ABSTRACT
The role of Jews in international maritime commerce during the medieval period has attracted considerable interest.1 Here I shall point to the cases in which Jews were not merely travelling merchants or passengers,2 but shipowners and operators. The character of the maritime trade of the period will be examined in an attempt to assess the plausibility of Jewish seafaring in principle and then to determine how Jews were different from others engaged in seafaring and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of their maritime occupation.
