Edward Kritzler

This history book was a lot of fun to read. Not only were there Jewish pirates, but some of them were rabbis and spies at the same time. The history covers the Spanish Inquisition and how that impacted Jewish migration to the Caribbean and Amsterdam, and later New York. The Jews ability to set up trade routes and manage high profit exchanges made them valuable business partners, as well as political allies. If you are interested in Jewish history, this book is definitely worth reading.

While it presents history that I was never aware of, the author could have done a better job of telling it. At times, it is the classic "great man" narrative, detailing the exploits of some key individuals. But in other places, in order to set the stage for what follows, he wanders about the colonial history of the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and English -- and doesn't do a particularly good job at it.

Edward Kritzler tells the tale of an unlikely group of swashbuckling Jews who ransacked the high seas in the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition. At the end of the fifteenth century, many Jews had to flee Spain and Portugal. The most adventurous among them took to the seas as freewheeling outlaws.
They attacked and plundered the Spanish fleet while forming alliances with other European powers to ensure the safety of Jews living in hiding.