The Rise And Fall Of The Jewish Gangster In America

Albert Fried recalls the rise and fail of an underworld culture that bred some of America's most infamous racketeers, bootleggers, gamblers, and professional killers, spawned by a culture of vice and criminality on New York's Lower East Side and similar environments in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia. The author adds an important dimension to this story as he discusses the Italian gangs that teamed up with their Jewish counterparts to form multicultural syndicates. The careers of such high-profile figures as Meyer Lansky, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and "Dutch" Schultz demonstrate how these gangsters passed from early manhood to old age, marketed illicit goods and services after the repeal of Prohibition, improved their system of mutual cooperation and self-governance, and grew to resemble modern business entrepreneurs. A new afterword brings to a close the careers of the Jewish gangsters and discusses how their image is addressed in selected books since the 1980s. Fried also examines the impact of films such as The Godfather series, Once Upon a Time in America, and Bugsy.

Award-winning writer Rich Cohen excavates the real stories behind the legend of infamous criminal enforcers Murder, Inc. and contemplates the question: Where did the tough Jews go? In 1930s Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who now exist only in legend and in the memories of a few old-timers: Jewish gangsters, fearless thugs with nicknames like Kid Twist Reles and Pittsburgh Phil Strauss. Growing up in Brownsville, they made their way from street fights to underworld power, becoming the execution squad for a national crime syndicate. Murder Inc. did for organized crime what Henry Ford did for the automobile, and Tough Jews is the first in-depth portrait of these men, a thrilling glimpse at the muscle that made possible the success of gangster statesmen such as Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano. For Rich Cohen, who grew up in suburban Illinois in the 1980s taunted by the stereotype of Jews as book-reading rule followers, the very idea of the Jewish gangster was a relief; for once, a Jew in jail did not have to be a white collar criminal. With a clear eye and a comic sensibility, Cohen looks beyond the blood and ultimately encounters each of these ruthless killers’ matzo-ball heart. Tough Jews shows what can happen when a member of the tribe combines brains, heart, and a dangerous determination never to back down.

The brief and bloody history of the rise and fall of the Jewish-American gangster in the American midwest from the year1900 through 2000 They were, largely, the sons of America's newest and poorest immigrants who had crowded into New York's then desolate, filthy and overcrowded tenement slum, the lower east side. With limited educations and often facing appalling discrimination, many filtered into the once massive and much feared Jewish street gangs that ruled large parts of Manhattan and the Boroughs. Despite a general erroneous recreation of the role of Jewish gangsters within the early American Jewish ghettos, these hoodlums were hardly heroes within the community. Rather, they were the scourge of the Jewish neighborhoods, prying on Jewish business owners and peddling young Jewish girls into the world of prostitution. In the early part of the 20th century, Jewish mobsters moved from street gang status to professional criminals though the labor racket wars. Hiring themselves out to both management and unions as leg breakers and sluggers, Jewish gangsters like Kid Dropper Kaplan,(Kid dropper got his nickname as a child. He knocked over children sent to the stores by their parents and took their money) Johnny Spanish and Dopey Benny Fein came to dominate the labor extortion business. The Jews in organized crime blossomed during prohibition when ethnic hostilities between the Sicilian-Italian Americans, the Irish and the Jews were set aside in the name of fortune. Jewish gangs virtually controlled all or most of the bootleg operations in Cleveland Ohio, Philadelphia and Brooklyn under the leadership of Dutch Schultz in New York, Moe Dalitz in Ohio, Charlie Solomon in Boston and Longy Zwillman in New Jersey and Hollywood. Jews especially played a large role in the creation and management of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s. Except in a few, rare cases, Jewish mob leaders had not built up criminal organizations and those there were created quickly faded and died as America's Jews filters into main stream society, their desperate poverty and hopelessness now a thing of the past. Although far less in number then they had been in the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish gangsters, such as Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz and Gus Greenbaum, were still a considerable force in the underworld right after World War 2 up until the very early 1970s, when old age took its natural toll. By then, the typical Jewish mobster, lacking the numbers needed for any other type in the United States had moved into management positions in the various Outfits (Again, like Lansky and Dalitz) or controlled large segments of loan sharking business. Something of Jewish Mafia exists today in the form of the Israeli mafia, which, at the start of the 21st century, is heavily involved in White Slavery and narcotics trafficking in which is works closely with the New York based Gambino crime family. Working class Russian Jew also dominates large fractions of the various Russian mobs, wrongly called The Russian Mafia (They are hardly a united group). However, how many of these hoodlums are actually Jewish is a mystery. Under the Soviet government, thousands of gangsters claimed Jewish ancestry so they would be allowed to relocate in the United States and Israel.

Master story teller Marc Mappen applies a generational perspective to the gangsters of the Prohibition era—men born in the quarter century span from 1880 to 1905—who came to power with the Eighteenth Amendment. On January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution went into effect in the United States, “outlawing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” A group of young criminals from immigrant backgrounds in cities around the nation stepped forward to disobey the law of the land in order to provide alcohol to thirsty Americans. Today the names of these young men—Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Legs Diamond, Nucky Johnson—are more familiar than ever, thanks in part to such cable programs as Boardwalk Empire. Here, Mappen strips way the many myths and legends from television and movies to describe the lives these gangsters lived and the battles they fought. Placing their criminal activities within the context of the issues facing the nation, from the Great Depression, government crackdowns, and politics to sexual morality, immigration, and ethnicity, he also recounts what befell this villainous group as the decades unwound. Making use of FBI and other government files, trial transcripts, and the latest scholarship, the book provides a lively narrative of shootouts, car chases, courtroom clashes, wire tapping, and rub-outs in the roaring 1920s, the Depression of the 1930s, and beyond. Mappen asserts that Prohibition changed organized crime in America. Although their activities were mercenary and violent, and they often sought to kill one another, the Prohibition generation built partnerships, assigned territories, and negotiated treaties, however short lived. They were able to transform the loosely associated gangs of the pre-Prohibition era into sophisticated, complex syndicates. In doing so, they inspired an enduring icon—the gangster—in American popular culture and demonstrated the nation’s ideals of innovation and initiative. View a three minute video of Marc Mappen speaking about Prohibition Gangsters.

Myron Sugerman's memoir, The Last Jewish Gangster: From Meyer to Myron, is more than just a riveting account of the author's nearly sixty-year career as an international outlaw in the field of slot machines and casinos. Its Also a fascinating meditation on a variety of themes: aging, respect, adventure, greed, and man's tendency to be his own worst enemy. Although it is chock-full of hilarious anecdotes about Mr. Sugerman's hapless cohorts in what he calls "disorganized crime," the book also contains life lessons for those perceptive enough to look for them--lessons on how to differentiate calculated risk taking from compulsive gambling, and how to maintain one's place in the world as one grows older. The Last Jewish Gangster follows its author from 1959 to the present day as he travels the globe from Europe to Africa to South America to Asia, rubbing shoulders with dangerous men and legendary mob figures like Longie Zwillman, Meyer Lansky, Joe "Doc" Stacher, Gerry Catena, Tony Bananas Caponigro, Tommy Ryan Eboli, and many others. The story covers everything from his dealings with the fearsome Cali Cartel to his attempt to help famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal track down the Angel of Death, Josef Mengele in Paraguay. The remarkable book contains something to pique the interest of any reader--Gritty crime stories, harrowing adventure, twentieth century history, and the Jewish religious philosophy--and the perspective of a man who has lived a long life and seen more than most of us have even imagined seeing.

In this work, Marni Davis examines American Jews' long and complicated relationship to alcohol during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the years of the national prohibition movement's rise and fall.

The stunning true story of the rise of Nazism in America in the years leading to WWII—and the fearless Jewish gangsters and crime families who joined forces to fight back. With an intense cinematic style, acclaimed nonfiction crime author Michael Benson reveals the thrilling role of Jewish mobsters like Bugsy Siegel in stomping out the terrifying tide of Nazi sympathizers during the 1930s and 1940s. Goodreads Top Nonfiction of 2022 As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back—until an organized resistance of notorious mobsters waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst. Gangland-style. . . . In this thrilling blow-by-blow account, acclaimed crime writer Michael Benson uncovers the shocking truth about the insidious rise of Nazism in America—and the Jewish mobsters who stomped it out. Learn about: * Nazi Town, USA: How one Long Island community named a street after Hitler, decorated buildings with swastikas, and set up a camp to teach US citizens how to goosestep. * Meyer Lansky and Murder Inc.: How a Jewish mob accountant led fifteen goons on a joint family mission to bust heads at a Brown Shirt rally in Manhattan. * Fritz Kuhn, “The Vest-Pocket Hitler”: How a German immigrant spread Nazi propaganda through the American Bund in New York City—with 70 branches across the US. * Newark Nazis vs The Minutemen: How a Jewish resistance group, led by a prize fighter and bootlegger for the mob, waged war on the Bund in the streets of Newark. * Hitler in Hollywoodland: How Sunset Strip kingpin Mickey Cohen knocked two Brown Shirters’ heads together—and became the West Coast champion in the mob’s war on Nazis. Packed with surprising, little-known facts, graphic details, and unforgettable personalities, Gangsters vs. Nazis chronicles the mob’s most ruthless tactics in taking down fascism—inspiring ordinary Americans to join them in their fight. The book culminates in one of the most infamous events of the pre-war era—the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden—in which law-abiding citizens stood alongside hardened criminals to fight for the soul of a nation. This is the story of the mob that’s rarely told—one of the most fascinating chapters in American history and American organized crime.

This is the newest volume of the annual Studies In Contemporary Jewry series. It contains original essays on Jews and crime in fact, fantasy, and fiction; verbal and physical violence in Israeli politics; Jews as revolutionaires; armed resistance by Jews in Nazi Germany; ethical dilemmas within the Israeli Defense Forces; violence in Israeli society and social stress; and other topics. As with other volumes, it also contains review essays and book reviews.