No room for Commies or Nazis, but have fun while it lasts

Somewhere out there is my favorite of all time. Sure, I can say the same for maybe 200 more.

I’m talking specifically about my Meyer Lansky column, the one where Jews of all kinds, rose up to be counted.

Lansky was first among equals so far as Murder Inc. In a world of gangsters dominated by Italian Americans, the Jewish mob was no slouch.

Meanwhile, over in Germany, Hitler and his goons had begun to popularize the Nazis…early and mid 1930s.

Nazis were taking over Germany. Hitler’s speeches mesmerized the people, and soon enough they began thinking of themselves as the master race.

The campaign had legs, and soon travelled to America, yes. the beacon of liberty. BUT, the times were harsh. Jobs were scarce. Entire families lived in cardboard boxes.

Maybe the Nazis had the answer. The German Nazi Bund began aping Hitler, and thus began the marches, rife with Jew hatred.

At first, the Bund were mostly German Americans, but “regular" Americans also joined up, AND, for a while, there was fear that America was becoming a Jew-hating Nazi country.

In my column I spell out how all that instantly changed, when a concerned Jewish American, realized that there was no legit way to tackle the problem.

He would have to go underground. Somehow, he reached out to Meyer Lansky. Could he address the issue without murder?

But I say this. Liberty, Democracy is in our soil, and America will never tolerate any other system of government.

Who cracks the heads? Moe Greens and Hyman Roths were products of a different time and place.

If you tried to make a new “Murder, Inc.” you are likely to do more harm than good.

I think there is a problem in the perception of Jews in this country. Both on the left, and yes, some on the right, the term “The Jews” is used as if Mama Goldberg has anything whatever to do with the Rothschild Family.

Jews are among the most splintered group you can find. Besides Cultural only, Reformed, Conservative (might observe something on Yom Kippur or Passover), Orthodox, and Ultra-Orthodox (various flavors of both), you have enclaves that have their own outlook on things. Most just want to live their lives in piece and treat people decently. Others think that others who have a different idea of what that means should be stopped by any means necessary (”woke” people, including some Jews). A lot of non-Jews are the same way.

Yes, many identify with being the “Chosen People”. Many Japanese, eastern Indians and Chinese think their race is special, too. That’s okay. Work hard and follow just laws (especially natural law, which is slipping away in our society), and you can think that sort of thing when you play pinochle with your pals. Ideally, if you think you are “chosen” or “special”, that should be an impetus to be better.

Jews in some parts of this country, Michigan especially, and now increasingly New York (Mamdani is a symptom of a larger problem), likely feel obliged to fight back. Slaughtering, raping and taking hostages at a music performance (10/7), desecrating synagogues and graveyards, random killings and attacks on suspected Jews just for being Jews (whether merely by blood or belief) calls for a response if the law will not do the job.

Unfortunately, a violent response, even if necessary for self-protection, (and much worse if it is a mirror image, merely attacking people who are simply ordinary Muslims living their lives, even if they dislike Jews personally) has the potential of blowback, and expanded violence on both sides, hurting the population at large. At worst, it could turn the U.S. into a giant Israel (at least in the urban centers) or Lebanon.

I am afraid a new Meyer Lansky will not solve the problem. In the natural sphere, self-segregation with a buffer zone, or an authoritarian empire run by someone in neither camp (so some shred of justice might remain) seem to be the only resolution. A better resolution would be a change of men’s hearts. That doesn’t happen often enough.

“Unfortunately, a violent response, even if necessary for self-protection, (and much worse if it is a mirror image, merely attacking people who are simply ordinary Muslims living their lives, even if they dislike Jews personally) has the potential of blowback, and expanded violence on both sides, hurting the population at large. At worst, it could turn the U.S. into a giant Israel (at least in the urban centers) or Lebanon.”

Busting up hate rallies and marches is all that Lansky’s bully boys ever did. What else would they do? storm through rural Pennsylvania attacking the Amish and the Pennsylvania “Dutch”? German immigrants were put in internment camps, too, at the start of the war. The Japanese were treated especially harsh because a great many “nissei,” though born in the US, were raised in Japan with all the emperor warship and fascist indoctrination. Germans, however, had long roots in the US, going back generations.

So the brawling was only at rallies and demonstrations of “das Bund”.

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