Phil Manzanera discovers his Jewish Heritage— and its hilarious!

Anger over Brexit — the United Kingdom’s decision to pull out of the European Union in 2020 — led one of rock ’n’ roll’s most accomplished guitarists to discover his Jewish ancestry.

And that includes a genuine pirate of the Caribbean, no less.

The musician in question is Phil Manzanera, best known as guitarist in Roxy Music from 1972 until its recent farewell tour in 2022,  and still working on archival projects for the band. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s resume also boasts solo albums and a collection of his own bands as well as collaborations with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and producing artists such as John Cale, Split Enz, Nina Hagen, Robi Draco Rosa and others. He and Roxy saxophonist Andy Mackay continue to work on musical projects together.

It’s all chronicled in his new memoir Revolucion To Roxy (Expression Books)  — including an entire chapter about his lineage back to a historic Sephardic pirate.

“When the U.K. left the E.U., Brexit, everybody was so cheesed off and trying to think of ways to get a European, E.U. passport,” Manzanera, 73, explains via Zoom from his home studio in England. He came across a newspaper story saying that anyone who could prove Sephardic Jewish ancestry could apply for a passport in Spain or Portugal, “so everybody started scrolling through their Ancestry.com to see what they can find.”

Manzanera, for his part, “recalled hearing a rumor that my mother’s long-since buried family might have some Jewish heritage,” which led him to examine his own family tree. That genealogical spelunking led him to the Cohen Henriquez line from Curacao, part of the colonial Dutch Indies. That part of the family presumably went further back to Spain and the Alhambra Decree of 1492 that forced any Jews living in Spain to convert to Catholicism or leave. His maternal great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Henriquez Cohen, hailed from Barranquilla in Columbia, and looking back even further, Manzanera discovered ancestors who had fled to Holland, including “great, great, great, great — I’ve lost track” uncle Moses Cohen Henriques (aka Benjamin Cohen). And he was shocked by his ancestor’s notoriety.

“It’s a pirate!” Manzanera says with a laugh. “I’m looking through the (family tree) and I’m finding Henriques and Cohen Henriques and going further and further back, and I just thought off the top of my head ‘I’ll just Wikipedia,’ and he’s got his own page. I said, ‘I cannot believe this.’ and his story is just, like, hilarious.”

The Portuguese-born Cohen Henriques worked with the Dutch West India Company, which he helped to capture treasure from Spanish ships. He subsequently led a Jewish contingent, part of the Dutch invasion of Brazil during 1630, and helped to bring the first rabbi, synagogue and mikvah to what was called the New World.

After the Portuguese recaptured Brazil and began persecuting Jews, however, Cohen Henriques became a lieutenant for notorious pirate Captain Harry Morgan (as in the popular rum brand). Occupying his own island near the Brazilian coast, Cohen Henriques plundered Spanish and Portuguese ships and is credited with more than $1 billion in thefts, in today’s valuation, from his raids.

“This guy just rinsed Spain, like, the coffers,” says Manzanera, who’s accompanied the Revolucion To Roxy book with an album of songs inspired by his family history. “He nicked so much gold bullion, it was amazing. They were after him for years but never caught him. Maybe that’s payback for expelling his people from Spain in 1492, you know?”

Cohen Henriques wound up in Jamaica after Morgan became governor there in 1681. He granted his trusted adviser a full pardon, and Cohen Henriques established a Jewish community on the island and remained there until his death.

“I had a famous theatrical lawyer for years in London named John Cohen,” Manzanera says. “When I told him the story I said, ‘John, I think there’s a musical in this. Has there ever been a musical about a Jewish pirate? Come on!” The attorney suggested Manzanera visit Bevis Marks synagogue in London, which began the process of having his lineage accredited (“stamped,” as he calls it). Spain has rescinded the citizenship offer but Portugal’s is still active at the moment.

In the meantime, Manzanera is happy to be finding all these fresh things about his heritage and is even talking about a second volume of the memoir.

“This is all sort of new to me,” says Manzanera, who was born Phillip Targett-Adams in London but was raised in Cuba, Hawaii, Venezuela and Colombia (his father worked for the British Overseas Air Corporation (BOAC). “I’ve discovered lots of interesting facts about the history of the Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Judaism, and one goes back further and further and further, and you get a better understanding of what’s happened over the last 2,000 years — or more.

“See, the whole thing about history is just fascinating, and it churns up some fancy little anecdote that you never could have imagined would be part of your life. And that’s so enriching.”