How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure

The information contained in the book is very interesting and enlightening in terms of the history of early Jewish settlers in parts of the Caribbean (mostly Jamaica), but it does not discuss anything relating to swashbuckling pirates of what one expects from the movies.

Who could have imagined, Jewish Pirates? Ed Kritzler spent 40 years researching this book of history, our history, and a history of the development of the America's. So many divergent areas of history came into focus. The "rulers" of the world, France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, brought their languages, lusts, and governance. I finally found a way to tie it together, and this book was instrumental. It peaked an interest in the history of the Americas. It was a world changing period of time. Spain, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Inquisition drove Jews into the sea, and onto ships headed to the new world. It was a way to escape conversion or death. Buy the book. It will fascinate and surprise you!

Jewish pirates-who would have thought? This book puts together a consise history of a time period I was not too familiar with. I didn't know that the Jews had so many struggles in the New World. It seems the history of prejudice is as long as humans have been on the earth.
When I bought this book I expected more swashbuckling, but there was very little. Instead, I learned about more oppression by the Inquisition, a group of people courageously defying the monarchs of Europe and helping to build a new world.

AWESOME book, well written and easy to read and WELL documented. The book tells of a handful of Jews who, when expelled or threatened with being burned unless they converted to Catholicism, left Spain and Portugal for other destinations. The book explains how they became "pirates" in the service of countries unhappy with the Spanish, and in so doing exacted some financial revenge on the Inquisition of the Holy Roman Church.

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 RevengeThis was the most amazing book detailing a piece of history that is mostly skipped in the history books. We always hear that the Jews were expelled from Spain during the Inquisition but we rarely hear what happened to them. This is that story.

There are a lot of dates given at the beginning, but if you don't get bogged down in them (there is a chronology of dates and events in the back of the book as well as a chapter summary at the end of each chapter), the story is fascinating!!

Poorly written, not well documented and not quite an accurate title for a book less about pirates and more about other aspects of Jewish life after the Inquisition. The book could have used an editor.

The Spanish Inquisition was extremely nasty. Jews got revenge by sponsoring piracy against Spain. Some even became pirates themselves. Colonial territories changed hands to replace Spanish rule with more tolerant Dutch or English administration. The Jewish role in giving Jamaica to the British was something that I had never heard of. All of the details are here.

Fascinating history of the Diaspora after the Inquisition in 1492 and after.The Jews settled all over the Caribbean and South America and unhappily after they were successfully settled, the Inquisition followed them to deprive them of all of their successes. Some Jews were enterprising enough to become "privateers" and harassed the Spaniards. The book was confusing at times because in telling about various historical figures, the author went back and forth in time. I would have appreciated a time line with the names in their appropriate time.

My family originally came from Toledo Spain and fled during the Inquisition to Turkey. I have always been fascinated with that chapter of history. Most people do not realize that Christopher Columbus's first voyage in 1492, dropped off hundreds of Spanish Jews, who are sprinkled thruout the Caribbean as a result. This book goes on to clarify how the Spaniards continued to cross the Atlantic to seek and persecute those who successfully fled.Jewish Pirates evolved. Who knew? What a hoot!

I have read many historical books both fiction and nonfiction. This book however, while full of good information is not well written. It seemed to drag on and on. Since often there is no link between thoughts and there are numerous names of people, it is easy to get lost. Then, I would re-read the page. I struggled to get through the book.

A revealing historical account spanning generations and continents. Not a read for the feint of heart and especially disturbing to those who are comfortable in the manipulations of the Church during the hey days of the Inquisition. As any good read should do, it manages to answer many questions and raise many more.

There are many levels of interest to capture those seeking not answers, but explanations;genealogical, religious,geographpical, political, historical, adventure, legal...to name but just a few.

As for quality of writing...getting an "A" in composition wasn't the author's goal. In short, a good read, intiriguing and informational.

This book was an interesting an unique history of little known information about the background of most of the Pirates of the Caribbean. So extraordinary, I read it twice and bought three hard copies

Edward Kritzler has dug up historical facts about the treatment of the Jews in the 15th - 17th centuries that for most of us lay people has amounted to a sentence or two in our high school history books indicating that "Jews were persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition". His stories of actual Jewish people and their situations and the extent of their revenge makes for very informative reading, and helps explain the remnants of the Sephardic Jewish presence still in Latin America and in the Southwestern United States. His writing style is not that great; he is difficult to follow because of his lack of continuity in the various episodes. It is more of a "brain dump" of factual information, but the facts he does present overcomes his poor style.

Good book. Very interesting, but his definition of who is Jewish or not is based more often than not on their ancestry or possible ancestry than on those who actually thought it'd themselves as Jewish. still turns out there were many self identifying Mess involved in piracy and the early settling of the " new world".

Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition... except the Jews. Forced to convert or flee--or be burned at the stake--Spain's Jews were between a rock and a hard place. But when Christopher Columbus "discovered" the New World, a new universe of possibility and survival opened up for the conversos, Jews who converted to Christianity in order to survive. 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 tells this tale magnificently.

I was always taught, or perhaps I simply assumed, that the Conquistadors and those who settle in Spain and Portugal's New World domains were always Catholics, but it turns out that Jews were very much present. Calling themselves Portuguese because Spanish conversos were not allowed to settle in the New World, the Jews, always living in fear of being discovered by the Inquisition, brought their talents in trade wherever they landed.

When the Inquisition made itself known in Portugal, they fled to Holland, where religious tolerance was encouraged. They helped encourage the Dutch to make inroads in the New World, and helped in conquering Recife from Spain. When Holland's finances and international power faltered, they turned to England, aided the capture in Jamaica, and ushered in the golden age of piracy as a way to hurt the Spanish Crown. Along the way, the Jews were the first to develop a truly global trade network.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean is spellbinding. Edward Kritzler weaves the story of the Jews as they struggled to survive the Inquisition and survive as a people like a rich tapestry you want to possess. It is rich and engaging, and masterfully tells almost two hundred years of history as an adventure.

A long time numismatist of Spanish colonial coins, I often wondered why the Dutch and Portugese traders made such serious inroads to the Spanish empire. This book clearly demonstrates the modus operandi for this occurrence. Great book with valuable historical insights. A. Smith/macuquina

Well researched account of a little known history. The human spirit is resourceful in the face of annihilation in the most astounding ways.
Jews are apparently among the first settlers and explorers in "the new world".

For better or worse North America was born out of persecution on every side.
Fleeing the Inquisition the first ships were manned by Jews, who along with royal
conceit then created their own troubles and persecution along the way. Trade thrived,
across Europe partly because there was one common language, Hebrew...who knew?
Read on because history teaches us everything, as long as you read enough of it one time!

I believe the as yet unwritten secret history of the world needs needs a few more chapters about renegades and others such as described in this book. I found this book accidentally and truly enjoyed finding out so much about the plausible geopolitical aspects included in it's pages.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read many histories of the period (16th and 17th centuries), and the Jews generally get an historical footnote, if anything at all. What fun to read this previously unknown history of an important period in the development of Jewish identify and independence, and how the actions of a significant group of heroic Jews eventually led to full acceptance and legal recognition of the Jewish people in both the old and new worlds. Of course, it's a source of pride to learn of the important role my fellow religionists played in the development of the western hemisphere's culture and economy. You don't learn this stuff in school, and every person of a particular ethnic persuasion looks for "heroes" to look up to. So this was not only an informative and fun read, but has contributed to my sense of ethnic pride.

The book gave me insight into a period of history I knew very little about. Not only does the book give a good account of the Jews during the 17th century in both Europe and the New World but also gives a good lesson for anyone interested in history during that important time.

After listening to a pod cast about the subject I was very excited to read the book but it just seems to be a pitch of a book rather than a serious historical work. I don't like feeling like the author does not respect his readers enough to give them a more factually developed book. His description of Jews, Muslims and Catholics are all flat and two-dimensional. You should take the book in whole as an introduction to the subject matter. I hope there is something out there better.