Jewish-American organized crime - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jewish-American organized crime (sometimes called the Jewish Mob, Jewish Mafia, Kosher Mafia, or the Kosher Nostra—a pun on Cosa Nostra), emerged during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

In the late 19th century in New York City, Monk Eastman

Monk Eastman

Edward "Monk" Eastman was a New York City Gangster who founded and led one of the most powerful street gangs in New York City at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the Eastman Gang. His other aliases included Joseph "Joe" Morris, Joe Marvin, William "Bill" Delaney, and Edward "Eddie" Delaney...

operated a powerful Jewish gang

Eastman Gang

The Eastman Gang was the last of New York's street gangs which dominated the city's underworld during the late 1890s until early 1910s. Along with the Five Points Gang under Paul Kelly, the Eastmans succeeded the long dominant Whyos as the first non-Irish street gang to gain prominence in the...

that competed with Italian and Irish gangs, notably Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly (criminal)

Paul Kelly was an Italian immigrant who founded the Five Points Gang in New York City after starting some brothels with prize monies earned in boxing...

's Five Points Gang

Five Points Gang

Five Points Gang was a 19th-century and early 20th-century criminal organization, primarily of Italian-American origins, based in the Sixth Ward of Manhattan, New York City. Since the early 19th century, the area was first known for gangs of Irish immigrants...

, for control of New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's underworld. In the early 1920s, stimulated by the economic opportunities of the Roaring Twenties

Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...

and later, Prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

, organized crime figures such as Arnold Rothstein

Arnold Rothstein

Arnold Rothstein , nicknamed "The Brain", was a New York businessman and gambler who became a famous kingpin of the Jewish mafia. Rothstein was also widely reputed to have been behind baseball's Black Sox Scandal, in which the 1919 World Series was fixed...

were controlling a wide range of criminal enterprises.

According to crime writer Leo Katcher

Leo Katcher

Leo Katcher was an American reporter, screenwriter, and author. In 1956, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for The Eddy Duchin Story, but he did not win....

, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top." Rothstein was allegedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series

1919 World Series

The 1919 World Series matched the American League champion Chicago White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. Although most World Series have been of the best-of-seven format, the 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine series...

Origins and characteristics

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

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

, racketeering, bootlegging

Rum-running

Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...

, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

and narcotics. Their role was also significant in New York's burgeoning labor movement

Labour movement

The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...

, especially the garment and trucking unions, as well as the poultry industry. Jewish organized crime was incompatible with the ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

of Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, fueled anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

and deeply concerned the Jewish community. Jewish organized crime was used by anti-semites and anti-immigration supporters as arguments to bolster their agenda. Jewish gangs controlled portions of the Lower East Side

Lower East Side, Manhattan

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

and Brownsville

Brownsville, Brooklyn

Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, New York City.The total land area is one square mile, and the ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11212....

in New York City

New York City

, and were also present in other major American cities.

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.

From the late 1960s, Jewish American organized crime became part of an entire literature on "tough Jews." The Jewish gangsters and boxers in the pre-World War II era were seen as tougher, more aggressive role models, which freed Jews from the dominant stereotypes of cowardice, pacifism, intellectualism and professional legitimacy. The stigma

Social stigma

Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...

of defenselessness and powerlessness associated with Jews, compared with the physical aggressiveness and lawlessness more associated with the Irish and Italian immigrants, began to disappear. 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."

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 from the ancient stereotypes. 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 American Jewish community for profit. They forced Jewish women into the sex industry, and were generally considered a scourge within their own community. The Yiddish press and literature of the 1920s and 30s was resolute in its condemnation of Jewish mobsters.

19th Century-early 20th Century

A large wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the late-19th century and early 20th century produced Jewish mobsters such as Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach

Max Zwerbach

Max "Kid Twist" Zweifach occasionally referred to as Zwerbach was an American gangster who, during the turn of the century, belonged to the Eastman Gang and later succeeded the New York gang leader following his arrest in 1904.-Biography:Born Maxwell Zweifach in Austria on March 14, 1884, to...

, "Big" Jack Zelig

Jack Zelig

"Big" Jack Zelig was a Jewish American New York City gangster and one of the last leaders of the Monk Eastman Gang.-Early years & the Eastmans:...

, and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis

Vach Lewis

Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis was an early New York gangster and member of the Eastman Gang under Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach.-Biography:...

who competed with and were acknowledged by Italian and Irish gangs.

Just as their Italian counterparts, gangs specializing in extortion began operating in the heavily Jewish neighborhoods of New York's Lower East Side

Lower East Side

most prominently the so-called Yiddish Black Hand

Yiddish Black Hand

The Yiddish Black Hand or the Jewish Black Hand Association was a criminal organization that operated on New York's Lower East Side during the early 20th century, led by Jacob "Johnny" Levinsky...

headed by Jacob Levinsky, Charles "Charlie the Cripple" Litoffsky and Joseph Toplinsky

Joseph Toplinsky

Joseph "Yosky" Toblinsky , better known as "Yesky Nigger", was a New York City racketeer who, as head of an independent gang on East Side Manhattan, was involved in extortion and poisoning horses with the Yiddish Black Hand during the early 1900s...

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

Simcha

Simcha is a Hebrew word with several meanings. Literally, the word "simcha" means gladness, or joy. It comes from the root word "sameyach," which means glad or happy.The concept of simcha is an important one in Jewish philosophy...

," a detective as a "shamus

Private investigator

A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

" and a loafer as a "trombenik." 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 as adults they joined well organized gangs involved in a wide variety of criminal enterprises boosted by Prohibition

Prohibition

.

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

Racket (crime)

A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...

," it was said, along with children of Irish, Italian and other immigrants. However, the supposed Jewish-immigrant crime wave was mostly an urban legend

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

. 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, about a sixth of the city's felony arrests were Jews during the 1920s, when Jews constituted nearly a third of the city’s population.
As the 20th century progressed, Jewish-American mobsters such as "Dopey" Benny Fein

Benny Fein

Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein was an early Jewish American gangster who dominated New York labor racketeering in the 1910s. With a criminal record dating back to 1900, Fein's arrest record included thirty charges from petty theft and assault to grand larceny and murder...

and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig

Joseph Rosenzweig

Joseph "Joe The Greaser" Rosenzweig was a Jewish American and New York labor racketeer in the early 1900s as an ally of "Dopey" Benny Fein during the labor slugger war from 1914-1917.-Biography:...

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 become a source of conflict as it came under the domination of several racketeers including former Five Points Gang

Five Points Gang

members Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan

Nathan Kaplan

"Kid Dropper" Nathan Caplin or Kaplan , also known as Jack the Dropper, was an American gangster controlling labor racketeering and extortion in New York City during the post-World War I period into the early years of Prohibition in the early 1920s.-Biography:One of seven children, Kaplan was born...

and Johnny Spanish

Johnny Spanish

Johnny Spanish was an American gangster who was a rival of former partner "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan during a garment workers' strike which later become known as the Second Labor Sluggers War in 1919...

during the Labor slugger war

Labor Slugger War

The Labor Sluggers War was a 15-year period of gang wars among New York labor sluggers for control of labor racketeering from 1911 to 1927. This began in 1911 with the first war between "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig against a coalition of smaller gangs and continuing on and...

s until its eventual takeover by Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro

Jacob Shapiro

Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro was a New York mobster who, with his partner Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, controlled industrial labor racketeering in New York for two decades and established the Murder, Inc. organization.-Early years:...

in 1927. Other Jewish organized crime figures involved in controlling labor unions include Moses Annenberg

Moses Annenberg

Moses "Moe" Louis Annenberg was an American newspaper publisher, who purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer, the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States. in 1936. The Inquirer has the sixteenth largest average weekday U.S...

and Arnold Rothstein

Arnold Rothstein

, the latter reportedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series

1919 World Series

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." According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person to see in Prohibition

Prohibition

(1920–1933) a tremendous business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth and power. 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

Lucky Luciano

Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...

, the prominent boss of the Italian-American Mafia

American Mafia

The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...

once said that Rothstein "taught me how to dress". The stereotypical attire of the American mobster portrayed in movies can trace its roots directly to Rothstein.
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

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...

, New York City

New York City

, and Philadelphia. Numerous bootlegging gangs such as the Bug and Meyer Mob headed by Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...

and Bugsy Siegel

Bugsy Siegel

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...

and Abe Bernstein

Abe Bernstein

Abe Bernstein was a Detroit, Michigan gangster and a leader of the infamous Prohibition-era Purple Gang with his brothers Joseph Bernstein, Raymond Bernstein, and Isadore Bernstein. Born in New York, Abe Bernstein and his brothers moved to Detroit in their youth...

's Purple Gang

The Purple Gang

The Purple Gang, also known as the Sugar House Gang, were a mob with predominantly Jewish members of bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920s, operating out of Detroit, Michigan, which was a major port for running alcohol products during Prohibition due to proximity to Canada.Many openly violent...

would see the rise of Jewish-American organized crime to its height. Other mobsters included Dutch Schultz

Dutch Schultz

Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...

, Moe Dalitz

Moe Dalitz

Morris Barney "Moe" Dalitz was a Jewish American bootlegger, racketeer, casino owner and philanthropist who was one of the major figures who helped shape Las Vegas, Nevada in the 20th century. He was often referred to as Mr...

, Charles "King" Solomon and Abner "Longy" Zwillman

Abner Zwillman

Abner "Longie" Zwillman , known as the "Al Capone of New Jersey," was an early Prohibition gangster, founding member of the "Big Seven" Ruling Commission and a member of the National Crime Syndicate, who was also associated with Murder Incorporated.-Biography:According to the Social Security Death...

became wealthy during Prohibition.

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

Joe Masseria

Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria was an early Mafia don in the United States. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family, one of the New York Mafia's Five Families, from 1922 to 1931.-Early days:...

and Salvatore Maranzano

Salvatore Maranzano

Salvatore Maranzano was an organized crime figure from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss in the United States. He instigated the Castellammarese War to seize control of the American Mafia operations, and briefly became the Mafia's "Boss of Bosses"...

in the 1931 Castellammarese War

Castellammarese War

The Castellammarese War was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salvatore Maranzano. It was so called because Maranzano was based in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily...

and took control of the New York Italian Mafia. Luciano did not discriminate against Jews and valued long time associates such as Meyer Lansky and Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel. Several Jewish gangsters such as Red Levine and Bo Weinberg were used in the war as unsuspected non-Italian hitmen. After Masseria and Maranzano were murdered, a conference was held at New York's Franconia Hotel on November 11, 1931 which included Jewish mobsters such as Jacob Shapiro

Jacob Shapiro

, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter

Louis Buchalter

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was a Jewish American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. After Dutch Schultz' request of the Mafia Commission for permission to kill his enemy, U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey, the Commission decided to kill Schultz in order to prevent the hit...

, Joseph "Doc" Stacher

Joseph Stacher

Joseph "Doc" Stacher was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate....

, Hyman "Curly" Holtz

Hyman Holtz

Hyman "Curly" Holtz , also known as Hyman "Little Hymie" Holtz, was a New York labor racketeer who began working as a labor slugger for Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen during the early 1920s....

, Louis "Shadows" Kravitz, Harry Tietlebaum

Harry Tietlebaum

Harry Tietlebaum or Teitelbaum was an American organized crime figure in New York's underworld during Prohibition as was associated of the Bug and Meyer Mob. He was later part of a major heroin smuggling operation with Meyer Lansky and Harry "Nig" Rosen during the early 1930s.-Further...

, Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick

Philip Kovolick

Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick [Kovalick] was a New York mobster and, a longtime associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, he was a later member of Murder Inc...

and Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg

Harry Greenberg

Harry Schachter or Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg was an associate and childhood friend of Bugsy Siegel, and an employee of both Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky. On November 22, 1939, Greenberg was murdered by Bugsy Siegel and his brother-in-law, Whitey Krakower...

. 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

National Crime Syndicate

The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to a loosely-organized multi-ethnic organized crime syndicate. Its origins are uncertain....

by the press. At the meeting's 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 gradually receded, most notably Philadelphia bootlegger Waxey Gordon

Waxey Gordon

Waxey Gordon was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition he was caught up in a power struggle following his death...

, who was convicted and imprisoned 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

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

and Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

. Buchalter would also lead the predominantly Jewish Murder Incorporated as the Luciano-Meyer syndicate's exclusive hitmen.

After World War II

For several decades after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, 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

Jack Dragna

Jack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 1900s. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States...

explained to hitman and later government informant Jimmy Fratianno

Jimmy Fratianno

Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno was a Cleveland, Ohio, mobster and later acting head of the Los Angeles crime family before becoming a government witness...

"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

Moe Dalitz

, Doc Stacher, Gus Greenbaum

Gus Greenbaum

Gus Greenbaum was a member of the Chicago Outfit and syndicate accountant for Las Vegas casino operations.An associate of Meyer Lansky, Greenbaum joined his organization on New York's Lower East Side in the mid or late 1910s...

, sharp fucking guys, good businessmen, and they know better than try to fuck 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 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

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

, famous Jewish American gangsters like Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz

Dutch Schultz

Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...

and Bugsy Siegel founded no crime families.

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 remained associated with organized crime, but the criminal organizations and gangs which once rivaled the Italian and Irish-American mobsters during the first half of the 20th century had eventually faded.

Late 20th Century to Present

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

Russian Mafia

The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....

criminal groups. The Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n émigré community in New York's Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...

contains a large Jewish presence, as does its criminal element. Some of these newer American-based Jewish gangsters, such as Ludwig Fainberg

Ludwig Fainberg

Leonid "Tarzan" Fainberg also known as Ludwig Lyosha Fainberg is an Israeli mobster. Born in Odessa, Fainberg left the Soviet Union in the early 1980s for Israel, and moved to the United States following the fall of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1990s, Fainberg attempted to purchase a Soviet...

(who has lived in Ukraine, Israel and the United States but never Russia), share more in common culturally with Russia and the Soviet republics than their predecessors such as Meyer Lansky.

Israeli mobsters also have had a presence in the United States. The Israeli mafia

Israeli mafia

The Israeli mafia is the general term for organized crime groups operating in Israel and also internationally. Allegedly there are 16 crime families operating in Israel, five major groups active on the national-level, and 11 smaller organizations...

(such as the Abergil crime family) is heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking in America.

Jewish-American organized crime and Israel

Several notable Jewish American mobsters provided financial support for Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

through donations to Jewish organizations since the country's creation in 1948. Jewish-American gangsters used Israel's Law of Return

Law of Return

The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship...

to flee criminal charges or face deportation. Notables include Joseph "Doc" Stacher

Joseph Stacher

Joseph "Doc" Stacher was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate....

, who built up Las Vegas by pairing the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate. Prime Minister Golda Meir

Golda Meir

Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....

set to reverse this trend in 1970 when she denied entrance to Meyer Lansky. He was the mob's accountant, thought to be among the most powerful people in the country, with a gambling empire stretching the United States.

In 2010, it was reported by Wikileaks

United States diplomatic cables leak

The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...

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.

External links

New Voices: Left Off the Ark - A Bestiary of Gangs
Jewish Gangsters at the Jewish Virtual Library
Jewish Virtual Library
Jewish Virtual Library is an online encyclopedia published by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise . Established in 1993, it is a comprehensive website covering Israel, the Jewish people, and Jewish culture.-History:...
Seize The Night: The Jewish Mafia
Farbrekhers in America: The Americanization of Jewish Blue-Collar Crime, 1900-1931

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Origins and characteristics

19th Century-early 20th Century

Prohibition

After World War II

Late 20th Century to Present

Jewish-American organized crime and Israel

See also

Further reading

External links