Set in the years around 1492, Yid­dish for Pirates recounts the com­pelling sto­ry of Moishe, a Bar Mitz­vah boy who leaves home to join a ship’s crew, where he meets Aaron, the poly­glot par­rot who becomes his near-con­stant companion.

From a present-day Flori­da nurs­ing home, this wise­crack­ing yet poet­ic bird guides us through a world of pirate ships, Yid­dish jokes and trea­sure maps. But Inqui­si­tion Spain is a dan­ger­ous time to be Jew­ish and Moishe joins a band of hid­den Jews try­ing to pre­serve some for­bid­den books. He falls in love with a young woman, Sarah; though they are sep­a­rat­ed by cir­cum­stance, Moishe’s wan­der­ings are moti­vat­ed as much by their con­nec­tion as by his quest for loot and free­dom. When all Jews are expelled from Spain, Moishe trav­els to the Caribbean with the ambi­tious Christo­pher Colum­bus, a self-made man who loves his cre­ator. Moishe even­tu­al­ly becomes a pirate and seeks revenge on the Span­ish while seek­ing the ulti­mate booty: the Foun­tain of Youth.