Author on Jewish pirate Lafitte to appear on Monday at JCC

Local author Morgan Molthrop will be the featured speaker at this Monday’s monthly Morris Bart, Sr. Lecture at the Uptown Jewish Community Center on January 9.

Morgan Molthrop’s latest book.

Molthrop, who has published six other books, is promoting his latest book “Jean Lafitte’s Pirate Code: 17 Strategies for Acquiring Untold Fortune from America’s First Laissez Faire Capitalist” just one day after the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans in which Lafitte and his fellow privateers figured so prominently.

There is no doubt that Lafitte was a great financial genius, according to Molthrop, who says that Lafitte himself admitted that his maternal grandparents were persecuted Jews.

“I’ve never seen a book that addresses his business acumen,” Molthrop said in an exclusive CCJN interview. “When he arrived here, he banked a lot of money,” he said. “A lot of the banks of Louisiana were bankrolled by pirate money.”

The Bart lecture will feature lunch and is free for JCC members and $10.00 to others. RSVPs were to be given to Rachel Ruth at the center at 504-897-0143.