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117-793: Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob , the Jewish Mafia , the Kosher Mob , the Kosher Mafia , the Yiddish Connection , and Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik ( Yiddish : אונדזער שטיק ). The last two of these terms are direct references to

234-452: A 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research , approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi , 3% identify as Sephardic , and 1% identify as Mizrahi . An additional 6% identify as some combination of the three categories, and 25% do not identify as any particular category. During the colonial era, Sephardic Jews who arrived via Portugal represented the bulk of America's then-small Jewish population. While their descendants are

351-667: A Jewish family built along the same lines as our thing . But his family's all over the country. He's got guys like Lou Rhody and Dalitz , Doc Stacher , Gus Greenbaum , sharp fucking guys, good businessmen, and they know better than try to fuck us. Jewish mobsters, such as Meyer Lansky and the Los Angeles-based Mickey Cohen , along with Harold "Hooky" Rothman, continued to hold significant power and control organized crime groups in New York City, New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Las Vegas, while

468-499: A Jewish state; it had little apparent effect however, with 90% still voting other-than-Republican. In every election since, except for 1980, no Democratic presidential candidate has won with less than 67% of the Jewish vote. (In 1980, Carter obtained 45% of the Jewish vote. See below.) During the 1952 and 1956 elections, Jewish voters cast 60% or more of their votes for Democrat Adlai Stevenson , while General Eisenhower garnered 40% of

585-416: A big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top." According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person to see during prohibition (1920–1933) if one had an idea for a tremendous business opportunity, legal or not. Rothstein "understood the truths of early 20th century capitalism (hypocrisy, exclusion, greed) and came to dominate them". According to Cohen, Rothstein was the 'Moses of Jewish gangsters',

702-409: A criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket. However, racketeers may also sometimes offer an ostensibly effectual service outside of the law to solve an actual existing problem. The traditional and historically most common example of

819-429: A historical art form. They tell us how Jews have survived being uprooted and transformed. Many immigrant narratives bear a theme of the arbitrary nature of fate and the reduced state of immigrants in a new culture. By contrast, ethnic family narratives tend to show the ethnicity more in charge of his life, and perhaps in danger of losing his Jewishness altogether. Some stories show how a family member successfully negotiated

936-466: A major role in left-wing politics and, after 1936, in Democratic Party politics. Although American Jews generally leaned Republican in the second half of the 19th century, the majority has voted Democratic since at least 1916, when they voted 55% for Woodrow Wilson . With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt , American Jews voted more solidly Democratic. They voted 90% for Roosevelt in

1053-454: A major-party ticket when he was chosen as Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore 's vice-presidential nominee. The elections of 2000 and 2004 saw continued Jewish support for Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry , a Catholic, remain in the high- to mid-70% range, while Republican George W. Bush 's re-election in 2004 saw Jewish support rise from 19% to 24%. In the 2008 presidential election , 78% of Jews voted for Barack Obama , who became

1170-433: A means to define Jews in a world that threatened to overwhelm and absorb Jewish uniqueness. The journal represented the ideals of the menorah movement established by Horace M. Kallen and others to promote a revival in Jewish cultural identity and combat the idea of race as a means to define or identify peoples. Siporin (1990) uses the family folklore of ethnic Jews to their collective history and its transformation into

1287-406: A minority nowadays, they represent the remainder of those original American Jews along with an array of other Jewish communities, including more recent Sephardi Jews , Mizrahi Jews , Beta Israel-Ethiopian Jews , various other Jewish ethnic groups , as well as a smaller number of converts to Judaism . The American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions , encompassing

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1404-687: A minority population of the older Sephardi Jewish families remained influential. Jewish migration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution and economic difficulties in parts of Eastern Europe. Most of these new immigrants were Yiddish -speaking Ashkenazi Jews, most of whom arrived from poor diaspora communities of the Russian Empire and the Pale of Settlement , located in modern-day Poland , Lithuania , Belarus , Ukraine , and Moldova . During

1521-516: A per-capita basis for incorporated areas in the US are Kiryas Joel Village, New York (greater than 93% based on language spoken in home), City of Beverly Hills, California (61%), and Lakewood Township , New Jersey (59%), with two of the incorporated areas, Kiryas Joel and Lakewood, having a high concentration of Haredi Jews, and one incorporated area, Beverly Hills, having a high concentration of non-Orthodox Jews. The phenomenon of Israeli migration to

1638-455: A potential 7.0–7.4 million Americans of Jewish descent. Those higher estimates were however arrived at by including all non-Jewish family members and household members, rather than surveyed individuals. In a 2019 study by Jews of Color Initiative it was found that approximately 12-15% of Jews in the United States, about 1,000,000 of 7,200,000 identify as multiracial and Jews of color . The overall population of Americans of Jewish descent

1755-399: A profound impact on the Jewish community in the United States, especially after 1960 as Holocaust education improved, as Jews tried to comprehend what had happened during it, and especially as they tried to commemorate it and grapple with it when they looked to the future. Abraham Joshua Heschel summarized this dilemma when he attempted to understand Auschwitz : "To try to answer is to commit

1872-436: A racket is the " protection racket ", in which racketeers offer to protect a business from robbery or vandalism; however, the racketeers will themselves coerce or threaten the business into accepting this service, often with the threat (implicit or otherwise) that failure to acquire the offered services will lead to the racketeers themselves contributing to the existing problem. In many cases, the potential problem may be caused by

1989-426: A respectable 35%, but during Bush's re-election attempt in 1992, his Jewish support dropped to just 11%, with 80% voting for Bill Clinton and 9% going to independent Ross Perot . Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996 maintained high Jewish support at 78%, with 16% supporting Bob Dole and 3% for Perot. In the 2000 presidential election , Joe Lieberman became the first American Jew to run for national office on

2106-655: A rich man's son, who showed the young and uneducated hoodlums of the Bowery how to have style. Lucky Luciano , who would become a prominent boss within the Italian-American Mafia and organize New York's Five Families , once claimed that Arnold Rothstein "taught me how to dress". The stereotypical attire of the American mobster portrayed in movies can partially trace its roots directly to Rothstein. During prohibition, Jewish gangsters became major operatives in

2223-540: A sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience." During the World War II period, the American Jewish community was bitterly and deeply divided and as a result, it was unable to form a united front. Most Jews who had previously emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe supported Zionism , because they believed that a return to their ancestral homeland

2340-484: A similar split among Israelis and led to a parallel rift within the pro-Israel lobby , and even ultimately to the United States for its "blind" support of Israel. Abandoning any pretense of unity, both segments began to develop separate advocacy and lobbying organizations. The liberal supporters of the Oslo Accord worked through Americans for Peace Now (APN), Israel Policy Forum (IPF) and other groups friendly to

2457-459: A state's presidential primary election. For congressional and senate races, since 1968, American Jews have voted about 70–80% for Democrats; this support increased to 87% for Democratic House candidates during the 2006 elections. The first American Jew to serve in the Senate was David Levy Yulee , who was Florida's first Senator, serving 1845–1851 and again 1855–1861. There were 19 Jews among

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2574-494: A supreme blasphemy. Israel enables us to bear the agony of Auschwitz without radical despair, to sense a ray [of] God's radiance in the jungles of history." Zionism became a well-organized movement in the U.S. with the involvement of leaders such as Louis Brandeis and the promise of a reconstituted homeland in the Balfour Declaration . Jewish Americans organized large-scale boycotts of German merchandise during

2691-636: A thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top." Rothstein was allegedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series . At the same time, the Jewish bootlegging mob known as The Purple Gang dominated the Detroit underworld during Prohibition, while the Jewish Bugs and Meyer Mob operated in the Lower East Side of New York City before being absorbed into Murder, Inc. and becoming affiliates of

2808-563: A twofold experience—one of the spirit and one of our history.   ... From our Jewish historic experience of three and a half thousand years we say: Our ancient history began with slavery and the yearning for freedom. During the Middle Ages my people lived for a thousand years in the ghettos of Europe.   ... It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is, above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions,

2925-429: A wide variety of criminal enterprises boosted by prohibition. The lure of quick money, power, and the romance of the criminal lifestyle was attractive to both second-generation Jewish and Italian immigrants. There was a supposed Jewish "crime wave" in early 20th century New York. In disturbing numbers, young Jews had joined crime " rackets ", it was said, along with children of Irish, Italian and other immigrants. However,

3042-681: Is demographically characterized by an aging population composition and low fertility rates significantly below generational replacement. However, the Orthodox Jewish population, concentrated in the Northeastern United States , has fertility rates when taken alone which are significantly higher than both generational replacement and that of the average U.S. population. The National Jewish Population Survey of 1990 asked 4.5 million adult Jews to identify their denomination. The national total showed 38% were affiliated with

3159-870: Is estimated that up to 15 million Americans are part of the "enlarged" American Jewish population, accounting for 4.5% of the total US population, consisting of those who have at least one Jewish grandparent and would be eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return . Jews were present in the Thirteen Colonies since the mid-17th century. However, they were few in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700. Those early arrivals were mostly Sephardi Jewish immigrants, of Western Sephardic (also known as Spanish and Portuguese Jewish ) ancestry, but by 1720, Ashkenazi Jews from diaspora communities in Central and Eastern Europe predominated. For

3276-608: The American Jewish Yearbook that the American Jewish population totaled 7.15 million, making up 2.17% of the country's 329.5 million inhabitants. In the same year, the American Jewish population was estimated at 7.6 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population, by other organization. This includes 4.9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.6 million Jewish children. The American Jewish Yearbook population survey had placed

3393-651: The Anti-Defamation League was asked by the conference to apologize for criticizing ZOA's Morton Klein . The conference, which under its organizational guidelines was in charge of moderating communal discourse, reluctantly censured some Orthodox spokespeople for attacking Colette Avital , the Labor-appointed Israeli Consul General in New York and an ardent supporter of that version of a peace process. As of 2020,

3510-734: The Atlantic City Conference representing Cleveland. The Syndicate ran numerous casinos in Newport, Kentucky including the original The Flamingo Hotel & Casino opens (1946) , and Tropicana . The Syndicate's reign, in Northern Kentucky, came to an end following a botched attempt to discredit George Ratterman , a candidate for sheriff and a federal crackdown during the Kennedy Administration. The Cleveland Syndicate members were early investors in

3627-598: The Bank of New York in 1998. Organized criminals from the State of Israel have also had a presence in the United States. The Israeli mafia (especially the Tel Aviv -based Abergil crime family ) has also been heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking to America. American Jews American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish , whether by culture , ethnicity , or religion . According to

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3744-663: The Desert Inn , in Las Vegas, and owned it until it was purchased by Howard Hughes . Its members invested in horse tracks including River Downs , Fair Grounds Race Course , Thistledown Racecourse , Fairmount Park Racetrack , Aurora Downs , and the Agua Caliente Racetrack . Under Lansky, Jewish mobsters became involved in syndicate gambling interests in Cuba , Miami, and Las Vegas . Buchalter would also lead

3861-589: The Italian Cosa Nostra ; the former is a play on the word for kosher , referring to Jewish dietary laws , while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' (Italian for "our thing") into Yiddish , which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States . In the late 19th century and early 20th century in New York City, Monk Eastman (who himself

3978-522: The Italian-American Mafia . The largely Jewish-American and Italian-American gang which was known as Murder, Inc. and Jewish mobsters such as Meyer Lansky , Mickey Cohen , Harold "Hooky" Rothman, Dutch Schultz , and Bugsy Siegel developed close ties with the Italian-American Mafia and gained a significant amount of influence within it; eventually, they formed a loosely organized, mostly Jewish and Italian criminal syndicate which

4095-456: The Labor slugger wars until its eventual takeover by Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro in 1927. Other Jewish organized crime figures involved in controlling labor unions include Moses Annenberg and Arnold Rothstein , the latter reportedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series . According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into

4212-614: The New York divorce coercion gang kidnapped and tortured Orthodox Jewish men in troubled marriages to force them into granting religious divorces to their wives, in some cases extorting money from them. Described by prosecutors as a "criminal syndicate" that was "akin to the Bloods , the Crips , or the Mafia," the organization, which charged up to $ 100,000 for their 'services,' was shut down in

4329-606: The New York metropolitan area , establishing the world's major concentrations of the Jewish population. In 1915, the circulation of the daily Yiddish newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, and 600,000 nationally. In addition, thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines in Yiddish. At the beginning of the 20th century, these newly arrived Jews built support networks consisting of many small synagogues and Landsmanshaften (German and Yiddish for "Countryman Associations") for Jews from

4446-682: The Reform tradition , 35% were Conservative , 6% were Orthodox , 1% were Reconstructionists , 10% linked themselves to some other tradition, and 10% said they are "just Jewish." In 2013, Pew Research's Jewish population survey found that 35% of American Jews identified as Reform, 18% as Conservative, 10% as Orthodox, 6% who identified with other sects, and 30% did not identify with a denomination. Pew's 2020 poll found that 37% affiliated with Reform Judaism, 17% with Conservative Judaism, and 9% with Orthodox Judaism. Young Jews are more likely to identify as Orthodox or as unaffiliated compared to older members of

4563-587: The Republican Party . The 114th Congress included 10 Jews among 100 U.S. Senators : nine Democrats ( Michael Bennet , Richard Blumenthal , Brian Schatz , Benjamin Cardin , Dianne Feinstein , Jon Ossoff , Jacky Rosen , Charles Schumer , Ron Wyden ), and Bernie Sanders , who became a Democrat to run for President but returned to the Senate as an Independent. In the 118th Congress , there are 28 Jewish US Representatives. 25 are Democrats and

4680-732: The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) tried to counterbalance the power of the liberal Jews. On October 10, 1993, the opponents of the Palestinian-Israeli accord organized at the American Leadership Conference for a Safe Israel , where they warned that Israel was prostrating itself before "an armed thug", and predicted and that

4797-509: The full spectrum of Jewish religious observance . Depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States has the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel . As of 2020, the American Jewish population is estimated at 7.5 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population. This includes 4.2 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.5 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.8 million Jewish children. It

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4914-517: The " numbers racket " or the " drug racket ", neither of which generally or necessarily involve extortion, coercion, fraud, or deception with regard to the intended clientele. Because of the clandestine nature of the black market , most proceeds made from criminal rackets often go untaxed . On October 15, 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ( 18 U.S.C.   §§ 1961 – 1968 ), commonly referred to as

5031-531: The "RICO Act", became United States law. The RICO Act allows federal law enforcement to charge a person or group of people with racketeering, defined as committing multiple violations of certain varieties within a ten-year period. The purpose of the RICO Act was stated as "the elimination of the infiltration of organized crime and racketeering into legitimate organizations operating in interstate commerce ". S.Rep. No. 617, 91st Cong. , 1st Sess. 76 (1968). However,

5148-564: The "thirteenth of September is a date that will live in infamy". Some Zionists also criticized, often in harsh language, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres , his foreign minister and chief architect of the peace accord. With the community so strongly divided, AIPAC and the Presidents Conference, which was tasked with representing the national Jewish consensus, struggled to keep the increasingly antagonistic discourse civil. Reflecting these tensions, Abraham Foxman from

5265-452: The 1920s and 1930s were resolute in their condemnation of Jewish mobsters. A large wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced Jewish mobsters such as Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach , "Big" Jack Zelig , and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis , who competed with and were acknowledged by Italian and Irish gangs. Just as with their Italian counterparts , gangs specializing in extortion began operating in

5382-482: The 1920s and which the newer groups were sometimes subordinate to. Although never receiving close to the level of cultural attention of the Italian-American Mafia , from the late 1960s, Jewish-American gangsters would figure as characters in Jewish American literature . For some writers, Jewish gangsters and boxers in the post-World War II era were seen as tougher, more aggressive literary role models, freeing

5499-491: The 1930s to protest Nazi Germany . Franklin D. Roosevelt 's leftist domestic policies received strong Jewish support in the 1930s and 1940s, as did his anti-Nazi foreign policy and his promotion of the United Nations . Support for political Zionism in this period, although growing in influence, remained a distinctly minority opinion among Jews in the United States until about 1944–45, when the early rumors and reports of

5616-812: The 1931 Castellammarese War and took control of the New York Italian Mafia. Luciano did not discriminate against Jews and valued longtime associates such as Meyer Lansky and Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel. Several Jewish gangsters such as Red Levine and Bo Weinberg were used in the war as unsuspected non-Italian hitmen. After Masseria and Maranzano were murdered, a conference was held at New York's Franconia Hotel on November 11, 1931, which included Jewish mobsters such as Jacob Shapiro , Louis "Lepke" Buchalter , Joseph "Doc" Stacher , Hyman "Curly" Holtz , Louis "Shadows" Kravitz , Harry Tietlebaum , Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick and Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg . During this meeting, Luciano and Lansky convinced

5733-456: The 20th century have largely faded. In more recent years, Jewish-American organized crime has reappeared in the form of Orthodox Jewish , Israeli and Jewish- Russian mafia criminal groups. Many of the Russian mobsters active in New York, especially Brighton Beach , are actually Soviet Jews, including Marat Balagula , Boris Nayfeld , and Evsei Agron . From the 1990s until 2013, members of

5850-457: The 20th century progressed, Jewish-American mobsters such as "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig entered labor racketeering, hiring out to both businesses and labor unions as strong-arm men. Labor racketeering or "labor slugging" as it was known, would become a source of conflict as it came under the domination of several racketeers including former Five Points Gang members Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan and Johnny Spanish during

5967-422: The 435 US Representatives at the start of the 112th Congress ; 26 Democrats and 1 ( Eric Cantor ) Republican. While many of these Members represented coastal cities and suburbs with significant Jewish populations, others did not (for instance, Kim Schrier of Seattle, Washington; John Yarmuth of Louisville, Kentucky; and David Kustoff and Steve Cohen of Memphis, Tennessee). The total number of Jews serving in

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6084-436: The American Jewish population is, depending on the method of identification , either the largest in the world, or the second-largest in the world (after Israel ). Precise population figures vary depending on whether Jews are accounted for based on halakhic considerations, or secular, political and ancestral identification factors. There were about four million adherents of Judaism in the US as of 2001, approximately 1.4% of

6201-570: The American underworld and played prominent roles in the distribution of illegal alcohol and the spread of organized crime throughout the United States. At the time, Jewish gangs operated primarily in America's largest cities, including Cleveland , Detroit, Minneapolis , Newark , New York City, and Philadelphia . Numerous bootlegging gangs such as the Bug and Meyer Mob headed by Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel and Abe Bernstein 's Purple Gang would see

6318-580: The Democrat, with only 45% support, while Republican winner Ronald Reagan garnered 39%, and 14% went to independent (former Republican) John Anderson . During the Reagan re-election campaign of 1984, the Republican retained 31% of the Jewish vote, while 67% voted for Democrat Walter Mondale . The 1988 election saw Jewish voters favor Democrat Michael Dukakis by 64%, while George H. W. Bush polled

6435-551: The House of Representatives declined from 31 in the 111th Congress . John Adler of New Jersey, Steve Kagan of Wisconsin, Alan Grayson of Florida, and Ron Klein of Florida all lost their re-election bids, Rahm Emanuel resigned to become the President's Chief of Staff; and Paul Hodes of New Hampshire did not run for re-election but instead (unsuccessfully) sought his state's open Senate seat. David Cicilline of Rhode Island

6552-595: The Israeli response; the great majority came to accept the war as necessary. Similar tensions were aroused by the 1977 election of Menachem Begin and the rise of Revisionist policies, the 1982 Lebanon War and the continuing administrative governance of portions of the West Bank territory. Disagreement over Israel's 1993 acceptance of the Oslo Accords caused a further split among American Jews; this mirrored

6669-867: The Jewish community. Many Jews are concentrated in the Northeastern United States, particularly around New York City . The world's largest menorah is lit annually at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan , while the largest menorah in New Jersey is similarly celebrated in Monroe Township , Middlesex County . Many Jews also live in South Florida , Los Angeles , and other large metropolitan areas, like Chicago , San Francisco , or Atlanta . The metropolitan areas of New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami contain nearly one quarter of

6786-525: The Jewish vote for his reelection, the best showing to date for the Republicans since Warren G. Harding 's 43% in 1920. In 1960, 83% voted for Democrat John F. Kennedy against Richard Nixon , and in 1964, 90% of American Jews voted for Lyndon Johnson , over his Republican opponent, arch-conservative Barry Goldwater . Hubert Humphrey garnered 81% of the Jewish vote in the 1968 elections in his losing bid for president against Richard Nixon . During

6903-595: The Jewish-American mobsters of the benefits of cooperating with the Italian-American Mafia in a newly created consortium called the National Crime Syndicate by the press. At the meeting's conclusion, "Bugsy" Siegel supposedly declared "The yids and the dagos will no longer fight each other." Those Jewish gangsters hostile to the idea of cooperation with non-Jewish rivals gradually receded, most notably Philadelphia bootlegger Waxey Gordon , who

7020-558: The Jewish-American presence remained strong in Italian-American criminal rackets. Shondor Birns was a Jewish crime boss, in Cleveland, who controlled numbers , prostitution, theft, and gambling rackets. Birns was active until 1975 when he was murdered by Irish gangster Danny Greene . Jewish-American organized crime derived from dislocation and poverty, where language and custom made the community vulnerable to undesirables,

7137-562: The Knesset as an MK for Likud . The code of silence among Soviet Jewish émigrés into New York City 's Brighton Beach and other neighborhoods like it nationwide under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment have shielded new Jewish-American gangsters, such as Marat Balagula , Boris Nayfeld , Monya Elson , and Ludwig Fainberg . They were raised, however, as secular Jews and share more in common culturally with Gentiles from

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7254-592: The Labour government in Israel. They tried to assure Congress that American Jewry was behind the Accord and defended the efforts of the administration to help the fledgling Palestinian Authority (PA), including promises of financial aid. In a battle for public opinion, IPF commissioned a number of polls showing widespread support for Oslo among the community. In opposition to Oslo, an alliance of conservative groups, such as

7371-509: The Loch Ness monster, I think the Jewish community would be better off". However, Cohen's description of Jewish gangsters ignores their criminality and immorality. These tough characters were still gangsters who extorted, exploited and murdered other members of the Jewish-American community for profit. They forced Jewish women into prostitution, and were generally considered a scourge within their own community. The Yiddish press and literature of

7488-528: The Midwest. Gradually the Cincinnati Jewish community would adopt novel practices under the leadership Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise , the father of Reform Judaism in the United States, such as the inclusion of women in minyan . A large community grew in the region with the arrival of German and Lithuanian Jews in the latter half of the 1800s, leading to the establishment of Manischewitz , one of

7605-512: The Nixon re-election campaign of 1972, Jewish voters were apprehensive about George McGovern and only favored the Democrat by 65%, while Nixon more than doubled Republican Jewish support to 35%. In the election of 1976, Jewish voters supported Democrat Jimmy Carter by 71% over incumbent president Gerald Ford 's 27%, but during the Carter re-election campaign of 1980, Jewish voters greatly abandoned

7722-534: The US is often termed Yerida . The Israeli immigrant community in America is less widespread. The significant Israeli immigrant communities in the United States are in the New York City metropolitan area, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago. According to the 2001 undertaking of the National Jewish Population Survey , 4.3 million American Jews have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community, whether religious or cultural. Racketeering Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to

7839-432: The US population. According to the Jewish Agency , for the year 2023 Israel was home to 7.2 million Jews (46% of the world's Jewish population), while the United States contained 6.3 million (40.1%). According to Gallup and Pew Research Center findings, "at maximum 2.2% of the US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification." In 2020, the demographers Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin estimated in

7956-409: The United States in large numbers due to antisemitic laws and restrictions in their countries of birth. They primarily became merchants and shop-owners. Gradually early Jewish arrivals from the east coast would travel westward, and in the fall of 1819 the first Jewish religious services west of the Appalachian Range were conducted during the High Holidays in Cincinnati , the oldest Jewish community in

8073-662: The close relationship between partners Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky and their subsequent elimination of many of the so-called " Mustache Pete " types ⁠—  Sicilian -born gangsters who often refused to work with non-Italians and even non-Sicilians. The lines between Jewish and Italian criminal organizations often blurred throughout the 20th century. For decades after, Jewish-American mobsters would continue to work closely and at times compete with Italian-American organized crime. Jewish-American gangsters were involved in many different criminal activities, including murder, racketeering , bootlegging , prostitution and narcotics . Their role

8190-436: The community from the stigma of defenselessness and powerlessness, compared with the physical aggressiveness and lawlessness more associated with the Irish and Italian immigrants. According to Rich Cohen , author of Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons and Gangster Dreams : "If Jewish gangsters still thrived today, if they hadn't gone legit, if Jews of my generation didn't regard them as figments, creatures to be classed with Big Foot and

8307-455: The conception of organized crime as an alien and united entity was vital. The involvement of a small percentage of recent immigrants in organized crime created a lasting stereotype of devious immigrants corrupting the morality of native-born Americans. Organized crime was a complex set of relations between the recently arrived Jewish and Italian criminals and groups like the Irish-American organized crime networks, which had been established before

8424-585: The conflict between ethnic and American identities. After 1960, memories of the Holocaust , together with the Six-Day War in 1967 had major impacts on fashioning Jewish ethnic identity . Some have argued that the Holocaust highlighted for Jews the importance of their ethnic identity at a time when other minorities were asserting their own. In New York City, while the German-Jewish community

8541-405: The country's creation in 1948. Jewish-American gangsters used Israel's Law of Return to flee criminal charges or face deportation. Notables include Joseph "Doc" Stacher , who built up Las Vegas by pairing the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate. Prime Minister Golda Meir set out to reverse this trend in 1970, when she denied entrance to Meyer Lansky . In 2010, it

8658-410: The elections of 1940, and 1944, representing the highest of support, equaled only once since. In the election of 1948, Jewish support for Democrat Harry S. Truman dropped to 75%, with 15% supporting the new Progressive Party . As a result of lobbying, and hoping to better compete for the Jewish vote, both major party platforms had included a pro-Zionist plank since 1944, and supported the creation of

8775-413: The exception of Italian-American criminal organizations), Jewish-American presence in organized crime began to decline after World War II. Jewish-American individuals remain closely associated with organized crime, especially Italian-American and Israeli organized crime, but the Jewish-American criminal organizations and gangs which once rivaled the Italian and Irish-American mobsters during the first half of

8892-542: The fact that some of them were denied the right to vote or hold office in local jurisdictions, Sephardi Jews became active in community affairs in the 1790s, after they were granted political equality in the five states where they were most numerous. Until about 1830, Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America . Large-scale Jewish immigration commenced in the 19th century, when, by mid-century, many German Jews had arrived, migrating to

9009-455: The first African American to be elected president. Additionally, 83% of white Jews voted for Obama compared to just 34% of white Protestants and 47% of white Catholics, though 67% of those identifying with another religion and 71% identifying with no religion also voted Obama. In the February 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary , Bernie Sanders became the first Jewish candidate to win

9126-579: The first time, the English Plantation Act 1740 permitted Jews to become British citizens and emigrate to the colonies . The first famous Jew in US history was Chaim Salomon , a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to New York and played an important role in the American Revolution. He was a successful financier who supported the patriotic cause and helped raise most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution. Despite

9243-541: The formation of new centers, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from 20% in 1930 to 60% in 1960; the fastest growth came in Reform and, especially, Conservative congregations. More recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community. Americans of Jewish descent have been successful in many fields and aspects over

9360-413: The former Soviet Union than with their predecessors, such as Meyer Lansky , Kid Cann , and Mickey Cohen , who grew up in families that practiced Orthodox Judaism . Soviet Jewish organized crime figures from other nations, such as Budapest -based Semion Mogilevich , have also attempted to penetrate the United States, including participating in a US$ 10 billion money-laundering operation through

9477-464: The heavily Jewish neighborhoods of New York's Lower East Side , most prominently the so-called Yiddish Black Hand headed by Jacob Levinsky , Charles "Charlie the Cripple" Litoffsky, and Joseph Toplinsky during the early 20th century. A significant Jewish underworld already existed in New York at the start of the 20th century, with Jewish mobsters conversing in a jargon with Yiddish origins. A pimp

9594-488: The horrors of the Holocaust. This attention was based on a natural affinity toward and support for Israel in the Jewish community. The attention is also because of the ensuing and unresolved conflicts regarding the founding of Israel and the role for the Zionist movement going forward. A lively internal debate commenced, following the Six-Day War . The American Jewish community was divided over whether or not they agreed with

9711-595: The kidnappings, and co-conspirator Martin Wolmark was sentenced to more than 3 years in prison and a $ 50,000 fine. In another development, a 2016 sting collared Aharon Goldberg and Shimen Liebowitz, two Satmar Hasidic Jews who were part of what The Forward described as the "Orthodox divorce underworld". The pair had colluded with a third man to perform a contract killing on an estranged husband. Several notable Jewish-American mobsters provided financial support for Israel through donations to Jewish organizations since

9828-494: The largest producers of American kosher products and now based in New Jersey , and the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the United States, and second-oldest continuous published in the world, The American Israelite , established in 1854 and still extant in Cincinnati. By 1880 there were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States, many of them being the educated, and largely secular, German Jews, although

9945-538: The late 19th and early 20th centuries abandoned a racial definition of Jewishness in favor of one that embraced ethnicity. The key to understanding this transition from a racial self-definition to a cultural or ethnic one can be found in the Menorah Journal between 1915 and 1925. During this time contributors to the Menorah promoted a cultural , rather than a racial, religious, or other views of Jewishness as

10062-755: The mid-20th century, there were American Jews who were among the most active participants in the Civil Rights Movement and feminist movements. A number of American Jews have also been active figures in the struggle for gay rights in America . Joachim Prinz , president of the American Jewish Congress , stated the following when he spoke from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial during the famous March on Washington on August 28, 1963: "As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate,

10179-659: The most liberal programs of the New Deal . They continued as a major element of the New Deal Coalition , giving special support to the Civil Rights Movement . By the mid-1960s, however, the Black Power movement caused a growing separation between blacks and Jews, though both groups remained solidly in the Democratic camp. While earlier Jewish immigrants from Germany tended to be politically conservative ,

10296-474: The most notorious mobster in the history of Minnesota. Jewish-American organized crime was a reflection of the ethnic succession among gangsters, which has tended to follow the immigrant waves in the United States: English, German, Irish, Jewish, Italian, Asian and Latino. Ethnic involvement in organized crime gave rise to alien conspiracy theories in the US law enforcement community, in which

10413-546: The number of American Jews at 6.4 million, or approximately 2.1% of the total population. This figure is significantly higher than the previous large scale survey estimate, conducted by the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population estimates, which estimated 5.2 million Jews. A 2007 study released by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI) at Brandeis University presents evidence to suggest that both these figures may be underestimations with

10530-488: The other 3 are Republicans. All 10 Jewish Senators are Democrats. Additionally, 6 members of President Joe Biden 's cabinet are Jewish ( Secretary of State Antony Blinken , Attorney General Merrick Garland , DNI Avril Haines , White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain , Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas , and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ). Members of the American Jewish community have included prominent participants in civil rights movements. In

10647-519: The predominantly Jewish Murder, Inc. as the Luciano-Meyer syndicate's exclusive hitmen. Following World War II , the dominant figures in organized crime tended to be second-generation Italian-Americans and Jewish-Americans. As late as the 1960s, Jewish presence in organized crime was still acknowledged as being of significance. As Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna explained to hitman and later government informant Jimmy Fratianno : Meyer's got

10764-400: The press named the " National Crime Syndicate ." Jewish and Italian crime groups increasingly became interconnected in the 1920s and 1930s, and their connections continued into the 1960s and beyond, partially because both groups often occupied the same neighborhoods and social statuses of the time. The two ethnic crime groups became especially close in New York City following the establishment of

10881-527: The rise of Jewish-American organized crime to its height. Other Jewish mobsters, including Dutch Schultz of New York City, Moe Dalitz of Michigan , Kid Cann of Minneapolis, Charles "King" Solomon of Boston and Abner "Longy" Zwillman (the "Al Capone of New Jersey") became wealthy during prohibition. During this time, Luciano successfully eliminated the Old World Sicilian Mafia bosses like Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano in

10998-520: The same party that offers to solve it, but that fact may be concealed, with the intent to engender continual patronage . The protection racket is thus often a method of extortion , at least in practice. However, the definition of the term "racket" has been expanded over time and may now be used less strictly to refer to any continuous or repeated illegal organized crime operation, including those that do not necessarily involve fraudulent or coercive practices or extortion. For example, "racket" may refer to

11115-551: The same period, great numbers of Ashkenazic Jews also arrived from Galicia , at that time the most impoverished region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a heavy Jewish urban population, driven out mainly by economic reasons. Many Jews also emigrated from Romania . Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924 when the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration. Most settled in

11232-477: The same town or village. American Jewish writers of the time urged assimilation and integration into the wider American culture , and Jews quickly became part of American life. Approximately 500,000 American Jews (or half of all Jewish males between 18 and 50) fought in World War II , and after the war younger families joined the new trend of suburbanization . There, Jews became increasingly assimilated and demonstrated rising intermarriage . The suburbs facilitated

11349-569: The sort of thing that it is claimed fosters criminality among any other ethnicity in a similar situation. As American Jews improved their conditions, the Jewish thug and racketeer either disappeared or merged into a more assimilated American crime environment. American Jews quietly buried the public memory of the gangster past; unlike the Mafia , famous Jewish American gangsters like Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz and Bugsy Siegel founded no crime families. Much like Irish-Americans and other ethnicities (with

11466-521: The statute is sufficiently broad to encompass illegal activities relating to any enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce . 18 U.S.C.   § 1961 (10) provides that the Attorney General of the United States may designate any department or agency to conduct investigations authorized by the RICO statute and such department or agency may use the investigative provisions of

11583-474: The statute or the investigative power of such department or agency otherwise conferred by law. Absent a specific designation by the Attorney General, jurisdiction to conduct investigations for violations of 18 U.S.C.   § 1962 lies with the agency having jurisdiction over the violations constituting the pattern of racketeering activity listed in 18 U.S.C.   § 1961 . In

11700-419: The supposed Jewish-immigrant crime wave may have been exaggerated by the press and law enforcement. Crime and population figures show that Jews in New York committed crimes at a rate far below the average for the wider society. As described by sociologist Stephen Steinberg, less than a sixth of the city's felony arrests were Jews during the 1920s, when Jews constituted nearly a third of the city's population. As

11817-563: The systematic mass murder of the Jews in Nazi-occupied countries became publicly known with the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps . The founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948 and recognition thereof by the American government (following objections by American isolationists) was an indication of both its intrinsic support and its response to learning

11934-463: The wake of a sting operation orchestrated by the FBI . While some tried to draw a distinction between the actions of the "well-organized operation" described by prosecutors and traditional kidnapping cases coming before judges that involved murder, terrorism or child abduction, Judge Freda Wolfson said she didn't see any difference. Gang leader Mendel Epstein was sentenced in 2015 to 10 years in prison for

12051-482: The wave of Jews from Eastern Europe starting in the early 1880s were generally more liberal or left-wing and became the political majority. Many came to America with experience in the socialist, anarchist and communist movements as well as the Labor Bund , emanating from Eastern Europe. Many Jews rose to leadership positions in the early 20th century American labor movement and helped to found unions that played

12168-437: The world after the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in Israel. Several other major cities have large Jewish communities, including Los Angeles , Miami Baltimore , Boston , Chicago , San Francisco and Philadelphia . In many metropolitan areas, the majority of Jewish families live in suburban areas. The Greater Phoenix area was home to about 83,000 Jews in 2002, and has been rapidly growing. The greatest Jewish population on

12285-503: The world's Jews and the New York City metropolitan area itself contains around a quarter of all Jews living in the United States. According to a study published by demographers and sociologists Ira M. Sheskin and Arnold Dashefsky in the American Jewish Yearbook, the distribution of the Jewish population in 2020 was as follows: The New York City metropolitan area is the second-largest Jewish population center in

12402-496: The years. The Jewish community in America has gone from being part of the lower class of society, with numerous employments barred to them, to being a group with a high concentrations in members of the academia and a per capita income higher than the average in the United States. Scholars debate whether the historical experience of Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate American exceptionalism . Korelitz (1996) shows how American Jews during

12519-596: Was also significant in New York's burgeoning labor movement , especially the garment and trucking unions, as well as the poultry industry. Jewish organized crime fueled antisemitism and deeply concerned the Jewish community. Jewish organized crime was used by antisemites and anti-immigration supporters as arguments to bolster their agenda. Jewish gangs controlled portions of the Lower East Side and Brownsville in New York City, and were also present in other major American cities. American Jewish mafia boss Kid Cann held sway over Minneapolis for over four decades and remains

12636-702: Was born Leo Berkowitz to Jewish biological parents who died when he was an infant. Charles was adopted by the Polizzi family and his adoptive brother, Alfred Polizzi , was the head of the Italian Mayfield Road Mob . The Syndicate was heavily involved with bootlegging on Lake Erie and developed what was known as the Little Jewish Navy. The Syndicate operated casinos in Youngstown, Northern Kentucky, and Florida. The Syndicate attended

12753-516: Was convicted and imprisoned for tax evasion based on evidence provided to United States Attorney Thomas E. Dewey by Lansky. Following Gordon's imprisonment, his operations were assumed by Nig Rosen and Max "Boo Hoo" Hoff. During prohibition Moe Dalitz established the Cleveland Syndicate with fellow Jewish gangsters Louis Rothkopf , Maurice Klein, Sam Tucker, Charles Polizzi, and Irish gangster Blackjack McGinty . Charles Polizzi

12870-524: Was elected as the House Minority Whip , the first Jewish Republican to be selected for the position. In 2011, he became the first Jewish House Majority Leader . He served as Majority Leader until 2014, when he resigned shortly after his loss in the Republican primary election for his House seat. In 2013, Pew found that 70% of American Jews identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party , with just 22% identifying with or leaning toward

12987-437: Was known as a " simcha ", a detective as a " shamus ", and a loafer as a "trombenik". Jewish-American organized crime arose among "slum kids who as prepubescents stole from pushcarts, who as adolescents extorted money from store owners, who as young adults practiced schlamming " (wielding an iron pipe, wrapped in newspaper, against striking workers or against scabs ) – until as adults they joined well-organized gangs involved in

13104-595: Was most likely not Jewish) operated a powerful Jewish gang known as the Eastman Gang that competed with Italian and Irish gangs , notably Paul Kelly 's Five Points Gang , for control of New York City's underworld. Another notorious gang, known as the Lenox Avenue Gang , led by Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz , consisted of mostly Jewish members and some Italian members (such as Francesco Cirofisi ). It

13221-602: Was one of the most violent gangs of the early 20th century and became famous for the murder of gambler and gangster Herman Rosenthal . In the early 1920s, stimulated by the economic opportunities of the Roaring Twenties , and later stimulated by Prohibition , Jewish organized crime figures such as Arnold Rothstein were controlling a wide range of criminal enterprises, including bootlegging , loansharking , gambling , and bookmaking . According to crime writer Leo Katcher , Rothstein "transformed organized crime from

13338-538: Was reported by Wikileaks that the United States Embassy in Israel, in a cable titled "Israel: The Promised Land of Organized Crime?", had expressed grave concern about the activities of Israeli organized crime figures, and was taking measures to prevent members of crime families from being issued visas to the United States. American diplomats expressed concern that Inbal Gavrieli , the niece of one of Israel's most powerful mafia bosses, had been elected to

13455-529: Was the only Jewish American who was newly elected to the 112th Congress; he had been the Mayor of Providence . The number declined when Jane Harman , Anthony Weiner , and Gabby Giffords resigned during the 112th Congress. As of January 2014 , there were five openly gay men serving in Congress, and two are Jewish: Jared Polis of Colorado and David Cicilline of Rhode Island. In November 2008, Cantor

13572-418: Was the only solution to the persecution and the genocide which were then occurring across Europe. One important development was the sudden conversion of many American Jewish leaders to Zionism late in the war. The Holocaust was largely ignored by American media as it was happening. Reporters and editors largely did not believe the stories of atrocities which were coming out of Europe. The Holocaust had

13689-492: Was well established 'uptown', the more numerous Jews who migrated from Eastern Europe faced tension 'downtown' with Irish and German Catholic neighbors, especially the Irish Catholics who controlled Democratic Party politics at the time . Jews successfully established themselves in the garment trades and in the needle unions in New York. By the 1930s they were a major political factor in New York, with strong support for

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