Jewish-American organized crime

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Largely originating from the immigration from Eastern Europe during the late-19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish-American organized crime (sometimes referred to as the Kosher Nostra — a pun on the Italian term Cosa Nostra — Kosher Mafia, the Jewish Mob or the Jewish Mafia) emerged during the later years of the "Gangs of New York" era as Jewish gangs under gang lord Monk Eastman, whose ranks included Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, "Big" Jack Zelig and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis, competed with Italian gang leader Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang for control of New York's underworld as the domination of Irish street gangs began to decline.

Jewish-American organized crime was not exclusively a New York phenomenon, however, as seen during the early 20th century in other major cities with a considerable Jewish-American population as predominantly Jewish-American gangs operated as well, such as The Purple Gang in Detroit.

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[edit] Characteristics

Jewish-American gangsters were involved in many areas of organized crime, including prostitution[1] and narcotics. Their role was also significant in New York's burgeoning labour movement especially the garment and trucking unions, as well as poultry workers. Jewish-American organized crime was a matter of obvious concern to the community, both because Jewish gangster's principal victims were other Jews and because Jewish gangsterism provided fodder for antisemitic propaganda.[2] It did not exemplify Jewish immigration and its offspring, nevertheless it was exploited by anti-semites and anti-immigration forces as arguments to bolster their prejudices. However, it did exist in large enough reality to permeate the Lower East Side and Brownsville areas in New York City,[3] and other major American cities.

Jewish American organized crime is a reflection of the ethnic succession among gangsters, which has tended to follow the immigrant waves in the United States: English, German, Irish, Jewish and then Italian. Ethnic involvement in organized crime gave rise to alien conspiracy theories in the US law enforcement community in which the conception of organized crime as an alien and united entity was vital. It was presented as many-faced, calculating and relentlessly probing for weak spots in the armour of American morality. Morality had to be protected from this alien threat. The conspiracy theories conveniently ignored the fact that Jewish-American and Italian-American criminals were subordinate to native-born and Irish-American organized crime networks before the 1920s.[4]

Jewish American organized crime is part of an entire literature, particularly in the United States, on "tough Jews," mainly gangsters and boxers among whom Jews played a prominent role, often to the delight - even pride - of other Jews, especially Jewish men, who considered them tougher, more aggressive role models to free them from the stigma of defenselessness and powerlessness and the dominant Jewish stereotype: intellectualism and professional legitimacy, not physical aggressiveness and lawlessness, which was more stereotypical of the Irish and Italian immigrants and their mobs. According to Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons and Gangster Dreams: "if Jewish gangsters still thrived today, if they hadn't gone legit, if Jews of my generation didn't regard them as figments, creatures to be classed with Big Foot and the Loch Ness monster, I think the Jewish community would be better off."[5]

Following Cohen's line of reasoning, one could say that Jewish American organized crime played a role in the emancipation of the Jewish American community in American society. However, Cohen's glamorization of Jewish gangsters ignores that they were criminals who made their money by extorting and exploiting other Jews, including trafficking in Jewish women,[1] and were generally considered a scourge within the community. The glamorization of Jewish gangsters reflects more on the desire of a certain generation of American Jewish males to have macho role models than on actual reality, which is best captured in the Yiddish press and literature of the 20s and 30s, and is unambivalent in its condemnation of Jewish mobsters.[citation needed]

[edit] Early years

As would their Italian counterparts, gangs specializing in extortion began operating in the heavily Jewish neighborhoods of New York's Lower East Side most prominently the so-called Yiddish Black Hand headed by Jacob Levinsky, Charles "Charlie the Cripple" Litoffsky and Joseph Toplinsky during the early 1900s. Early in the century a significant Jewish underworld already existed, giving birth to a litany of criminal slang with Yiddish origins. A pimp was known as a "simcha," a detective as a "shamus" and a loafer as a "trombenik."[6] Jewish-American organized crime arose among slum kids who in pre-puberty stole from pushcarts, who as adolescents extorted money from store owners, who as young adults practiced schlamming (wielding an iron pipe wrapped in newspaper against striking workers or against scabs) – until they developed into well organized criminal gangs in a wide variety of criminal enterprises boosted by Prohibition.

For both second-generation Jewish and Italian immigrants, the lure of crime often competed quite successfully with mainstream opportunities. There was a Jewish "crime wave" in early-20th-century New York. About a sixth of the city's felony arrests were Jews. Many young Jewish criminals gravitated toward the "rackets," where they met up with the children of Irish, Italian, and other immigrants.[7]

As the 20th century progressed, Jewish-American mobsters such as "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig entered labour racketeering, hiring out to both businesses and labor unions as strong arm men. Labor racketeering or "labor slugging" as it was known, would become a source of conflict as it came under the domination of several racketeers including former Five Points Gang members Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan and Johnny Spanish during the Labor slugger wars until its eventual takeover by Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro in 1927. Other organized crime figures would include Moses Annenberg and Arnold Rothstein, the latter reportedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. [8]

According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Arnold Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top."[9] According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person who first saw in Prohibition a business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth, who "understood the truths of early century capitalism (hypocrisy, exclusion, greed) and came to dominate them". Rothstein was the Moses of the Jewish gangsters, according to Cohen, the progenitor, a rich man's son who showed the young hoodlums of the Bowery how to have style; indeed, the man who, the Sicilian-American gangster Lucky Luciano would later say, "taught me how to dress".[10]

[edit] From the Roaring 20's into the Great Depression

During Prohibition (1920-1933), Jewish gangsters became major operatives in the American underworld and played prominent roles in the creation and extension of organized crime in the United States. At the time, Jewish gangs dominated illicit activities in a number of America's largest cities, including Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia. Numerous bootlegging gangs such as the Bug and Meyer Mob headed by Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel and Abe Bernstein's Purple Gang [11] would see the rise of Jewish-American organized crime at its height. Other mobsters would include Dutch Schultz, [12] Moe Dalitz, Charles "King" Solomon and Abner "Longy" Zwillman.

During this time, Italian mobster Charlie Luciano began plotting against the Old World Sicilian mafiosi and, enlisting the help of longtime associates Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Siegel, a conference was held at New York's Franconia Hotel on November 11, 1931 which included mobsters such as Jacob Shapiro, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Joseph "Doc" Stacher, Hyman "Curly" Holtz, Louis "Shadows" Kravitz, Harry Tietlebaum, Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick and Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg. During this meeting, Luciano and Lansky were able to convince the Jewish-American mobsters to join a "combine", supposedly known as the National Crime Syndicate, following the end of the Castellammarese War. At the meetings conclusion, "Bugsy" Siegel supposedly declared "The yids and the dagos will no longer fight each other." [13]

Those Jewish gangsters hostile to the idea of cooperation with non-Jewish rivals were gradually eliminated, most notably Philadelphia bootlegger Waxey Gordon who was anonymously implicated by rival syndicate gangsters resulting in his eventual conviction for tax evasion. Following Gordon's imprisonment, his operations were assumed by Nig Rosen and Max "Boo Hoo" Hoff.

Under Lansky, Jewish mobsters became involved in syndicate gambling interests in Cuba and Las Vegas. [14] Buchalter would also lead the predominantly Jewish Murder Incorporated as the Luciano-Meyer syndicate's exclusive hitmen. [15]

[edit] Post-war years

For several decades after World War II, the dominant figures in organized crime were second-generation Jews and Italians, often working in concert. As late as the 1960s, Jewish presence in organized crime was still acknowledged as Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna explained to hitman and later government informant Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno:

"Meyer's got a Jewish family built along the same lines as our thing. But his family's all over the country. He's got guys like Lou Rhody and Dalitz, Doc Stacher, Gus Greenbaum,, sharp [expletive] guys, good businessmen, and they know better than to try to [expletive] with us."

Jewish-American organized crime derived from dislocation and poverty, where language and custom made the community vulnerable to undesirables, the sort of thing that fosters criminality among any other ethnicity in a similar situation. As Jews improved their conditions, the Jewish thug and racketeer either disappeared or merged into a more assimilated American crime environment. American Jews quietly buried the public memory of the gangster past; unlike the Mafia, famous Jewish American gangsters like Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz and Bugsy Siegel founded no crime families.[16]

Much like Irish Americans and other ethnicities (with exception to Italian American criminal organizations), Jewish-American presence in organized crime gradually faded after World War II. Jewish-American individuals remained associated with organized crime figures,[17] but the criminal organizations and gangs which once rivaled the Italian and Irish-American mobsters during the first half of the 20th century have long since disappeared.

[edit] Jewish-American organized crime and Israel

Several notable Jewish American mobsters provided financial support for Israel through donations to Jewish organizations since the country's independence in 1948. As a result, Israel became an option for Jewish-American gangsters fleeing criminal charges or facing deportation from the United States such as Joseph "Doc" Stacher and Meyer Lansky, the latter being denied citizenship by then Prime Minister Golda Meir who had been informed by the United States government of Lansky's long history in organized crime. [18]

[edit] Recent years

In more recent years Jewish-American organized crime has reappeared in the forms of both Israeli and Russian mafia criminal groups.

The Soviet and Russian émigré community in New York's Brighton Beach contains a large Jewish presence, as does its criminal element. However it must be noted that many immigrants from the Soviet republics faked a Jewish identity to be allowed into the United States, and these newer 'Jewish' gangsters such as Ludwig Fainberg share more in common culturally with Russia and the Soviet republics than their predecessors such as Mayer Lansky. [19]

Israeli mobsters also have a presence in the United States. Yehuda “Johnny” Attias arrived in New York in 1987 and immediately made himself known by slaying a local heroin kingpin, another Israeli named Moussan Alyian. He and his crew became heavily involved in drug trafficking, making millions through importing heroin from Amsterdam and Thailand as well as hashish from Turkey. They also pulled off the biggest gold heist in the history of Manhattan's jewellery district, getting away with over $4 million in gold jewellery. However Attias was ultimately murdered in January 1990, and New York's Israeli mafia fell apart soon after. Several members such as Ron Gonen had turned informant and the authorities arrested the rest of the gang in September of that year. [20]

The Israeli mafia is heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking in America [21] and were allegedly the suppliers to former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano in his Arizona drug ring. [22]

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] In film

[edit] In literature

[edit] In comics

[edit] In video games

  • In Grand Theft Auto IV the Jewish Mafia is briefly involved in the storyline through diamond dealing.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Edward J. Bristow, Prostitution & Prejudice, The Jewish Fight against White Slavery, 1870-1939, Schocken, 1983
  2. ^ Killer Jews, by Rachel Rubin, Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 8(2) (2001) 145-148
  3. ^ Books: Jewish Crime, The New York Times, August 8, 1984
  4. ^ Organized Crime, USA: Changing Perceptions from Prohibition to the Present Day, Michael Woodiwiss, BAAS Pamphlet No. 19 (First Published 1990)
  5. ^ Cohen, Rich (1999). Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams, London: Vintage; Review of Tough Jews in The New York Times. For a critique on this interpretation, see: Adam Levitin, Tough Jews by Rich Cohen, Commentary, August 1998. See also Jews You Can Use: The so-called glamour of the Jewish mob, by Jeffrey Goldberg, Slate, April 12, 1998, and Tough Guys, by Tom Teicholz, Jewish Journal, Auhgust 13, 2004
  6. ^ Free-wheeling U.S. spirit stoked gangsters, prof says, Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, December 4, 1998
  7. ^ The Second Generation from the Last Great Wave of Immigration: Setting the Record Straight, by Nancy Foner, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York & Richard Alba, State University of New York at Albany, October 2006
  8. ^ Pietrusza, David (2003). Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1250-3
  9. ^ Katcher, Leo (1959/1994). The Big Bankroll. The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein, New York: Da Capo Press
  10. ^ Defenders of the faith, The Guardian, Saturday July 6, 2002; Cohen, Rich (1999). Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams, London: Vintage
  11. ^ Kavieff, Paul R. (2000). The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910-1945. New York: Barricade.
  12. ^ Sann, Paul (1971). Kill the Dutchman!: The Story of Dutch Schultz. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House.
  13. ^ Sifakis, Carl (2005). The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
  14. ^ Lacey, Robert (1991). Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, New York: Little Brown.
  15. ^ Turkus, Burton, and Sid Feder (1951). Murder, Inc.: The Story of the Syndicate. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young.
  16. ^ Defenders of the faith, The Guardian, Saturday July 6, 2002
  17. ^ Steffensmeier, Darrell J. and T. Ulmer (2005). Confessions of a Dying Thief: Understanding Criminal Careers and Illegal Enterprise. New Brunswick (NJ): Aldine Transaction. ISBN 0-202-30760-3
  18. ^ Gribben, Mark. Meyer Lansky: Mastermind of the Mob. Crime Library. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  19. ^ Robert I. Friedman, Red Mafia: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America ISBN 0316294748
  20. ^ Dave Copeland, Blood and Volume: Inside New York's Israeli Mafia ISBN 1569803277
  21. ^ BBC News - Israel struggles to keep a lid on crime http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3723895.stm
  22. ^ BBC News - FBI and the mafia: A tale of betrayal http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1290579.stm

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