Dana D. Klein, M.Div.
Dean of Jewish Studies
Historical Analysis of Edward Kritzler’s book, “Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean”.
April 6, 2015 (originally published)
Kritzler, Edward. Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean.
New York: Random House, 2008.
A.
In “Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean”, Edward Kritzler provides historically documented evidence that before the British Empire conquered Jamaica in 1655, that the island had previously been owned by the ancestors of Christopher Columbus. He states that Columbus’s family used the island to provide a refuge for Jew’s who had been outlawed from living in the New World and European nations. Kritzler upon moving to Jamaica in 1967 from New York found documents written by a British pirate named William Jackson. Jackson in 1642 wrote in his journal that when he arrived in Jamaica that he found the capital city deserted except for Portuguese Hebrews who were seeking asylum and promised to show him where the Spaniards had hidden their gold. Kritzler had formerly presumed that the early explorers of the New World from Spain and Portugal had been devout Catholics. Upon finding these documents, he set out on a research journey to seek answers as to why these Portuguese Jews were on a Spanish island seeking assistance from a British pirate. Further research led Kritzler to important historical facts. He found out that the island of Jamaica had been previously owned by the family of Christopher Columbus, and had provided a refuge for Jews undergoing persecution in the New World. He determined that Jews sailing with Columbus and others hid their identities to escape death during the Inquisition. Kritzler also provides details of Jews traveling from Holland to the West Indies and battling with the nations that had been their persecutors.
Kritzler provides detailed information about the “Converso’s”, which was the name, along with the name New Christians, given to Jew’s who had converted to Catholicism as a cover. They were still practicing their own religion, yet pretending to be Christians to escape being killed. Hernando Cortes, is said to have had like Columbus the support of many Converso’s. He had reportedly grown up across from a synagogue in Medellin, home to Jews of wealth and influence. Their exodus in 1492, when he was seven years old is told by Kritzler to be a key factor in his involvement with them (Kritzler 47). Hugh Thomas, a historian on the conquest of Mexico, documents the number of Converso’s who served with Cortes at more than a hundred (Kritzler 47). Many Jews were reported to have owned ships, since licenses were not required. Because they could take along servants without exit visas, these Jews took along their own families under the guise of household staff. In 1534 when the Reformation began, Kritzler reports that Catholic Defender of the True Faith, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. authorized the first legally documented Jewish settlement in the New World on the Island of Jamaica (Kritzler 48)
The Dutch were not interested in capturing Jamaica, but England was and in 1597, Sir Anthony Shirley being financed by Queen Elizabeth invaded. He first occupied La Vega and robbed it. Sir Walter Raleigh in search of the gold of El Dorado which had been a subject of legends set sail for Jamaica. He however did not find it and James I sent him to the Tower of London on what is said to be a trumped up charge of treason, but he was so popular his death sentence was dropped. Thirteen more years he spent in the Tower before being freed. He set sail, and King James leaked his intentions to the Spanish ambassador Gondomar (Kritzler 165) who subverted Raleigh’s plans.
In analyzing the worth of Kritzler’s “Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean,” it can be said it is well written and conveys the author's own intrigue of the subject within its pages.
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean