Sephardic Jewish Pirates and the Caribbean Connection

Leeba Freund Mrs. Cohen Jewish History December 17, 2010 Sephardic Jewish Pirates the Caribbean Connection If you plan on touring the island of Jamaica, you may be interested in visiting the oldest Jewish cemetery, Hunt’s Bay cemetery, near Kingston. Kingston has a Jewish community dating back to the 1600s. What you will find in this cemetery may astonish you: typical Jewish gravestones with a Hebrew inscription. But that is not the unusual part; in the corner of some gravestones, you’ll see carved pictures of skulls and crossbones. What are crossbones doing in a Jewish cemetery? What is the connection between the Jews of Jamaica and Piracy? [pic] [pic] [pic] Hunt s Bay Cemetery -†¦show more content†¦Hence, the title â€Å"Portugal† in all the Spanish Colonies became synonymous with â€Å"New Christians† or Marranos. Though the New World was under Spanish rule, the Crown turned a blind eye to the secret Jewish communities sprouting up in every new colony. The Jews played it safe, changing their names and feigning devotion to the Catholic reli gion, all the while building an economic empire of international trade throughout South and Central America, the Caribbean Sea and European waters of the Mediterranean. SPAIN AS A WORLD POWER As Spanish conquistadors conquered and settled land after land in the New World, jewelry from the natives and mines of silver and gold poured into the Spanish treasury from the Incas. Sugar, coffee, bananas, tobacco and other profitable crops that thrived in the warm climate of the Caribbean islands, Central America and South America, filled ship after Spanish ship with an abundance of wealth from the new colonies. As Spain’s treasury filled, other European nations had their eyes on the golden mine of New World treasures. While the Spanish conquistadors conquered land, plundered the natives and terrorized their women, the Marranos dedicated themselves to settling the new lands and creating a safe world for them to live in. They logged trees, set up plantations, worked the gold and silver mines and set up trade and shipping routes from the