Ahoy, mateys! Thar be Jewish pirates!

[zengrifter]

Ahoy, mateys ! Thar be Jewish pirates!

September 19 is Talk Like A Pirate Day

by Adam Wills, Associate Editor


Sephardic Jewish pirate Jean Lafitte


There's no arrr-guing that pirates are in.

As of last weekend, Disney had plundered $1 billion worldwide with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," and International Talk Like a Pirate Day -- that's Sept. 19, for you landlubbers -- has gone from an inside joke between two friends to a mock holiday celebrated in more than 40 countries.

Yet tales of Jewish piracy, which stretch back thousands of years, aren't in the public's consciousness, and Hollywood even has been known to remove a pirate's Jewish background. As a result, we're stuck with portrayals of pirates as wayward English seamen on a murderous rampage.

But now a forthcoming book hopes to change that image by focusing on Ladino-speaking Jews whose piracy grew out of the Inquisition. "The Jewish pirates were Sephardic. Once they were kicked out of Spain [in 1492], the more adventurous Jews went to the New World," said Ed Kritzler, whose yet-untitled book on Jewish pirates will be published by Doubleday in spring 2007.


MORE- http://jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16490

[zengrifter]

Haar, take what you can, give nothing back. zg

[aslan]

Aye, matey, grab th' gelt, but don't ye bury it too deep! We may need to dig it up sooner than ye think!

[blackchipjim]

" Dead men tell no tales" happens to be favorite.

[aslan]

" Dead men tell no tales" happens to be favorite.

Bury the chest and the diggers with it! Aarrrgh!