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, Kosher Mafia, the Jewish Mob or the Jewish Mafia) emerged during the later years of the "Gangs of New York" era of New York's underworld as Jewish gangs under gang lord Monk Eastman, among whose ranks included Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, "Big" Jack Zelig, Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis competed with Italian gang leader Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang as the domination of Irish street gangs began to decline.
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.
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[edit] Pre-Prohibition
As the 20th century progressed, Jewish-American mobsters such as "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig entered labor racketeering hiring out to both businesses and labor unions as strong arm men. Labor racketeering or "labor slugging" as it was known, would be a source of conflict as it would become 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.
[edit] From the Roaring 20's into the Great Depression
During Prohibition, numerous bootlegging gangs such as the Bug and Meyer Mob headed by Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel and Abe Bernstein's Purple Gang would see the rise of Jewish-American organized crime at its height. Other mobsters would include Dutch Schultz, Moe Dalitz, Charles "King" Solomon and Abner "Longy" Zwillman.
During this time, Italian mobster Charles "Lucky" 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."
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. Buchalter would also lead the predominantly Jewish Murder Inc. as the Luciano-Meyer syndicate's exclusive hitmen.
[edit] Post-war years
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."
[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 faceing 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 Meyer's long history in organized crime.
[edit] In literature
- Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is modeled after Arnold Rothstein.
[edit] In popular culture
- Once Upon a Time in America (1984) starring Robert DeNiro, James Woods and William Forsyth
- Billy Bathgate, a PEN/Faulkner Award-winning book and Pulitzer Prize nominee, later adapted into a film starring Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman
- Bugsy (1991) starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, and Ben Kingsley
- Pi (1998) starring Sean Gullette and directed by Darren Aronofsky
- Lanksy (1999) starring Richard Dreyfuss, Eric Roberts and Anthony LaPaglia
- Snatch (2000) starring Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Vinnie Jones, and Benicio Del Toro
- Lucky Number Slevin (2006) starring Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Block, Alan A. Lepke, Kid Twist, and the Combination: Organized Crime in New York City, 1930-1944. 1976.
- Cohen, Rich. Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams.
- Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-231-09683-6
- Rockaway, Robert A. But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 1993.
- Rubin, Rachel. Jewish Gangsters of Modern Literature. 2000.
- Sadowsky, Sandy. Wedded to Crime: My Life in the Jewish Mafia. 1992.
[edit] References
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
