache was the son of a leading rabbi from Cordoba who ended up in Morocco. Samuel was sent to Holland as envoy of the Moroccan sultan, who was seeking allies against Spain. He was a friend of Dutch Crown Prince Maurice, who commissioned him as a privateer. Palache served as a pirate under a Netherlands flag and with Dutch letters of marque.

Rabbi Pallache recruited Marranos, (Jews forced to convert to Catholicism) for his crews, and was quite active  in the Mediterranean before moving the New World to create an openly Jewish settlement. 

Sinan the Jew, was the famous Barbarossa’s 2nd in command. Sinan was a navigator so astute, it was assumed he practiced magic. So successful was Sinan, he was appointed the Supreme Naval Commander of the Ottoman Empire. His ships were easily defined as he flew the six pointed star as his banner.

Jamaica’s Bartholomew the Portuguese was known as the ‘most successful failure’. He was famous not for capturing treasure, but for his amazing escapes when captured. He was a contemporary of Henry Morgan.

Jean Lafitte, known to Americans as the hero of the battle of New Orleans wrote; “my Jewish-Spanish grandmother, a witness at the time of the Inquisition, inspired in me a hatred of the Spanish crown”

Chile was the base of  Suboltol Deul.   On a trip up the coast of South America, he stumbled across a ship under the command of the pirate Henry Drake, son of Sir Francis Drake. They decided to create an alliance of anti-Spanish pirates, the “Black Flag Fraternity.”

Deul and Drake reportedly buried treasure on an island near Coquimbo in 1645.

Moses Cohen Henriques operated from a pirate island off the coast of Brazil.  In 1628  Henriques captured the Spanish Silver fleet, a billion dollar haul in today’s currency. When the Portugese captured Northern Brasil, Henriques went to Jamaica, where he became an advisor to Henry Morgan.

The proliferation of Jewish Pirates in the New World, should not be surprising. If any group had reason to
hate Spain, it had to be the Jews.

Forced to convert to Catholicism, many remained secret Jews, and they sailed with the explorers, marched with the conquistadors and were among the first settlers in every New World colony.  Unlike others, Jews had no reason to want to return to Spain.

The early history of the Jews is largely unknown  as they needed to keep their heritage hidden, pose as New Christians from Portugal, the one settler group that did not require proof of Catholic ancestry.