Kosher Nostra
Kosher Nostra (also Yiddish connection , Jewish mob , Jewish Mafia , Kosher Mafia ) was a Jewish-dominated criminal organization in the USA. Kosher Nostra is a language game with Cosa Nostra , the Sicilian Mafia.
In contrast to the classic mafia, the non-intergenerational phenomenon was closely related to the intensive immigration from Eastern Europe in the late 19th to early 20th century and had its spatial focus in New York City and its surroundings.
Etymology and Adaptation
The name is an allusion to the Jewish origin of some mobsters - kosher ( English. Kosher ) is the Hebrew term for "pure" (see in particular Jewish dietary laws ) and is based on the term Cosa Nostra .
Known attributable persons were in particular Arnold Rothstein , Lewis Solon Rosenstiel , Meyer Lansky , Bugsy Siegel , Dutch Schultz , Louis Buchalter , Monk Eastman , Mickey Cohen , Moe Sedway , Gus Greenbaum , Moses Annenberg and Abner Zwillman .
After the end of the Eastman Gang , many Kosher Nostras later belonged to the Bugs and Meyer Mob or to " Murder, Inc. " ("Mord AG") led by Louis Buchalter and soon used the name "Murder, Inc." internally, in testimony and later accounts. There was no separate internal designation (for the work and organizational contexts) among the “members”; there was also - in contrast to the Cosa Nostra or La Cosa Nostra - no formal ritual act of acceptance as a “full member”. According to a legend, the Sicilian Lucky Luciano is said to have toyed with the idea of abolishing this rite for his "families", whereupon his childhood friend Meyer Lansky is said to have advised him against it. Meyer and others worked closely with the Italian-born mafia, but this did not result in a genuinely Jewish, separate tradition of organized crime. The principle of confidentiality as a principle of internal and external isolation was also adapted, key witnesses and Pentiti eliminated with the same murderous consequence.
A special external term of its own developed late because - ignoring the fact that only Italians from certain regions and families were accepted as full members - non-Italian gangsters were simply assigned to the Italian-American "families". In addition, it became common to use the term Mafia , which originally only applied to the original, purely Sicilian Cosa Nostra, for any form of organized crime. Mobsters like Meyer Lansky are therefore also referred to as “Mafioso”, especially in the press.
If the internal name “ Cosa Nostra ” ( Italian “Our Cause”) was made public by Joe Valachi in 1963, there was no “ Pentito ” that would have provided an internal name for the Kosher Nostra .
history
The Kosher Nostra was a historically and locally limited phenomenon of the living conditions of mainly Eastern European immigrants with a Jewish background in the ghettos of New York City at the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1881 and 1910 alone, around 1.6 million Jewish immigrants came to New York , around 1.2 million of whom lived on the shabby Lower East Side . Their life in the dark tenements, in which tuberculosis and cholera also occurred initially, often only offered the opportunity to work, for example, as a “ working poor ” for starvation wages for twelve hours in the numerous small factories (“ sweatshop ”). As a rule, this group of emigrants did not have the opportunity for advancement, for example, for rich or educated Western Europeans.
The situation was comparable to the descriptions of Upton Sinclair in his socially critical novel " The Jungle ", which takes place in the same period and describes similar living conditions in Chicago . Contrast, the many illegal activities promised a faster upward mobility, the last consequence to Berufsverbrechertum with the productive sectors racketeering , pimping and gambling led - A criminal way, the respective minorities of other ethnic groups also had trod.
While the American La Cosa Nostra was recruited almost entirely from Italian immigrants, some of whom were already connected with the Cosa Nostra in Italy, or their descendants, for Kosher Nostras the crime played more of a social-transitional role. The "career" as a gangster was only the phenomenon of a generation. In contrast to the American Cosa Nostra, this “culture of crime” was generally not passed on to descendants and was often largely hidden from subsequent generations.
With the death of this only generation of Kosher Nostra gangsters , this particular facet of organized crime ended , while the Italian-American mafia continues to renew itself to this day.
List of known Kosher Nostras
Surname | birth | death | Cause of death | Nickname | annotation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abrams, Hyman | Big Mike | u. a. Partner at The Sands and Flamingo casinos in Las Vegas | |||
Adelman, Louis | Fish | Drug dealer and Pentito | |||
Alberts, Meyer | 1925 | shot | Little Augie Gang | ||
Alderman, Israel | Icepick Willie | Henchman of David Berman | |||
Amberg, Herman | 1902 | 1926 | Suicide | Hyman | Amberg family ; Opponents of the Shapiro brothers |
Amberg, Louis | 1897 | 1935 | shot | Pretty | “Labor racketeering” ; Opponents of the Shapiro brothers |
Amberg, Joseph C. | 1892 | 1935 | shot | “Labor racketeering” ; Opponents of the Shapiro brothers | |
Annenberg, Maxie | originally boss of Dion O'Banion , brother of Moses Annenberg | ||||
Annenberg, Moses | 1877 | 1942 | natural death | Moe | 3 years imprisonment; Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer |
Berman, David | 1903 | 1957 | Heart attack | Davie the Jew | Associate of Moe Sedway of the Genovese family |
Berman, Otto | 1889 | 1935 | shot | Abbadabba | Accountant from Dutch Schultz |
Amber, Abe | 1892 | 1968 | natural death | Leader of the Purple Gang | |
Bernstein, Samuel | 1944 | cancer | Sam Butch | Chemist at drug dealer Louis Adelman | |
Amber, Sholem | Sol | Murder, Inc. Getaway driver and car thief, later Pentito | |||
Bioff, William Morris | 1900 | 1955 | Bomb attack | Willie | 42-speed |
Birger, Shachna Itzik "Charles" | 1881 | 1928 | hanged | Charlie | Rival of the Shelton Brothers Gang |
Blumenfeld, Isadore | 1900 | 1981 | Heart attack | Kid Cann | Friend of Meyer Lansky |
Bowdach, Gary | 1943 | Associate of the Gambino family, debt collector and contract killer, later as Pentito in the witness protection program | |||
Brock, Stanley | Sunny | Associate of the Gambino family, business partner of Gary Bowdach | |||
Buchalter, Louis | 1897 | 1944 | Electric chair | Lepke | Murder, Inc. |
Chalupowitz, Abraham | Trigger Abe | Murder, Inc. | |||
Cicchini, Louis | 1970 | shot | Chick | Gambino family associate, debt collector and business partner of Gary Bowdach, shot dead by Bowdach | |
Cohen, Irving | 1904 | 1991 | natural death | Big Gangi | Actor and boxing manager |
Cohen, Louis | 1904 | 1939 | shot | Louis Kerzner | Labor Slugger War , born Louis Kerzner |
Cohen, Philip | 1906/1907 | 1949 | shot | Little Farvel | Member of Murder, Inc. |
Cohen, Mickey | 1913 | 1976 | natural death | Collaboration with Bugsy Siegel in Las Vegas | |
Dalitz, Morris Barney | 1899 | 1989 | natural death | Moe | Desert Inn , mentor to Frank Sinatra |
Diamond, Stanley | 1940 | Stanley | Associate of the Lucchese family , related to David Diamond | ||
Dorfman, Allen | 1923 | 1983 | shot | ||
Drucker, Jacob | 1905/1906 | 1962 | Jack, Little Sure Shot | Member of Murder, Inc. | |
Eastman, Monk | 1873 | 1920 | shot | alias Ostermann | Eastman Gang |
Eisen, Maxie | 1926 | shot | President of the Kosher Meat Peddler's Association ; associated with Dion O'Banion , then Saltis-McErlane Gang | ||
Fine, Benjamin | 1887 | 1962 | Dopey Benny | "Laboratory racketeering" | |
Feinstein, Irving | 1939 | stabbed and burned | Puggy | murdered by the Murder, Inc. | |
Friedmann, Isadore (Irving) | 1939 | shot | Danny Fields | Louis Buchalter's longtime companion and debt collector, was suspected of cooperating with the authorities in 1939 | |
Friedman, Oscar | The poet | Member of Murder, Inc. and later Pentito | |||
Goldberg, Max | 1926 | shot | Little Augie Gang | ||
Goldis, Morris | Business partners of Louis Buchalter and Jacob Shapiro; charged with the murder of William Snyder, President of the Local 138th Teamsters Union | ||||
Goldis, William | Wolfie | Business partners of Louis Buchalter and Jacob Shapiro; charged with the murder of William Snyder, President of the Local 138th Teamsters Union | |||
Goldstein, Martin | 1905 | 1941 | Electric chair | Bugsy | Member of Murder, Inc. |
Golob, Max | around 1909 | The jerk | Murder, Inc. | ||
Gordon, Waxey | 1886/1889 | 1952 | cancer | Largest “bootlegger” on the east coast of the United States | |
Greenbaum, Gustav | 1894 | 1958 | Cut throat | Gus | Casino Manager in Las Vegas |
Greenberg, Harry | 1939 | shot | Big Greenie | alias Harry Schachter; Confidante of Louis Buchalter and later Pentito | |
Greenberg, Max | 1883 | 1933 | shot | Big Maxie, Big Head Greenberg | Bootlegger and business partner of Waxey Gordon and Max Hassel. Hassel and Greenberg were murdered in 1933 |
Greenthal, Abe | 1826 | 1889 | General, The | Sheeny Gang, imprisoned until shortly before his death | |
Grossman, Morris | around 1896 | 1925 | shot and set on fire, suspect in the murder of Meyer Alberts | Nathan Kaplan's Rough Riders Gang | |
Guzik, Jake | 1886 | 1956 | Greasy Thumb | Associate of the Chicago Outfit | |
Hinkes, Max | 1911 | 1995 | Puddy | Abner Zwillman's subordinate | |
Hassel, Max | 1900/1901 | 1933 | shot | Bootlegger and business partner of Waxey Gordon and Maxie Greenberg. Greenberg and Hassel were murdered in 1933 | |
Hoff, Max | 1893 | 1941 | Heart attack | Boo Hoo, Boo Boo | Box manager and “bootlegger” in Philadelphia |
Murray Humphreys | 1899 | 1965 | Camel, The; Hump, The | Associated Killer of the Chicago Outfit | |
Holtz, Hyman | 1896 | 1939? | Curly; Little hymn | Associate of Meyer Lansky | |
Horowitz, Harry | 1889 | 1914 | Electric chair | Gyp the Blood | Lenox Avenue gang, sentenced to death for the murder of Herman Rosenthal |
Chaplain, Izzy | Brother of Nathan Kaplan, Rough Riders Gang | ||||
Chaplain, Nathan | 1891/1895 | 1923 | shot | Kid dropper | Labor Slugger War , Rough Riders Gang |
Katzenberg, Jacob | 1888 | Yasha; The wandering jew | Heroin trafficking with Lucky Luciano , Waxey Gordon etc. | ||
Keywell, Harry | 1910 | 1997 | natural death | The Purple Gang | |
Kovolick, Philip | 1908 | 1971? | Little Farvel | aka Kovalick | |
Kravits, Louis | Shadows | aka Kravitz | |||
Krompier, Martin | The Crumpet, Marty the Wolf | Dutch Schultz's henchman | |||
Landau, Abe | 1898 | 1935 | shot | Dutch Schultz's henchman | |
Lansky, Meyer | 1902 | 1983 | Lung cancer | The honest Meyer | Friend of Lucky Luciano ; Based in the National Crime Syndicate |
Lebowitz, Joe | 1931 | Nigger joe | Murdered fighting the Purple Gang | ||
Levine, hymn | Loud Mouth | “Bootlegger” in the loop of Chicago for Al Capone | |||
Levine, Samuel | 1903 | Red | possibly murderer of Salvatore Maranzano | ||
Lewinsky, Benjamin | 1893 | 1922 | shot | Ben Brown | aka Levine; Labor Slugger War ; murdered by William Lipshitz |
Lewis, Vach | 1908 | shot | Cyclone Louie | Eastman Gang | |
Linsey, Joseph | 1899 | 1994 | natural death | Business relationship with Joseph P. Kennedy and Meyer Lansky | |
Lipshitz, William | 1901 | 19 ?? | Nathan Kaplan's Rough Riders Gang; 1922 sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Benjamin Levinsky | ||
Lorber, Abe | 1895 | Little Yiddel | Bailiff and owner of the Williamsburg Boys Club, a hangout for Brooklyn criminals. In 1935 Louis Amberg is said to have been murdered there by members of Murder, Inc. In 1941, Lorber was convicted of drug trafficking | ||
Magoon, Seymour | 1908 | unknown | Blue Jaw | Murder, Inc .; later Pentito | |
Marks, Harry | around 1906 | 1924 | Drive-by shooting | Kid Portchester, sometimes Harry Marx, Harry Cohen | Little Augie Gang |
Martin, Hyman | 1903 | 1987 | Pittsburgh hymn | Liaison in Pittsburgh for Moe Dalitz and Lou Rothkopf | |
Midgen, Jacob | around 1909 | Kuppy | Murder, Inc. | ||
Mortan, Samuel J. | 1894 | 1923 | Nails | ||
Newman, John | Joseph Schaeffer, Jeff / Jake Newman | Murder, Inc .; Abe Wagner's murderer and prohibition agent John Finiello | |||
Nitzberg, Irving | 1909 | Knadles | Murder, Inc. | ||
Orgen, Jacob | 1894 | 1927 | Drive-by shooting | Little Augie | Laboratory Slugger War |
Reles, Abe | 1906 | 1941 | Fall or jump out of the window | Kid twist | important pentito ; Statement led to the end of Murder, Inc. |
Roses, Harry | Nig | Big seven ; Associate of the Lucchese family | |||
Rosenberg, Harvey | 1950 | 1979 | shot | Chris | Associate of Roy DeMeo , a member of the Gambino family |
Rosenberg, Louis | around 1890 | 1914 | Electric chair | Lefty Louie | Lenox Avenue gang, sentenced to death for the murder of Herman Rosenthal |
Rosenstiel, Lewis Solon | 1891 | 1975 | natural death | close friend of J. Edgar Hoover | |
Rosenthal, Frank | 1929 | 2008 | natural death | Lefty | see casino (film) |
Rosenkrantz, Bernard | 1902 | 1935 | shot | Lulu | Bodyguard from Dutch Schultz |
Rosenzweig, Joseph | 1891 | 19 ?? | Joe the Grease | Laboratory Slugger War , partner of Benny Fein | |
Rothkopf, Lou is | 1903 | 1956 | Lou | brought Mickey Cohen and Bugsy Siegel together | |
Rothstein, Arnold | 1882 | 1928 | shot | The Brain | Mentor of Meyer Lansky , Jack Diamond , Lucky Luciano , Dutch Schultz |
Sagansky, Harry J. | 1898 | 1997 | Doc | was imprisoned at the age of 91 | |
Say, Walter | 1937 | stabbed | Murder, Inc. Family member responsible for the gambling business | ||
Salles, Sidney | around 1906 | 1941 | shot | Shimmy | Murder, Inc. Family member and participant in the murder of Harry Greenberg |
Schiffman, Charles | Charlie Schippman, Morris Feldman | Member of the group around Waxey Gordon | |||
Schwartzman, Louis | 1923 | shot | Midget Louis | Little Augie Gang | |
Seidenschner, Jacob | around 1885 | 1914 | Electric chair | Whitey Lewis | Lenox Avenue gang, sentenced to death for the murder of Herman Rosenthal |
Schultz, Dutch | 1901 | 1935 | shot | Bronx Beer Baron | |
Sedway, Moe | 1894 | 1952 | Together with Gus Greenbaum and Bugsy Siegel in Las Vegas | ||
Shapiro, Irving | 1904 | 1931 | shot | Opponent of the Amberg brothers | |
Shapiro, Jacob | 1899 | 1947 | Gurrah | Partner of Louis Buchalter | |
Shapiro, Meyer | 1908 | 1931 | shot | Opponent of the Amberg brothers | |
Shapiro, William | 1911 | 1934 | buried alive | Willie | Opponent of the Amberg brothers |
Sherman, Charles | 1935 | murdered | Chink | ||
Siegel, Benjamin | 1906 | 1947 | shot | Bugsy | Bugs and Meyer Mob |
Silverberg, Albert | George Young | Murder, Inc .; Abe Wagner's murderer and prohibition agent John Finiello | |||
Silverman, Max | Murder, Inc. and Lepke Lieutenant | ||||
Snyder, Benjamin | 1915 | Benny | aka Benjamin Schneider, Slugger War Laboratory | ||
Solomon, Charles | 1884 | 1933 | shot | King Solomon | Big Seven |
Spanish, Johnny | 1891 | 1919 | shot | Labor Slugger War ; born as John Weyler | |
Stacher, Joseph | 1902 | 1977 | Heart attack | Doc | Bugs and Meyer Mob |
Strauss, Harry | 1909 | 1941 | Electric chair | Pittsburgh Phil | Killer of Murder, Inc. |
Sykoff, Meyer | Mickey, Michael Sackett | Murder, Inc. Pentito | |||
Tannenbaum, Albert | 1906 | 1976 | Tic-Toc | Murder, Inc. | |
Tannenbaum, Benjamin | around 1906 | 1941 | shot | Benny the Boss | Murder, Inc. |
Taubman, Morris | Member of the group around Waxey Gordon | ||||
Tietlebaum, Harry | 1889 | alias Teitelbaum; Bugs and Meyer Mob | |||
Toblinsky, Joseph | 1879 | Yoski (nigger); Yesky nigger | Yiddish Black Hand , imprisoned in Sing Sing in 1902 | ||
Wagner, Albert | 1931 | shot | Albie | Counterparty to John (Aces) Mazza, brother of Abraham Wagner | |
Wagner, Abraham | 1932 | shot | Abe | ex-bootlegger from NYC in hiding, murdered by Joseph Schaefer and George Young | |
Weinberg, Abraham | 1897 | 1935 | disappeared without a trace | Gus | Dutch Schultz's environment |
Weiss, Emanuel | 1906 | 1944 | Electric chair | Mendy | Murder, Inc. |
Weiss, Samuel | around 1904 | Sammy | Little Augie Gang | ||
Wolensky, Moe | 1942 | shot | Dimples | Involved in Buchalter and Meyer Lansky's gambling business. In 1939 he persuaded Buchalter to face the authorities by pretending to Buchalter that there was a deal regarding a maximum penalty | |
Workman, Charles | 1908 | 1979 | Charlie the Bug | Member of Murder, Inc., sentenced to 23 years in prison for the murder of Dutch Schultz | |
Yaras, Dave | 1912 | 1974 | Heart attack | Dave "Yiddles" Miller | |
Yaras, Leonard | 1985 | shot | Son of David Yaras | ||
Yaras, Ronnie | 1974 | shot | Son of David Yaras | ||
Zelig, Jack | 1882 | 1912 | Big jack | Eastman Gang | |
Zuta, Jacob U. | 1888 | 1930 | shot | (Big) Jack | Al Capone : "don't add me" |
Zwerbach, Max | 1884 | 1908 | shot | Kid twist | Leader of the Eastman Gang |
Zwillman, Abner | 1904 | 1959 | forcibly hanged | Longhy | "Godfather" of New Jersey |
See also
literature
- Herbert Asbury: The Gangs of New York . Thunder's Mouth, New York / London 2001, ISBN 1-56025-275-8 (first edition: Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1928).
- Alan A. Block: Lepke, Kid Twist, and the Combination: Organized Crime in New York City, 1930-1944 . 1976.
- Rich Cohen: Tough Jews. Fathers, Sons and Gangster Dreams . Simon & Schuster, New York 1998, ISBN 0-684-83115-5 .
- German title: Rich Cohen: Murder Inc. or Not Quite Kosher Shops in Brooklyn . S. Fischer Verlag, ISBN 3-10-010215-0 .
- Albert Fried: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America . Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York 1980, ISBN 0-231-09683-6 .
- Erich Metz: Kosher Nostra. Jewish gangsters in America 1890–1980. Death in america . 1st edition. Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna, 2003, ISBN 3-901398-34-1 .
- Rachel Rubin: Jewish Gangsters of Modern Literature . University of Illinois Press, 2000, ISBN 0-252-02539-3 .
- Robert A. Rockaway: But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters . Gefen Publishing House, 1993, ISBN 965-229-249-4 .
- Robert A. Rockaway: Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel & Co. Life stories of Jewish gangsters in the USA . Konkret-Literatur-Verlag, Hamburg, ISBN 3-89458-170-0 .
- Robert Rockaway: Kosher Nostra. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 3: He-Lu. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02503-6 , pp. 421-424.
- Sandy Sadowsky: Wedded to Crime: My Life in the Jewish Mafia . Putnam Pub Group, 1992, ISBN 0-399-13614-2 .
- Nick Tosches: King of the Jews: The Arnold Rothstein Story . Harper Perennial, 2005, ISBN 0-06-093600-2 .
- Nick Tosches: King of the Jews: The Greatest Mob Story Never Told . HarperCollins Publisher, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-621118-2 .
Documentation
The American documentary television series American Justice from A&E Network took up the topic and the environment several times:
- Episode 41: "Mob Ladies": Topic u. a. Virginia Hill , Bugsy Siegel's girlfriend .
- Episode 52: "Vegas & The Mob": Subject Frank Rosenthal and the Mafia casinos in Las Vegas ; and Allen Glick occurs in this episode.
- Episode 77: “The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mobster”: in particular the subject of Benny Fein, Abe Reles, Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel.
Web links
- Defenders of the faith by Linda Grant on July 6, 2002 at www.guardian.co.uk
Individual evidence
- ↑ Earliest public mention of the term. on barrypopik.com (English).
- ↑ jewishindependent.ca ( Memento from June 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
- ↑ LEPKE AIDE SLAIN AFTER INDICMENT; Salles, Named With 13 Others as Harboring Fugitive, Shot Dead on 1st Ave. TWO WOMEN ARE ACCUSED Most of Those Cited Have Been Mentioned in Connection With Murder Syndicate In: The New York Times.Retrieved October 7, 2012.