re: #194 EmmmieG

I’m pretty sure that every culture has produced some version of piracy. (I consider the Viking raiders to be pirates who couldn’t bother to wait for their prey to get in a boat.)

True, but I find the history of the jewish pirates extraordinary. They truly were the underdogs among the underdogs. How this particular enterprise tied in with their religious persecution, the rise of premodern racism and the Inquisition, the discovery of the New World and the expulsion out of the old, safe harbors, secret alliances, trade routes, worldly matters and preserving of religious traditions… Fascinating stuff.