Jewish-American organized crime

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(Redirected from
Jewish mafia
)
"Jewish mafia" redirects here. For Jewish organized crime groups in Israel and organized crime groups consisting of mostly Jewish Israelis, see Israeli mafia.

Jewish-American mafia
Kosher Mafia
Ashkenazi Jewish
Criminal activities
Allies

Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the

Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States
.

In the late 19th century in New York City,

Francesco Cirofisi). It was one of the most violent gangs of the early 20th century and became famous for the murder of gambler and gangster Herman Rosenthal
.

In the early 1920s, stimulated by the economic opportunities of the

Italian-American Mafia
.

The largely Jewish-American and Italian-American gang which was known as Murder, Inc. and Jewish mobsters such as Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen, Harold "Hooky" Rothman, Dutch Schultz, and Bugsy Siegel developed close ties with the Italian-American Mafia and gained a significant amount of influence within it; eventually, they formed a loosely organized, mostly Jewish and Italian criminal syndicate which the press named the "National Crime Syndicate." Jewish and Italian crime groups increasingly became interconnected in the 1920s and 1930s, and their connections continued into the 1960s and beyond, partially because both groups often occupied the same neighborhoods and social statuses of the time. The two ethnic crime groups became especially close in New York City following the establishment of the close relationship between partners Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky and their subsequent elimination of many of the so-called "Mustache Pete" types ⁠— Sicilian-born gangsters who often refused to work with non-Italians and even non-Sicilians. The lines between Jewish and Italian criminal organizations often blurred throughout the 20th century. For decades after, Jewish-American mobsters would continue to work closely and at times compete with Italian-American organized crime.[6]

Origins and characteristics

The Siegel family's memorial plaque in the Bialystoker Synagogue.[7]

Jewish-American gangsters were involved in many different criminal activities, including murder,

Lower East Side and Brownsville in New York City,[10] and were also present in other major American cities. American Jewish mafia boss Kid Cann held sway over Minneapolis
for over four decades and remains the most notorious mobster in the history of Minnesota.

Jewish-American organized crime was a reflection of the ethnic succession among gangsters, which has tended to follow the immigrant waves in the United States: English, German, Irish, Jewish, Italian, Asian and Latino. 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. The involvement of a small percentage of recent immigrants in organized crime created a lasting stereotype of devious immigrants corrupting the morality of native-born Americans. Organized crime was a complex set of relations between the recently arrived Jewish and Italian criminals and groups like the

Irish-American organized crime networks, which had been established before the 1920s and which the newer groups were sometimes subordinate to.[11]

Although never receiving close to the level of cultural attention of the

Italian-American Mafia, from the late 1960s, Jewish-American gangsters would figure as characters in Jewish American literature. For some writers, Jewish gangsters and boxers in the post-World War II era were seen as tougher, more aggressive literary role models, freeing the community from the stigma of defenselessness and powerlessness, compared with the physical aggressiveness and lawlessness more associated with the Irish and Italian immigrants.[12][13][14] 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".[13] However, Cohen's description of Jewish gangsters ignores their criminality and immorality. These tough characters were still gangsters who extorted, exploited and murdered other members of the Jewish-American community for profit. They forced Jewish women into prostitution,[8][page needed] and were generally considered a scourge within their own community.[15] The Yiddish press and literature of the 1920s and 1930s were resolute in their condemnation of Jewish mobsters.[citation needed
]

History

19th century to early 20th century

A large wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced Jewish mobsters such as Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, "Big" Jack Zelig, and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis, who competed with and were acknowledged by Italian and Irish gangs.

Just as with their

Joseph Toplinsky during the early 20th century. A significant Jewish underworld already existed in New York at the start of the 20th century, with Jewish mobsters conversing in a jargon with Yiddish origins. A pimp was known as a "simcha", a detective as a "shamus", and a loafer as a "trombenik".[16] Jewish-American organized crime arose among "slum kids who as prepubescents 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 as adults they joined well-organized gangs involved in a wide variety of criminal enterprises boosted by prohibition.[17]

The lure of quick money, power, and the romance of the criminal lifestyle was attractive to both second-generation Jewish and Italian immigrants. There was a supposed Jewish "crime wave" in early 20th century New York. In disturbing numbers, young Jews had joined crime "

rackets", it was said, along with children of Irish, Italian and other immigrants.[18] However, the supposed Jewish-immigrant crime wave may have been exaggerated by the press and law enforcement. [citation needed] Crime and population figures show that Jews in New York committed crimes at a rate far below the average for the wider society. As described by sociologist Stephen Steinberg, less than a sixth of the city's felony arrests were Jews during the 1920s, when Jews constituted nearly a third of the city's population.[19]

As the 20th century progressed, Jewish-American mobsters such as

Labor slugger wars until its eventual takeover by Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro in 1927. Other Jewish organized crime figures involved in controlling labor unions include Moses Annenberg and Arnold Rothstein, the latter reportedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series.[5][page needed
]

Prohibition

According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top."[4][page needed] According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person to see during prohibition (1920–1933) if one had an idea for a tremendous business opportunity, legal or not. Rothstein "understood the truths of early 20th century capitalism (hypocrisy, exclusion, greed) and came to dominate them". According to Cohen, Rothstein was the 'Moses of Jewish gangsters', a rich man's son, who showed the young and uneducated hoodlums of the Bowery how to have style. Lucky Luciano, who would become a prominent boss within the Italian-American Mafia and organize New York's Five Families, once claimed that Arnold Rothstein "taught me how to dress". The stereotypical attire of the American mobster portrayed in movies can partially trace its roots directly to Rothstein.[20][21][page needed]

During prohibition, Jewish gangsters became major operatives in the American underworld and played prominent roles in the distribution of illegal alcohol and the spread of organized crime throughout the United States. At the time, Jewish gangs operated primarily in 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[22][page needed] would see the rise of Jewish-American organized crime to its height. Other Jewish mobsters, including Dutch Schultz of New York City,[23][page needed] Moe Dalitz of Michigan, Kid Cann of Minneapolis, Charles "King" Solomon of Boston and Abner "Longy" Zwillman (the "Al Capone of New Jersey") became wealthy during prohibition.

During this time, Luciano successfully eliminated the Old World Sicilian Mafia bosses like

Louis "Shadows" Kravitz, Harry Tietlebaum, Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick and Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg. During this meeting, Luciano and Lansky convinced the Jewish-American mobsters of the benefits of cooperating with the Italian-American Mafia in a newly created consortium called the National Crime Syndicate by the press. At the meeting's conclusion, "Bugsy" Siegel supposedly declared "The yids and the dagos will no longer fight each other."[24][page needed
]

Those Jewish gangsters hostile to the idea of cooperation with non-Jewish rivals gradually receded, most notably Philadelphia bootlegger Waxey Gordon, who was convicted and imprisoned for tax evasion based on evidence provided to United States Attorney Thomas E. Dewey by Lansky.[25] Following Gordon's imprisonment, his operations were assumed by Nig Rosen and Max "Boo Hoo" Hoff.

During prohibition Moe Dalitz established the Cleveland Syndicate with fellow Jewish gangsters Louis Rothkopf, Maurice Klein, Sam Tucker, Charles Polizzi, and Irish gangster Blackjack McGinty. Charles Polizzi was born Leo Berkowitz to Jewish biological parents who died when he was an infant. Charles was adopted by the Polizzi family and his adoptive brother, Alfred Polizzi, was the head of the Italian Mayfield Road Mob. The Syndicate was heavily involved with bootlegging on Lake Erie and developed what was known as the Little Jewish Navy.[26] The Syndicate operated casinos in Youngstown, Northern Kentucky, and Florida. The Syndicate attended the Atlantic City Conference representing Cleveland. The Syndicate ran numerous casinos in Newport, Kentucky including the original The Flamingo Hotel & Casino opens (1946), and Tropicana.[27] The Syndicate's reign, in Northern Kentucky, came to an end following a botched attempt to discredit George Ratterman, a candidate for sheriff and a federal crackdown during the Kennedy Administration.

The Cleveland Syndicate members were early investors in the

Agua Caliente Racetrack.[28]

Under Lansky, Jewish mobsters became involved in syndicate gambling interests in Cuba, Miami, and Las Vegas.[29][page needed] Buchalter would also lead the predominantly Jewish Murder, Inc. as the Luciano-Meyer syndicate's exclusive hitmen.[30][page needed]

After World War II

Meyer Lansky in 1958

Following World War II, the dominant figures in organized crime tended to be second-generation Italian-Americans and Jewish-Americans. As late as the 1960s, Jewish presence in organized crime was still acknowledged as being of significance. As Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna explained to hitman and later government informant Jimmy Fratianno:

Meyer's got a Jewish family built along the same lines as

Doc Stacher, Gus Greenbaum, sharp fucking guys, good businessmen, and they know better than try to fuck us.[31][32]

Jewish mobsters, such as Meyer Lansky and the Los Angeles-based Mickey Cohen, along with Harold "Hooky" Rothman, continued to hold significant power and control organized crime groups in New York City, New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Las Vegas, while the Jewish-American presence remained strong in Italian-American criminal rackets. Shondor Birns was a Jewish crime boss, in Cleveland, who controlled numbers, prostitution, theft, and gambling rackets. Birns was active until 1975 when he was murdered by Irish gangster Danny Greene.

Jewish-American organized crime derived from dislocation and poverty, where language and custom made the community vulnerable to undesirables, the sort of thing that it is claimed fosters criminality among any other ethnicity in a similar situation.[18] As American 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.[20]

Much like Irish-Americans and other ethnicities (with the exception of Italian-American criminal organizations), Jewish-American presence in organized crime began to decline after World War II. Jewish-American individuals remain closely associated with organized crime, especially Italian-American and Israeli organized crime,[33][page needed] but the Jewish-American criminal organizations and gangs which once rivaled the Italian and Irish-American mobsters during the first half of the 20th century have largely faded.

Late 20th century to present

In more recent years, Jewish-American organized crime has reappeared in the form of Orthodox Jewish, Israeli and Jewish-Russian mafia criminal groups. Many of the Russian mobsters active in New York, especially Brighton Beach, are actually Soviet Jews, including Marat Balagula, Boris Nayfeld, and Evsei Agron.

From the 1990s until 2013, members of the

Satmar Hasidic Jews who were part of what The Forward described as the "Orthodox divorce underworld".[37] The pair had colluded with a third man to perform a contract killing on an estranged husband.[38]

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 creation in 1948. Jewish-American gangsters used Israel's Law of Return to flee criminal charges or face deportation. Notables include Joseph "Doc" Stacher, who built up Las Vegas by pairing the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate. Prime Minister Golda Meir set out to reverse this trend in 1970, when she denied entrance to Meyer Lansky.[39]

In 2010, it was reported by Wikileaks that the United States Embassy in Israel, in a cable titled "Israel: The Promised Land of Organized Crime?", had expressed grave concern about the activities of Israeli organized crime figures, and was taking measures to prevent members of crime families from being issued visas to the United States. American diplomats expressed concern that Inbal Gavrieli, the niece of one of Israel's most powerful mafia bosses, had been elected to the Knesset as an MK for Likud.[40]

Russian and Israeli mafia in the United States

The

Jackson-Vanik Amendment have shielded new Jewish-American gangsters, such as Marat Balagula, Boris Nayfeld, Monya Elson, and Ludwig Fainberg. They were raised, however, as secular Jews and share more in common culturally with Gentiles from the former Soviet Union than with their predecessors, such as Meyer Lansky, Kid Cann, and Mickey Cohen, who grew up in families that practiced Orthodox Judaism.[41][page needed
]

Soviet Jewish organized crime figures from other nations, such as

Bank of New York
in 1998.

Organized criminals from the

Abergil crime family) has also been heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking to America.[42]

Notable members and associates

Further information: Category:Jewish American gangsters and List of Jewish American mobsters

See also

Notes

  1. Afrikaans: ons stuk, West Frisian
    : ús stik.

References

  1. ISBN 2-07-042225-9
    .
  2. ^ "Forgetting sixth commandment: Jewish gangsters were once known in organized crime circles as the 'Kosher Nostra'" Archived June 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, The Jewish Independent, September 19, 2008
  3. ^ a b Tyler, Gus (June 22, 1970). "Book of the Week: The Kosher Nostra". New York. Vol. 3, no. 25. p. 50. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Katcher, Leo (1959/1994). The Big Bankroll. The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein, New York: Da Capo Press
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-7867-1250-3
  6. ^ Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia, pp. 319–321
  7. Levites
    ) and the one for Siegel, whose Hebrew name is "Bairush HaLevi ben Reb Mordechai Dov HaLevi;" from this we see that Bugsy was named for his grandfather, Dov, meaning bear (Bairush is the Yiddish for Dov), which was Americanized to Benjamin. All fathers are called Reb as an honorific on memorial plaques; Reb means "teacher" as in Rabbi.
  8. ^ a b Edward J. Bristow, Prostitution & Prejudice, The Jewish Fight against White Slavery, 1870–1939, Schocken, 1983
  9. ^ Killer Jews Archived September 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, by Rachel Rubin, Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 8(2) (2001) 145–148
  10. ^ Richard F. Shepard, "Books: Jewish Crime" Archived January 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, August 8, 1984
  11. ^ Organized Crime, USA: Changing Perceptions from Prohibition to the Present Day Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Michael Woodiwiss, BAAS Pamphlet No. 19 (First Published 1990)
  12. ISBN 1-84645-025-X
  13. ^ a b Cohen, Rich (1999). Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams, London: Vintage; Review of Tough Jews Archived January 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine in The New York Times. For a critique on this interpretation, see: Adam Levitin, "Tough Jews by Rich Cohen" Archived May 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Commentary, August 1998. See also: "Home Boys" Archived January 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, by Paul Breines, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1998; "Jews You Can Use: The so-called glamour of the Jewish mob" Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, by Jeffrey Goldberg, Slate, April 12, 1998; and Tough Guys Archived January 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, by Tom Teicholz, Jewish Journal, August 13, 2004
  14. Linda Grant
    , The Guardian, July 6, 2002
  15. ^ "Gangsters, Genes, Guns & Gamblers" Archived October 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine,Moment, July/August 2008
  16. ^ "Free-wheeling U.S. spirit stoked gangsters, prof says" Archived February 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, December 4, 1998
  17. ^ a b "This You Call a Stick-Up?" Archived January 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, April 12, 1998 (Review of Tough Jews by Rich Cohen)
  18. ^ a b "The Second Generation from the Last Great Wave of Immigration: Setting the Record Straight" Archived April 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, 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
  19. ^ "Higher Immigration, Lower Crime Archived January 31, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, by Daniel Griswold, Commentary magazine, December 2009
  20. ^ a b "Defenders of the faith", The Guardian, Saturday July 6, 2002
  21. ^ Cohen, Rich (1999). Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams, London: Vintage
  22. ^ Kavieff, Paul R. (2000). The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit, 1910–1945. New York: Barricade
  23. ^ Sann, Paul (1971). Kill the Dutchman!: The Story of Dutch Schultz. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House.
  24. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
  25. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived
    from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  26. ^ "Moe Dalitz in Vegas".
  27. ^ http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/illegaloftheday/JohnCroftKY.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  28. ^ http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/illegaloftheday/JohnCroftKY.pdf (see McGinty's obituary)
  29. ^ Lacey, Robert (1991). Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, New York: Little Brown.
  30. ^ Turkus, Burton, and Sid Feder (1951). Murder, Inc.: The Story of the Syndicate. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young.
  31. ISBN 1-929631-65-0
  32. ISBN 0812909550
    .
  33. ISBN 0-202-30760-3
  34. ^ Shaer, Matthew (September 2, 2014) "Epstein Orthodox Hit Squad" Archived May 11, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, GQ. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  35. ^ a b Spoto, MaryAnn (December 15, 2015) "Lakewood Rabbi Sentenced to 10 years in Prison for Divorce Kidnappings" Archived July 30, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, NJ.com. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  36. ^ (December 14, 2015) "Rabbi Sentenced for Role in Divorce-Coercion Ring" Archived April 17, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  37. ^ Nathan-Kazis, Josh (September 19, 2016) "Murder Plot Sheds Light on Orthodox Divorce Underworld" Archived May 11, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, The Forward. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  38. ^ Gajanan, Mahita (September 7, 2016) "Rabbi and Orthodox Jewish Man Plotted to Kidnap and Murder Husband to Get Divorce for his Wife, Officials Say" Archived November 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Time. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  39. ISBN 9781614233039
    .
  40. ^ "WikiLeaks: U.S. worried Israel becoming 'the promised land' for organized crime" Archived December 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Haaretz, December 3, 2010
  41. ISBN 0-316-29474-8
  42. ^ "Israel struggles to keep a lid on crime" Archived June 26, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, June 7, 2004

Sources

Further reading

  • Benson, Michael (2022). Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America. Citadel Publishing.
    ISBN 978-0-8065-4179-2
    .

External links

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