Book Review: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

I’m reading Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom—and Revenge by Edward Kritzler. In the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition, Jews, who were forced to emigrate in order to practice Judaism, often ended up in the New World.

As throughout history, Jews found creative ways to thrive in a hostile environment. One colorful character is Moroccan Samuel Palache, who may be related to author Hayim Palaggi. Son of an illustrious scholarly family, Palache received rabbinic ordination but engaged in international trade, legal and illegal,  both for profit and to find a safe haven for his people. Palache also worked to ally Holland and Morocco against Spain, but when he turned to Spain he was suspected as a double agent. The Spanish monarchy couldn’t live with the Jews, but it turned out they could not live without them either. Kritzler maintains that Palache remained loyal to his people until the end.

Equally fascinating is Kritzler’s description of the new Jewish community in Amsterdam, comprised of Portuguese refugees who had been hiding their Judaism for several generations. These former conversos suffered from a literal understanding of Jewish law and a totalitarian approach to enforcing Jewish communal norms, absorbed from the culture of the Inquisition.

The book suffers from poor editing both of individual sentences and overall structure. Yet Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean describes, with humor and psychological insight, the early settlement of Jamaica and Brazil by Spanish and Portuguese Jews. The Inquisition later followed these Jews to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.  Kritzler highlights economic considerations involved in Jewish persecution, showing how religious fervor diminished when the monarchy could benefit from Jewish activity. Jewish Pirates tells of an unusual chapter in both Jewish and world history.

Note: If you decide to order the book via Amazon through the links above, I will earn a small commission. Thank you.

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Israeli Blogger’s Event with Jacob Share of Job Mob

Shira Abel and Jacob Share

When Jacob Share noticed that he had an easier time getting job interviews than his friends, he decided to publish his tips on a blog even though he barely knew what one was. After three years, his Job Mob is among the ten most popular job search blogs, with 1.5 million page views in 2009.

Jacob told his story at the second Israeli Blogger’s Evening at the home of Sarah Melamed of Foodbridge and organized by me along with Miriam Kresh of Israeli Kitchen.

With a large dose of warmth, enthusiasm, and encouragement, Jacob told of his successes and failures.  Here are a few of many suggestions shared from his extensive blogging knowledge and experience:

• Go ahead and start. Your blog doesn’t have to be perfect.
• You don’t have to be a good writer to start a blog, but you do need to improve your skills. Jacob leaves up old posts to show how far he has come.
• All beginnings are hard. That is why so many bloggers fail. It takes time and experience to succeed.
• If you spend a lot of time on something, you will become an expert.
• A WordPress self-hosted site is the best blog platform. It costs less than $100 a year.
  
• Twitter isn’t for telling your readers what you had for lunch. Instead, tweet useful information for your followers.
• Don’t make assumptions. Instead, test different options. Jacob prefers text, but  started making audio and video podcasts when he realized visitors wanted them.
• Don’t blindly follow conventional wisdom. Jacob automatically follows anyone who follows him on Twitter, and sends a direct message asking if they have a job search question. Both techniques are disparaged by experts, but they work for Job Mob. Jacob  filters out spammers with software and focuses on connecting with his audience.
• Keep trying new things. Invest time in learning new ways to promote and monetize, then analyze their effectiveness. Every blogger will need a different approach.
• Give generously of your time and expertise without expecting anything in return. It usually comes back to you in one way or another.

Jacob put that last one into practice throughout the evening, answering questions with barely a break. The next day he emailed us a list of relevant websites.

Afterward, we enjoyed the refreshments and talked one on one. Then we gathered in a circle to introduce ourselves and discuss blogging challenges until late in the evening. Two days after the event, I know that several bloggers have taken his suggestions to heart.

Here’s a list of bloggers who attended:

Jacob Share: JobMob: www.jobmob.co.il and www.groupwritingprojects.com

Sarah Melamed: Foodbridge: www.sarahmelamed.com. Special thanks to Sarah and family for the gracious hospitality at their beautiful home.

Hannah Katsman: A Mother in Israel: www.AMotherInIsrael.com and www.CookingManager.com

Miriam Kresh: Israeli Kitchen: www.israelikitchen.com

David Nordell: Terror Finance: www.terrorfinance.org

Michelle Nordell: Baroness Tapuzina: www.baronesstapuzina.com

Blanche Melamed: Blanche and Guy Designs: www.blancheandguy.blogspot.com

Harry Rubenstein: The View From Here: www.theviewfromhere.net

Dena Lerner: Israel Restaurant Review http://israelrestaurantreview.wordpress.com/

Kate: One Tired Ema: www.onetiredema.wordpress.com

Baila Brecher: I’ll Call Baila: www.illcallbaila.blogspot.com Baila is currently hosting the 249th edition of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish-Israeli blog carnival.

Robin: Around the Island: www.aroundtheisland.blogspot.com

Shira Abel: Tchochkes: www.tchochkes.com

Nissan Ratzlav-Katz: NRK le-israelim baolam ha-asakim: www.nrkonline.wordpress.com (Hebrew)

Scott Piro: Gefilte Fish Out of Water: http://gfishoutofwater.wordpress.com/

Liz Steinberg: Cafe Liz: www.food.lizsteinberg.com

Yael Lee: Apples and Honey (Finnish): http://appelsiinejahunajaa.blogspot.com/

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Israeli bloggers: Tweet a message to @mominisrael so I can add you to my Twitter list of Israeli bloggers.

Photo credit: Miriam Kresh

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Funny Things My Kids Said in 2009

I’ve collected my 2009 Facebook “status messages” about my two youngest children, in order to inflict them all on you at once. My son is now 8 and my daughter nearly six.

Here they are, starting in January.

Daughter: “What color do white and white make? Light white?”

Daughter kept asking whether we were going to lick the liqueur at the Purim seudah.

Daughter: “Don’t touch my socks. I’ve worn them for a few days.”

Son wondered whether you have to make a bracha (blessing) on lightning when you see Harry Potter’s scar.

Me to son: It looks like you got up on the wrong side of bed. Daughter: He did. I saw him.

Son said the list of animals in the parsha (Leviticus is like the class, Care of Magical Creatures, in Harry Potter

Son: Are you going to have another baby? Me: I don’t think so, I’m pretty old. Son: That’s what Sarah said too.

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In Defense of “Fascist” Email List Moderators

Jameel complained about the rejection of a public service message by moderators of the Modiin community email list. The message was from parents looking for other religious parents of autistic children interested in a residential program. The sender received the following email:

Your request to the Modiin mailing list

Posting of your message titled “religious hostel for autistic children” has been rejected by the list moderator. The moderator gave the following reason for rejecting your request:

“While a worthy cause, the Modiin list is not the proper forum for this posting. The Modiin list is only for postings that specifically have to do with life in Modiin. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Jameel wrote:

What a blessed town Modi’in must be, that there are no autistic children living there, and they are not part of “life in Modi’in.”

Are there handicapped parking spaces in Modi’in? We wouldn’t want to interfere with the idyllic life of Modi’in, by wasting parking spaces on handicapped people, would we?

As moderator a similar list, I’m going to side with the Modiin moderators. List owners get loads of requests.  But if you let people post whatever they want, whenever they want, the list will get crowded and spammy. And that won’t do anybody any good. (For the record, I did post the message on our list.)

Jameel argues, correctly, that the message is relevant for Modiin parents. But it’s equally relevant for every part of the country. It’s not a Modiin issue and I understand why the moderators rejected it, according to their guidelines.

Whether paid or volunteer, moderators take on the headache responsibility of maintaining the list. This gives them the right to make the decisions. If they let this member put his message through, they will have to explain to a hundred more why their important and relevant messages were rejected.

List moderators provide a public service and it’s in their interest to post a variety of useful announcements. But frankly, moderators don’t owe anybody anything. They aren’t required to post every important message. It’s not censorship—there are a lot of email lists in the sea. There are also blogs, newspapers, forums, and bulletin boards. But if you feel your moderators are getting “a little fascist,” as one commenter wrote, you are free to start your own list.

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Carnivals and Links with Mynah Bird

Mynah Bird

This bird was identified by Hanan on Facebook as a mynah and not native to these parts. I wrote about another invader here: A Sukkot for the Birds.

For more pictures go to Leora’s blog. She’s hosting a Fall Holidays Edition of JPix, the Jewish blog photography carnival.

Fruma Sara hosted Haveil Havalim.

Chana attended a Yeshiva University event where several students and alumni spoke about being homosexual in the Orthodox community.

I posted Twelve Tips for Saving Water in the Kitchen at Green Prophet.

Ten Tips for Saving Money with Your Dishwasher, at CookingManager.Com, includes inexpensive and ecological substitutes for detergent, salt and rinse.

Twenty bloggers have signed up for our Second Israeli Bloggers Evening this Saturday, including Shira, Harry, Baila, Robin, Liz, Nissan, and the Baroness. You can still sign up, but our speakerJacob Share of JobMob.co.il will only be taking questions until midnight tonight (Wednesday).

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