Tag Archives: Jamaica

Jew of the Week: Moses Cohen Henriques

The Jewish Pirate Who Conquered Brazil

Moses Cohen Henriques (b. 1595) was born to a family of Sephardic Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. The family eventually made their way to Amsterdam and returned to their Jewish faith. Henriques joined the Dutch navy, and rose up through the ranks to be the right-hand man of famed Dutch admiral Piet Hein. Together, they defeated the Spanish fleet off the coast of Cuba in 1628. Following this, Henriques went to scout the Portuguese colony of Pernambuco, Brazil as a spy, to prepare for a Dutch invasion. He was part of that invasion in 1630, leading a contingent of 3000 men to successfully capture the colony. Henriques helped to turn the area into a Jewish refuge, bringing in America’s first rabbi, and establishing the first synagogue, mikveh, and yeshiva in the New World. When the Portuguese recaptured the colony in 1654 and restarted persecution of Jews, Henriques fled along with the rest of the Jewish community. To survive harsh times, he was forced to become a pirate, soon joining the infamous Henry Morgan. He became Sir Morgan’s trusted advisor. Henriques later ventured on his own, establishing a pirate island off the Brazilian coast. The Inquisition sought to capture him for years, unsuccessfully, and Henriques saw it as his mission to avenge the evil that the Spanish and Portuguese had done to the Jews. After the English conquered Jamaica, Henriques settled there and lived out the rest of his life on the island, helping to establish its Jewish community. When his old friend Henry Morgan became Jamaica’s governor, he gave Henriques a full pardon for piracy in 1681.

Illustration depicting the burning of Jews at the stake, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)

Words of the Week

The Jews are our chief supplyers in Barbadoes, and would sell very cheap, and give one not seldom two years to pay, by which credit the poorer sort of planter did wonderfully improve their condition.
– Sir Thomas Modyford (d. 1679), English governor of Barbados and Jamaica

*The biography above is adapted from Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, by Ed Kritzler.

Jew of the Week: Henriques Dias Milao-Caceres

Sean Paul at the Western Wall

Henriques Dias Milao-Caceres (1528-1609) was born in Portugal to a Sephardic Jewish family that was exiled from Spain during the 1492 expulsion. The family had refused to convert to Christianity and fled to Portugal in the hopes of being able to practice their religion. Unfortunately, the Portuguese soon forced them to convert as well. Nonetheless, the majority of these forced converts continue to practice Judaism in secret. Henriques Dias was among them, and succeeded in amassing a large fortune through his booming businesses in Lisbon. Towards the end of his life, he was arrested on false charges, and sentenced to death by the Inquisition. He was burned at the stake at age 82, together with two other members of his family. The rest of the family was forced to watch the execution, and subsequently adopted “Henriques” as a surname in his honour. The family grew tremendously and separated into various branches, including a British, Danish, Swedish, and German branch. A large part of the British branch ultimately settled in Jamaica, where they were free to practice their religion once more, and became one of the wealthiest and most influential Sephardic Jewish families on the Caribbean island. (It should be noted that the family has also drawn some heavy criticism for once being involved in slave-holding.) Among the patrons of this family was Ronnie Henriques, who enlisted in the British Army during World War II to fight the Nazis. He went missing in action until later being freed from a Nazi prison camp, and returning to Jamaica. His grandson is Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques, better known as reggae pop star Sean Paul (who was raised Catholic, but is proud of his Jewish heritage). Other notable members of the Henriques family include Moses (Cohen) Henriques, a real ‘Pirate of the Caribbean’ who had his own pirate island off the coast of Brazil, as well as British-Jewish philanthropist and author Sir Basil Henriques, and famous Danish composer Valdemar Fini Henriques.

Words of the Week

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Mahatma Gandhi

Jew of the Week: Yehoshua Sofer

The Father of Israeli Hip Hop – and Hebrew Martial Arts

Nigel Wilson, aka Yehoshua Sofer

Nigel Wilson (b. 1958) was born in Jamaica to a Chasidic family, and grew up in Los Angeles. There, he fervently studied the Korean martial arts of Tang Soo Do and Kuk Sool Won, earning black belts in each before working as a martial arts trainer and bodyguard. At the same time, he took a great interest in LA’s hip hop scene. In 1989, Wilson moved to Israel and became a rap artist himself, under the stage name Nigel Ha’Admor. His songs gave rise to a new form of “street Hebrew”, and inspired later famous Israeli rappers like Subliminal and Hadag Nahash, which is why some have described Wilson as the “father of Israeli hip hop”. By 2000, his rapping days were behind him, and Wilson went back to martial arts, heading a Korean martial arts school in Jerusalem for a couple of years before opening his own schools in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. These schools, however, were quite different, teaching a new martial arts style that Wilson, now known as Yehoshua Sofer, called Abir Qesheth. Hebrew for “Bow Warrior”, Sofer claimed that this was an ancient Israelite martial art going back to at least the time of King David, and passed down in secret from generation to generation by a small group of grandmasters. He claimed to have received this wisdom from his own father, tracing it back through their Yemenite Jewish roots, as the secluded Jews in Yemen were the last to carry on the Abir tradition. Not surprisingly, many scoff at Sofer’s claims, especially in light of his background in the entertainment industry. However, researchers have indeed found a great deal of supporting evidence for his claims, and Abir has grown tremendously in popularity. Today, it is a complete fighting system with unique, practical self-defense tactics based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. More significantly, Abir incorporates spiritual teachings, Jewish prayer, and Torah study, making it truly one-of-a-kind. Before all else, Sofer’s greatest vision is to end the age-old stereotype of the “weak diaspora Jew” and bring back the old spirit of the ancient Hebrew warrior.

Words of the Week

Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools.
– Napoleon Bonaparte