Most people know about pirates.

A pirate is a person who sails a big ship over long

distances to steal treasure or booty from other people, usually enemies who they are rebelling
against. Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard, and Captain Hook are all well-known pirates. But have you
ever heard of Jewish Pirates? Does such a thing even exist? Yes it does. And there are some
very interesting stories about them. This project is an attempt to highlight different groups of
Jewish pirates. One of these accounts will be a simple summary of a group of ancient Jewish
pirates, and one will be an in-depth into the life of a famous Jewish pirate during the inquisition
of 1492.

The first account is a broader account of Ancient pirates who were Jews during the time
of the Bar Kochba revolt. These people were Israelites who were besieged by the Romans in
July of 67 AD. Most people know this story, but what they don’t know is that some Jews fled to
the seas. These Jews decided to pirate from nearby countries such as Syria, Phoenicia, and
Egypt. However their ships were destroyed by a great storm at sea, and many drowned. Some
of them thought “that to die by their own swords was lighter than by the sea” so they killed
themselves.

This next account is a longer one about a Pirate Rabbi named Samuel Palache who
lived in the mellah of Fez, Morocco during the 15 and 1600’s. A mellah is a confined place in a
Moor governed city for Jews, sort of like a ghetto, except Jews could work and live normal lives
there. At a young age, Palache was inspired by his family members' tales of swashbuckling, and
decided to become a pirate. Samuel and his brother, Joseph, went to religious school and were
fluent in many languages including Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, and Chaldian. Since
they were considered merchants, they could sneak out of the mellah at night, pretend to be
traders, and sell their booty for large sums of money.
The Sultan of Morocco, Sidan, acknowledged their skill in negotiation and sent them to
make a deal with Spain. There was drama in Spain at the time, but Samuel managed to get the
beeswax in exchange for jewels and some “intelligence regarding Morocco” (Kritzler 78), and
later returned in 1605 seeking entry to Spain in exchange for a plan to halt the Ottoman
advance. King Philip III of Spain accepted.
Eventually, the inquisition caught up to them. The Inquisition was an important event in
Jewish history. It was the attempt to find all Jews from Spain and Portugal who were still Jewish
and had not been converted during the expulsion of 1492. Those who didn’t convert were
tortured until they converted.
During the Inquisition, Palache took refuge in Madrid, in the French ambassador Count
de Barrault’s house. When he got the chance, he fled Madrid and went to Amsterdam to help
prince Maurice of Nassau on a “grand scheme to combat Spain”. Samuel advised that Holland
and Morocco become allies against Spain. It took a lot of planning, but eventually it worked out,
with the only problem being that after the war, King Phillip was very mad at Maurice for breaking
the Amsterdam-Spain truce that had been going on at the time, but they ignored that and wrote
the treaty anyway. After writing it, Samuel was awarded a gold chain, a gold medal and 600
florins, and by the summer of 1611 “a Dutch flotilla, flying the flag of Morocco, led by a Jew,
sailed for the Mediterranean”.
In 1612, the first Jewish synagogue in amsterdam opened which was called “Nevah
Shalom”, and Samuel, was now addressed as “Rabbi”, but balancing his duties as a rabbi and
his piracy life was not easy. He was often absent from Nevah Shalom, “sailing to and fro
between Holland and Morocco, engaged in a brisk arms trade, selling gunpowder, muskets, and
other munitions to the corsair in return for sugar, spices, diamonds, and Spanish booty”.
In the fall of 1614, he got caught up in Plymouth, England when their Spanish ambassador,
Count Gondomar, accused him of piracy. King James of England was originally planning to put
Palache in prison but Prince Maurice pleaded to James to let him go, so instead he was placed
under house arrest in the house of Sir William Craven. Craven was very friendly to Palache.
“The two regularly supped together”, and Craven let him go outside of the property and walk
around town. When it was time for his trial, Palache won by giving a fierce argument that he was
at war and that he had a privateers licence. He was promptly released.
Before his death, Palache did something that has historians questioning his loyalty to
Morocco to this day. He agreed to spy for Spain for 200 escudos a month.
In February 1616 he died of old age, and was paraded around town in his coffin with a
marching band, but to this day, people still recognize him as a great pirate-rabbi.

Though they may seem insignificant, these great pirates did things that changed the face
of history itself. We hope we inspired you to look more into these great people.

Hi! I’m Bob the narrator. Thank you for listening in. Now I would like to turn it over to the two
very attractive gentlemen standing in front of you.