Jewish Gangsters Throughout History
Until the end of the 18th century, the reputation of Jews in Europe, and maybe even all over the world, was very different from what it is today. The Jewish stereotype that we know today is that of a highly education person, or even a genius, but also a “nerd” who does not believe in violence. We tend to look back on Jewish gangsters throughout history with some pride, as “tough Jews”. However, it is important to remember that these criminals contributed to the anti-Semitic sentiments within the communities in which they operated. Moreover, most of the victims of these Jewish criminals were actually other Jews.
Many famous European thinkers of the time have complained about the poor unkempt conditions in which Jews lived, and about the filth and crime that they brought to their environment. In Britain, Germany, and Eastern Europe, gangs of Jewish robbers were often reported to suddenly emerge from the suburbs, beat, snatch purses, and flee.
However, it seems that the secularization that took place in Europe in the late 18th century and, especially, the emancipation policy that followed, had a significant impact on the Jews and their reputation. Thousands of Jews found their way up the European social stratum and became senior executives, inventors, business owners, famous academics, etc.
Despite this, not only was organized Jewish crime not banished, but it often became even more sophisticated and deadly due to the march of progress. It may even be said that organized crime in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began with the immigration of Eastern European Jews. These Jews operated alongside Italian mobsters who managed gangs and illegal trade activity. This article will describe several Jewish criminals from the past 200 years who became world-renown gangsters.
Gangsters of Jewish Origin Throughout History—Historic Background In Europe and Worldwide
Starting from the 16th century, the authorities in most European countries required Jews to stop mixing with the Christian population, stop employing Christian servants, and, especially, live in separate areas from Christians, dedicated Jewish “ghettos”. The first ghetto was established in Rome, due to the Pope’s initiative. That was also the last ghetto to be destroyed in Western Europe, its walls demolished in 1888, some time after the unification of the Italian empire.
Sometimes it was because the authorities sought to keep the Jews inferior or subordinate, and sometimes it was to limit their social status in their field of occupation.
This difficult situation brought great poverty on the Jews, which caused the Jewish crime rate to rise. This disproportionate amount of crowding in the ghettos and the lack of proper sanitation often led to waves of illness. Moreover, the authorities’ neglect of the situation and unwillingness to treat the rising crime in the ghettos caused the delinquency to increase, especially as the Jewish population in Eastern Europe grew considerably.
Although the ghettos are depicted today as closed neglected areas that are the symbol of social discrimination representing Europe’s dark Middle Ages, the ghetto also preserved the Jewish identity and often created a rich branching culture of literature. Many Jews preferred to separate and seclude themselves in cohesive communities inside the ghettoes.
The phenomenon of segregation became a routine Jewish way of life, especially after the Crusades, which tore up entire communities and caused the deaths of thousands. Since then, for security reasons, the Jews preferred to be fenced off by the authorities and, thereby, defend themselves from the zealous Christian and/or Muslim crowds that often attempted to kill them. This was also reflected in the fact that the ghetto prevented intermarriage between the Jews and the European and Middle Eastern peoples among whom the Jews lived.
The Great Migration from Eastern Europe to the United States
At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States opened its gates to European countries. First the western countries were those that sent millions of immigrants to the New World—countries like Britain, Ireland, Norway, Prussia, and the various German principalities. Starting from 1880, hundreds of thousands of Jews began to stream from Eastern Europe to America—especially from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
The Jews, who sought refuge from the pogroms that befell them in Eastern Europe, found their refuge in America. However, the immigration was also a result of the massive population increase in Eastern Europe, as well as the rising antisemitism that was advanced by the local governments and religious authorities. While the western countries advocated equal rights for their citizens, the eastern countries of the continent supported an antisemitic xenophobic policy toward minorities—which they considered legal and legitimate.
This is why, between 1880 and 1924, over two million Eastern European Jews boarded ships and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the East Coast of America, to cities such as New York, Boston, and New Jersey. As mentioned above, most of these Jews were from Romania, Poland, and the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
However, due to the generally unfavorable economic situation of the immigrants, many of them suffered from poverty even in the “land of opportunity,” which led them to engage in illegal trade and get involved in street fights—usually with Catholics. In the New World, gangs were initially “organized” by religion. In this state of affairs, the districts of every city that was abounded with immigrants were divided between Jewish and Catholic criminals.
At the time, the Jewish immigrant community in the United States was the most dangerous population besides the Italian crime gangs. Occasionally, the Irish also made an impression, but in lower numbers. Eventually the conflict was resolved, and the criminal organizations established by the Jews joined and cooperated with the Italians. Together they evaded taxes; engaged in the illegal importation of drugs, cigars, and liquor to America; and, of course, “flourished” in the black market and in employing hired killers and professional money launderers.
Crime Gang Leaders in the United States—Gangsters and Criminals of Jewish Descent Throughout History
Here are some names of crime gang leaders who have been on the FBI’s wanted list over the years. It seems that, despite being serious criminals, most of them managed to hide their illegal activities from the government and often evaded trial.
- Meyer Lansky: Probably the most famous Jewish criminal in the past two hundred years. He was a businessman, mobster, and founder of the American National Crime Syndicate. In his old age, he wished to make Aliyah (immigrate to Israel as a Jew under the Law of Return), which led to an extensive public debate about the right of individuals with a criminal past to make Aliyah (although he was never convicted of a serious crime).
- Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel: A member of the New York Mafia and a childhood friend of Meyer Lansky, who teamed up to establish their mafia organization. He was one of the driving forces behind the development of the Las Vegas gambling center that we know today.
- Fredericka Mandelbaum: A gangster who headed one of the largest criminal organizations in New York—and in the United States, in general—in the 19th century. She was a multi-millionaire who ran a “corporation” for trading in stolen property.
- Meyer “Mickey” Cohen: Head of the Cohen crime family in Los Angeles. In the middle of the 20th century, together with the Italian Mafia, he established a criminal organization in the city that heralded the arrival of other organizations.
- Abe Bernstein: Leader of the Purple Gang that operated in Detroit and, among other activities, was occupied with the smuggling of alcoholic beverages under the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act. The gang was composed mainly of Jewish immigrants.
- Arnold Rothstein: The founding father of organized crime in America. He was nicknamed “The Brain” and was also a mentor of many future crime bosses, including Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Lucky Luciano.
- David Berman: A mobster with determinative contribution to the creation of criminal organizations in several US states. He was one of the main figures who developed Las Vegas and one of the pioneers who founded the city’s casino together with Benjamin Siegel.
- Louis Buchalter: A notorious criminal who, along with his friend Jacob Shapiro, was involved in extortion and bribery on the streets of New York. He was one of the founders of the criminal organization Murder, Inc.
- Joseph Stacher: Known as the one who helped merge the Italian Mafia and Meyer Lansky’s Jewish crime organization. He was close with other crime bosses and managed Lansky’s crime transactions behind the scenes.
- The Hamberg Brothers: Three brothers who had, apparently, led the senior gang in Brooklyn in the 1920s. The brothers were all murdered by rivals or executed by the authorities.
The “Yiddishers” in England
This was the name of organized crime groups in London, many of which included immigrants from Eastern Europe. Some of the famous gangs were the Bessarabian Tigers (named after the Bessarabian region between Ukraine and Romania), the Hoxton Mob, the Aldgate Mob, and the Islington Mob. Some of the formidable leaders who ruled these gangs were Jack Spot, Alfie Solomon and the Kray twins, who were probably London’s most notorious criminals in the 1950s and 1960s. The latter created the Firm (the name of their gang) and were involved over the years in murder, robbery, protection rackets, arson, and other forms of crime.
In the 1930s, Jewish criminals would take to the streets of London to fight supporters of the Fascist Party, led by racist and anti-Semitic Oswald Mosley. The British fascist leader married his wife at the home of Joseph Goebbels, who served as chief propagandist for the Nazi government.
The “new party” promoted Nazi ideas and angered the “Jews of the streets.” As a result, the latter frequently initiated clashes against party ruffians, and were supported by the communist community in London.
Jewish Criminals in Romania—The Great Robbery in Communist Romania
Lastly, we will discuss a small group of Jewish intellectuals who were involved in one of the most successful armed robberies seen in Romania. Its members were engineers, journalists, colonels, deans in faculties, and members of the Communist Party. These collaborated against the oppressive Romanian regime, which prevented Jews from leaving the country freely and demanded that Jews pay huge sums of money for permits to leave.
In the robbery incident, the gang robbed an armored vehicle carrying money to the State Bank of Romania in Bucharest. Some of the motives behind the act were Zionist and expressed the gang’s anger over the corrupt antisemitic conduct of the communist government. However, the robbers, who collected an amount equal to a quarter of a million US dollars, were caught and their trial was held behind closed doors, after which most of them were secretly executed. This ended the era of what was known as the Ioanid Gang.
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