Any Jewish Gangs Out There?

Factual Questions
1
      • Okay, I was at work watching Star Trek-TNG with some other people (it’s a union shop) and we got into the whole discussion of the Ferengi thing. Then we got to wondering why we’d never heard of any Jewish gangs.
        -Like, the mafia is traditionally Italian, the mob is traditionally Irish (I think,), and uh, -there’s a relatively recent South American one that’s mainly in drug smuggling. It seemed to us that Jews were ripe for engaging in this sort of behavior a long time ago; Jews have a history of being persecuted by outsiders and traditionally avoided investing in non-transportable goods.
        Some gangs are a problem, but they are smaller: family or clan-oriented with no single central authority, and none has become well-known enough to earn any well-known name.
        There must be Jewish criminals out there, but perhaps there’s no Jewish gang big enough to become famous yet…
        Anyway, I never heard of it.
        Has it ever occurred? - MC
2

I do not plan to see this thread last long.

3

There were definitely well-known Jewish mobsters. Bugsy Seigel and Meyer Lansky come to mind.

4

There were quite a few Jewish gangs and gangsters about the time of organized crime’s heyday. There was also Hymie Weiss, a Jewish name if there ever was one, unfortunately attached to an Irish Catholic psychopath. However, men such as Arnold Rothstein, Israel “Icepick Willie” Alderman, Louis Lepke Buchalter, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and countless others proved that Jews can become vicious criminals as well as doctors and lawyers. Ain’t America great? One writer, Rich Cohen, went so far as to claim that the institution of organized crime in America is a Jewish invention. Look up any good book on organized crime in America, and you will find Jews represented along with every single religious and racial group in America, with the possible exception of Zen Buddhists. You’ll also find that the ghettos inhabited by poor immigrants (many, if not most, of them Irish, Jewish, Italian, or Sicilian) gave birth to much of organized crime as we know it.

Upon re-reading the above, I feel compelled to say that none of the above is intended to in any way disparage Judaism, the religion of my forebears, nor any other religious, ethnic, or national group.

5

Oy gevalt! I’m going to cap your tuchus!

6

Seriously, Rich Cohen wrote a book on just this subject: Tough Jews, which has received glowing reviews. Haven’t read it yet, though.

7

I think that the “Jewish Gangsters” (and being Jewish was no more incidental to their criminal activity than their shoe size) mentioned were involved in so called “outfits”. Outfits were much looser than the Mafia, and did not have the ethnic component of the Mafia (all Sicilian “Cosa Nostra”), or the “family” organization. It could form a very ethnically diverse network, depending on the area in question (Cubans in tampa, Irish in Boston, Jews in Las Vegas and so forth).
There are some famous Jewish criminals today, once again, I don’t think their “Jewishness” has anything to do with their criminality. There are Israeli cartels in the ecstasy trade, and some notorious gangsters from the former societ union are reputed to be Jewish (but I should say the old USSR often defined people as “Jewish” based on percieved Jewish “ancestry” at times, not religion or ethnic identity). http://www.jewhoo.com once had a section on Jewish “bad guys”, but they removed that.

I am trying to cite, but honestly, there is so much hate on the web, so searching “Jewish + criminal” isn’t a good idea.
But there are reliable books out there, like “Tough Jews”.

http://www.search-international.com/Articles/crime/mafiaorigins.htm
More on “The Outfit”

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2001may21.htm
Israeli Ecstasy kigpin busted in Spain

8

Try doing some research into Detroit’s Purple Gang during the years before and during Prohibition. They were pretty much all Jewish. If I remember correctly they were a gang you really didn’t want to mess with too. They became rather powerful during prohibition because being across the river from Windsor, Ontario made Detroit an ideal town for smuggling alcohol. My parents have a book on the gang, I can’t remember the name though.

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here’s a decent page on the purple gang

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/purple/purplemain.htm

10

There are the Brews, who sport anti-swatstika tattooes, and who orthopedic Dr. Martens are good for waffle-making and kicking in the shins.

[sub]sorry, just had to go for the obscure reference, nothing seful to add[/sub]

11

Y’all forgot Mickey Cohen from Los Angeles. James Ellroy has used him as a character in some of his books including The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential.

Robin, whose grandmother met Mr. Cohen as a girl.

12

Damn it waterj2, you beat me to it. That is exactly what I was thinking when I saw the thread title. ;j

(sings as he walks away) Friday night we’ll, be drinking manachevitz, going out to terrorize goyum.

Dead0man

13

Let’s not forget great literary Jewish gangsters, like Meyer Wolfsheim from the Great Gatsby - one of the most memorable and intriguingly-drawn characters in modern American lit - remember the human molar cufflinks?

14

Yea there is still Jewish gangs out there

To get in you have to swallow 12 live gifelte fish and chug a whole bottle of Mannashcvietz
SORRY sorry…channeling early Adam Sandler

15

It bears mention that Dutch Schultz was actually one of the Jewish mobsters - he was born Arthur Flegenheimer. As observed, organized crime has sprung from ethnic ghettos of all kinds.

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If anything, Jewish organized crime is one the rise. A significant portion of the Russian mob (which is an up-and-comer in America) is Jewish.

17

This is to second Trucido’s post. Near as I can tell, organized crime in major urban areas in the US from its origins in the late 1800s to about the 1940s was about 40% Jewish, 45% Italian and the rest Irish and miscellanious. This included some of the most vicious thugs in the country e.g. the “Murder Incorporated” gang and others.

What happened after the 40s was that the Jewish population moved upscale and out of the Jewish ghettos, which cut off the supply of new mobsters. As the old-timers died or were killed off or were sent to jail etc. they were not replaced. By contrast, there are still blue collar/lower class Italian neighborhoods today which provide a source of new criminals.

One interesting story about “Longy” Zwillman, the crime boss of Newark, NJ: He was once observed at the funeral of a mobster buddy, standing outside the funeral home. Someone asked him why he did not go in. He replied “What do you mean?! I’m a cohen!!!” [sub](By religious law, a cohen does not enter a building in which a dead body is contained.)[/sub]

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Glad someone mentioned Murder, Inc.

“Those were some tough jews.” (from The Sopranos)

–Cliffy

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I don’t have my copy of The Great Gatsby with me, but my edition has some notes at the end added by the editor, one of which claims that the character of Meyer Wolfsheim is based upon Arnold Rothstein, whom Trucido mentioned. Apparently Rothstein was involved with the 1919 World Series fix, which Gatsby says Meyer Wolfsheim orchestrated, and one of Fitzgerald’s letters mentions meeting Rothstein.

20

Actually I think Rothstein’s involvement is an open question historically. Some feel that he spread the rumor feeling that it would enhance his reputation.