Where Are the Jewish Gangsters of Yesteryear? What we can learn from Madoff and Meyer Lansky

slate ^ | Posted Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008, at 7:14 PM ET | Ron Rosenbaum

[dennisw]

But it seemed he'd been on speaking terms with—and had stories to tell about—all the icons of the Jewish mafia. He was over 70 but looked like a tough 50 and wore a baseball cap advertising some fighter he was backing, and he fought like a wildman to pick up the tab for the table of eight from a thick roll of big-number bills.

Still, as I found myself more and more disgusted by the (alleged) crimes of Bernie Madoff, I kept thinking—in light of my encounter with Lucky—"Where are the Jewish gangsters of yesteryear?" These were people an ethnic group could be, well, if not exactly proud of, then certainly not entirely ashamed of. At least Meyer Lansky—or "Hyman Roth," as they called him in the subtly anti-Semitic Godfather II—"always made money for his partners." Bernie Madoff, if the charges are to be believed, always stole money from his partners. (It should be remembered that while the perp was a Jew, oh so many of his victims were, too.)

A great civilization, a great people, is always known by the most brilliant, talented, and learned among them: Einstein, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Leonard Bernstein. But it's also known by the quality of its crooks. (Singer knew that.) And as Jewish crooks go, Bernie Madoff would be a sad step down.

If you ask me, the Bernie Madoff scandal was a tragedy of misguided upward mobility—not about Jews and money but about Jews and a sadly imitative notion of status.

Bernie's milieu, Bernie's happy hunting ground was the country club. People paid hundreds of thousands of dollars just to join country clubs that would allow them to hobnob with Bernie and the friends of Bernie, sucking up to the second-raters who sit on country-club admissions boards

[ruination]

Take-home message: WASPs and other gentiles are the REAL villain.

[jalisco555]

A few years ago I read a terrific book about the old Jewish gangsters called Tough Jews, by Rich Cohen. My mother grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood that a lot of these guys came from and knew several of them. It wasn't all romance of course, my grandfather had to pay protection money so his shop windows wouldn't get smashed. Still, as Cohen points out, it's a part of Jewish history they don't teach at Hebrew school.

Rosenbaum is a terrific writer, BTW. One of the few liberals that actually gets it.

[oscars300]

The essence of liberalism: Gangsters are A-OK. Anyone else with some cash, though, are evil. (Because they are “hypocrites” - I.e. they try to maintain some standard)

[joeystoy]

So the author believes that swindling rich people is dishonorable but terrorizing the poor, the working class, the struggling merchants in lower class communities... well... there was a certain romance to them.

I grew up a New York City neighborhood where these psychos had control. There’s nothing romantic about a gang of thugs who would smash an old man’s hand in a truck door because he missed a payment on a $500 loan. Even the supermarket I worked in, which was a major chain, had to pay tribute to get their meat and produce delivered. The payroll included at least 15 “employees” who only showed up for work when they were under FBI surveilance.

[snarks_when_bored]

This thread reminds me of a question I’ve always wondered about: how is it possible for there to be gangsters in Israel, a country as big as a postage-stamp and full of privacy-invading devices intended to thwart terrorist attacks? Do authorities just look the other way most of the time?

[GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco]

But it's also known by the quality of its crooks.

OK, let's put you down for David Berkowitz then.

What a pinheaded premise for an article.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I thought the Sicilians/Italians wiped them out, along with the Irish mob.

[enots]

They are alive and well at www.marylandcorruption.com

Instead of tough guys, I call them America’s Crybaby Mafia.

I caught Gilbert Sapperstein, the Godfather of Maryland’s Jewish Mafia outside a Baltimore courthouse without his bodyguard and lawyers and after a verbally berating him he fled the scene.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

A lotta Eye-talions in the North End take a perverse pride in the exploits of Carlo Ponzi. And still greive the murderous Saco and Vanzetti.

[Vaquero]

There was this kid I grew up with. He was younger than me, sort of looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. In Prohibition we ran molasses into Canada, made a fortune — your father too.

As much as anyone I loved him and trusted him.

Later on he had an idea: to build a city out of a desert stopover for GIs on the way to the coast.

That kid's name was Moe Green. And the city he invented was Las Vegas.

This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque or a signpost or a statue of him in that town.

Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry. I knew Moe, I knew he was headstrong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go.

And I said to myself, This is the business we've chosen. I didn't ask who gave the order. Because it had nothing to do with business.

[restornu]

Ya the Mofia, Irish mob from Hells Kitchen, and the Russian Mofia Blagojevich Operation
http://www.thechicagosyndicate.com/2008/12/did-illinois-governor-rod-blagojevich.html

[cripplecreek]

Israel must look the other way with a lot of these guys. They’re just as susceptible to corruption as anyone else.

You should read about Ludwig “Tarzan” Fainberg. After immigrating from Russia he got his start in America doing arson for money and was finally caught trying to sell a Russian nuclear sub to Columbian drug cartels.

He was kicked out of America after doing 5 years in prison as part of a plea deal. He ended up in Israel and apparently operates openly. I heard of him because he was interviewed by the History channel. He says he has no regrets.

[Moonman62]

The non-Jews who committed genocide to steal the land in the first place.

I found this little jewel in the article.

[Senator John Blutarski]

Three questions -

1. How exactly was the Godfather film series “subtly anti-semitic”?

2. Why aren’t the likes of the murderous Lepke Buchalter mentioned in Rosenbaum’s rosy little paean?

3. Doesn’t Rosenbaum get tired carrying that left wing socialist agenda on his intellectual back, forever having to seek ways to inject it into everything we writes?

[snarks_when_bored]

Thanks for that reference. I’ll have to read up on that guy. And, yes, I’m thinking that my guess about authorities looking the other way has to have some validity...

[Leisler]

Pile of palaver.

[dennisw]

Ron Rosenbaum wrote for Village Voice for years. He has moved to the center since those days but not enough for you. He used to be much more left

Lepke Buchalter? Is he supposed to mention every Jewish hoodlum?