A sea change in pirate lore

Is the world ready to hear of the exploits of a Long John Silverstein or a Captain Josh Sparrow?

There may not have been a Silverstein on the high seas in the 17th century, but there were swashbuckling buccaneers called Balthazar and Moses Cohen Henriques and – would you believe? – Rabbi Samuel Pallache. They pillaged and plundered Spanish navy vessels. Payback, if you will, for the murder and expulsion of many Jews from Spain at the end of the 15th century due to the Spanish Inquisition.

So it is written by Edward Kritzler in his opus The Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. The book’s film rights have been acquired by Montrealer Erol Araf and Israeli David Lewis, who are in pre-production on the project.

Like others who are not well versed in the seafaring derring-do of my co-religionists, I was highly skeptical of such a chapter in history, assuming it was merely a parody of Pirates of the Caribbean.

For more http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Jewish+Pirates+Caribbean+change+pirate+lore/6151683/story.html