September 7 1628 – 9 Elul 5388
Jewish pirate Moses Cohen Henriques, son of Portuguese conversos who took shelter in Holland, fought in Cuba’s Battle of the Bay of Matanzas during the Eighty Years’ War for Dutch independence from Spain. A commander of Admiral Pieter Pietersen Heyn’s Dutch fleet, Henriques helped capture a Spanish fleet bearing cargo worth over eleven million gulden (about a million dollars in today’s terms). He also participated in the Dutch conquest of Northeast Brazil from Portugal and in the establishment of the Dutch colony of Recife, settling Jews there. Henriques later founded his own island kingdom off the Brazilian coast and even advised the notorious pirate Henry Morgan.
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