Just a thought I had--wouldn't it be cool if there were Yiddish-speaking pirates in the Baltic and thereabouts? What would need to change for this to happen? A more autonomous, but resource-poor, Jewish community on the coast?
One of the big problems here is that there wasn't a large group of Jews with any tradition as fishermen or sailors; it'll be hard for people to turn pirate if they don't know how to use boats. So you might start by seeding the Baltic coast with alt-shtetls focused on fishing.
\Pirates who don't say Aaarrr
but Rrrresh?
2) Jewish Cossacks existed by then:From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding Ottoman territories. The Polish government could not control the Cossacks, but was held responsible as the men were nominally their subjects. In retaliation, Tatars living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. In retaliation, Cossack pirates started raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the Dnieper River.
Well besides Portugeuse Jews. If you really want Jewish pirates it can be done, just not likely they'll speak Yiddish.
but Blackbeard didn't have a hookI just had this hilarious image of a Blackbeard type character with the sidelocks and using a Menorrah instead of the hook on his hand.
Come on, let's face it, pirates were the first equal opportunity employers. It was almost compulsory to have an odd number of limbs, or at the very least have something missing!
Have there even been Jewish pirates in the past?