Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams

by Rich Cohen

Examines the Jewish underworld in New York City, tracing its roots to working class families in the early 1900s

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Jewish, True Crime, Crime, Biography, Judaica

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

RICH COHEN is the author of Sweet and Low (FSG, 2006), Tough Jews, The Avengers, The Record Men, and the memoir Lake Effect. His work has appeared in many major publications, and he is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Coh...

Reviews

[catechism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, Cohen can write. His prose is fantastic -- moody and evocative and memorable. I loved his book on Da Bears, for example, and ask me how much I care about football. His style is particularly well-suited to dreamy remembrances about gritty New York gangsters and days long gone.

But. A++ prose aside, I'm not sure where to even start with the problems I had with this book. It's definitely not about Jewish gangsters, so much as it is about Rich Cohen and his love affair with Jewish gangsters. In the pictures section, for example, there are photos of gangsters, and photos of Cohen dressed up like one. There's a lot of "I imagine he might have sighed heavily" and "I can picture him sitting on the arm of the sofa like my first girlfriend's father." It's not anything that happened, just what Cohen thinks maybe could have happened. But, okay. Not really what I was looking for, but okay.

Except that there are a lot of statements and assumptions that are just plain bizarre. He never sees anything other than what he's already decided to see. Permeating the entire book is a frustration with Jew As Brainy Weakling and a desire to romanticize Tough Jew in order for the kids these days to have some options. Fine, except in doing so Cohen ignores a few decades of writers finding and romanticizing Nazi hunters and gangsters and the Masada martyrs and the Mossad and and and. The main scholarly work on Jewish gangsters, Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940, is not in his bibliography.

He also makes some super questionable statements, like when he's talking about the girlfriend of one gangster being raped and refers to it as said gangster's "own personal Night of Broken Glass." What? No. Just no.

But the thing that made me crankiest, while reading, was the part halfway through the book where he's like "no one has heard of Jewish gangsters" as if there aren't people who have weird obsessions with gangsters and then "and if even if you have heard of Jewish gangsters, you definitely have not heard of Jewish drug dealers!" Then he names, as his premier example of a Jewish drug dealer no one has ever heard of... Arnold Fucking Rothstein. Really? Come ON. COME ON. DUDE WAS THE MOSES OF THE UNDERWORLD. NO HISTORY OF THE MOB IN AMERICA IS COMPLETE WITHOUT ROTHSTEIN. IF YOU'RE READING THIS BOOK, YOU HAVE HEARD OF ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN, IF ONLY BECAUSE THERE IS AN ENTIRE CHAPTER ABOUT HIM EARLIER IN THE BOOK.

Yes, that is what got me the most worked up, right there. You're welcome.

[Seán · Rating 2 out of 5]

If one wants to really learn something about Jewish gangsters, I recommend they pick up Albert Fried's Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster or Nick Tosches' King of the Jews (scholarly and literary contemplation of Arnold Rothstein). Those are terrific works; Cohen's book ain't.

My chief complaint? How Cohen bookended things with enervating tales about his father and his father's cohort of ancient ex-Brooklynites, who, although they haven't lived in New York for over sixty years, like to pretend they are hardcore Kings County toughs while gorging themselves in a Los Angeles diner. As if eating a bagel with some lox and telling naughty stories peppered with cusswords a true Brooklynite makes. Get the hell out of here.

Rich, here's some advice, no one cares about how kooky your Dad acted at age 15 or how he was pals with Larry King. You should've kept the narrative limited to the exploits of the actual gangsters, you know, people who do not put the reader to sleep. Oooh, your Dad said saucy things to other parents in the whitebread Illinois suburb where you grew up! He was an insurance salesman, for fucksake! Please spare us the family insight, which boils down to "Daddy is a rascally extrovert, and my privileged suburban life is boring."

Otherwise? Some emminently readable rehashings of famous gangster skits.

[Robert Rubenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the one that talks about what we heard in the whispered conversations of our fathers. While we kept our hands clean, they knew about the unclean, savage race that fought for dominance in the streets of the ghetto. Tough Jews is off the charts. But that was my first reaction. Finishing the book, however, I am left disappointed. Cohen veers off a straight course to an
unsafe wilderness. He delivers, ultimately, a double cross. I felt I was riding shotgun. My best friend behind me when up comes the ice pick and I'm made into chop meat. It is Cohen in the back seat with a gory mess. O'kay, these were sadistic killers but enough is enough. And Larry King is a wimp and always was. Weasels emulated thugs. Sorry, but though Cohen rises to sometimes brilliant descriptive prose, he, like the characters that fill these pages, finally betray us and become unworthy of the real tough Jews of the era:
sportsmen and real American heroes like Barney Ross, or my uncle Leo who fought malaria and the Japanese on Okinawa, or my dad. If we need our heroes, let it suffice we are the blood of the greatest generation and our children are tough. Am Yisroel Chai, after all survived these cheap imitations.

[J.H Gaines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great crime book and insight into america in the early part of the century. If your looking for a no hold barred book then this is it.
before the Italian Mafia there was the Jewish Mafia, men like Arnold Rothstein who mixed in circles both high and low in society.
the book is easy to read and does not confuse you, it is more enjoyable if you already have some knowledge of the USA or New York crime scene, many of the well known names are mentioned, Lansky, Bugsy, Luciano and Capone.
Very enjoyable and left me wanting to read more on the subject.

[Neen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know any of these people before reading the book. It was a revelation. This book is written as if Rich Cohen sat by my side one evening and started chatting away. It feels personal. It considers the horrors of what gangsters did, yes, but it brings out the emotion of it all as well. It makes ya understand. I watched Godfather as a teen and thought to myself "how come the only Jewish guy is the lawyer?". It's common to see us as well-off folks, educated, cautious, quiet. Easy to concile with. But I wanted to know of the "bad" Jews. I wanted to see us be as fallible as any other group.

What I enjoyed most was reading about the way Jewish gangsters thought of their Jewishness. How, even with all the blood, they never stopped being Jews. I never knew Jewish gangsters fought against American Nazis. And it made me me feel something I can't describe fully.

This is a very important book to me.

[Max · Rating 1 out of 5]

What should/could have been a research novel about the transformation of the American Jew from gangster to nebbish in pop culture instead is a series of anecdotes without factual weight. The author's attempt to honor his father's stories and memories is undercut by his lack of hard facts and biographies of some notable and fascinating characters. The "tough Jews" that were the precursors to the Italian Mafia deserve better.

[Suzanne (suz&mark) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book since I liked his other book "The Avengers" about the Jewish partisans during the Holocaust. But this book just wasnt good. There were a lot of cliches like "sometimes when a man has to be a man, he..." I felt like he was trying to sound like an old jewish gangster and it was annoying!

[Edward Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Monk was ugly in a way that you don't see anymore -- nineteenth-century ugly. His face, the aftermath of smallpox and brawls, looked like a stretch of Carolina landscape after a hurricane has blown over, with boats in the middle of town, cars overturned, cows hooked on flagpoles. You know what his face looked like? Like an art class sculpture by an eight-year-old: his ears cauliflowered, his nose really just the suggestion of a nose, his mouth a dark gash. His hair was parted neatly -- an odd, dandified touch, like a hat on a horse. He was around five feet five and weighed 150 pounds. Coming down a dark downtown street, he must have looked like death itself."

My god, Rich Cohen is an exuberant maniac, isn't he? And I write this with the highest possible praise. This crazy motherfucker has all the life of Nick Tosches, although Cohen -- despite working similar organized crime territory -- has his own particularly original flair, as can be seen in the above passage. So you not only get a tremendously entertaining book, but also a good faith effort to point out that, yes, there were Jewish mobsters -- not just Meyer Lansky -- who operated in the same Brooklyn sphere as the Italians and who were just as vicious. For Cohen, who has certain familial connections, this is a personal story. And I suspect that's also a significant reason why this volume is so alive! Cohen is also very good at investigating the mobster ethos. I had no idea that Lansky sent fifteen men to throw Nazis out of windows after the German-American Bund in 1939 or that Bugsy Siegel came extremely close to killing Goebbels in Rome when he was carrying on an affair with an Italian countess and the vile Nazi was in an adjacent hotel room. This book isn't just a quirky history. It also reckons with Jewish stereotypes, often put out by Jewish writers themsleves (see Richard Price in THE WANDERERS, which Cohen wisely quotes from). But it is, first and foremost, an immensely enjoyable book in which the over-the-top prose summoned some wild dopamine hit within me. I now have to read every motherfucking book that this guy has ever written. Because anyone who writes like this -- in such an unapologetically insane voice -- is definitely worth my hard-won reading time.

[Lisa Vogl · Rating 2 out of 5]

How was this book written? It seems like most of it came out of the author’s imagination— not because I could spot factual errors, but because of his writing style which I guess it says is “densely anecdotal” but was just really tiring to me. I could’ve gone for the “shattering stereotypes” enterprise if it wouldn’t have shown up randomly between tons of weird “and then Buggsy was like blah blah blah” kind of stories.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable intro to Jewish gangsters. I could have done without the constant self-aggrandizing machismo from the author though.

[Zachary Masino · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. Got a little bored with it towards the end. Interesting history of Jewish gangsters but didn't really captivate me.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating book about Murder Inc and the Brooklyn underworld in the 1930s. There is a side connection in that the authors father grew up in Brooklyn during the waning years and his grandparents on the other side ran a diner/hang for the mobsters. All the names one has heard as well as a number of those who weren't household names. Meyer Lansky plays a role but not as large as Lepke Buchalter or Al "Kid Twist" Reles. Most people know about Reles' suspicious death but other than the fact that he turned on his gang not much else was known by me. The reality is that he was head of the Hit Squad for Murder Inc and in the rackets up to his neck. All the players, both Jewish an Italian, take center stage for periods of time but this is more a tale of the battle for Brooklyn and New York between the warring gangs. The telling point made is that virtually no one came out the other side alive. The gangsters were comets that shone brightly for a short period and then departed. This is true crime at its best.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, though the style might not be to everyone's taste as it was mine. As much as it is about the generation of Lepke & Gurrah, and of the 20s/30s heyday of New York City gangsters... It is also about 4 generations of Jewish Americans: the first generation immigrants; the generation split between the straight arrows and the gangsters (amongst many other divisions); the children of that generation, who may have inherited (if you believe Cohen) the gangster ethos if not the tactics; and the grandchildren, like Cohen, who inherit as much or as little of these previous generations as they choose. The book is haunted by 4 places: by Europe, in the form of 'the shtetl' and the death camps; by Los Angeles and Miami, the havens for those few Jewish gangsters; and by New York City itself, and the fact that it doesn't let any idyll, even the Brooklyn one Cohen describes, stay in place for long.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the Jewish gangsters in New York from Arnold Rothstein in the 1910s through the fall of Murdern Inc. in the 1940s. Cohen framed this history by introducing us to his father and his father's friends (including Larry King) and their fondness for reminiscing about the fame/infamy of the Jewish gangsters of their youth in Brooklyn. It was an interesting viewpoint, showing the impression the gangsters left on different generations of Jewish immigrants, and Cohen walks this fine line of condemning the gangsters' criminal acts while having a sort of admiration for their "toughness", a quality not necessarily assigned to the Jewish people throughout history. However, I think he's weighted more towards admiration for their badass-ery, since he was admiring his own father's admiration. I would've liked the book more if Cohen hadn't inserted his own thoughts throughout the history, and instead confined them to the parts about his father.

[Doctor Sax · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read! After reading volumes of material about the Italian mafia, it was re-freshing to finally learn about another ethnic culture who contributed to organized crime. The gang from Murder Inc. including Abe Reles, Harry Strauss, Bugsy Goldstein & Siegel are just a few of the heavies who give this chronicle all the flavor it needs. Not the most comprehensive mob book, but it is the most conprehensive Jewish mob book I have ever digested. Cohen writes from the position of his father growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn in the 1950's. The author sports a unique point of view in relating this story, at times almost admiringly. Very entertaining.....

[Laureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent in-depth book about the Jewish mafia. The media does not do the underworld Jews justice. Aside for bootlegging and other mafia-related crimes, the book also focuses on Jewish pride -- the pride Jews felt when these gangster Jews were beating up members of the Nazi German clubs all over America, how the mafia Jews opened up doors closed by discrimination in schools and workplaces.

The author bring to life this very niche group of people.

[Jonathan Meola · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author does an exemplary job of putting together a history of this little known, and almost forgotten chapter in American Jewish history. The stories captured within take the reader on a journey through long-gone neighborhood hangouts & street corners across New York City, populated with a cast of characters straight out of a Damon Runyon tale.

[Jeff Matlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't put this one down. It's a very well written look inside Murder Inc and the Jews of the Mafia but even more it paints a great picture of what it means to belong, as a Jew, as a resident of a neighborhood, as a friend. The mafia men were bad people, and they were heroes.

Unlike any other mob book out there. I am now following the author and will read his others

[Dave Marder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. I had heard of Jewish gangsters from movies I watched growing up but mainly Lucky Luciano, Myer Lansky and Dutch Schultz. This opened my eyes to a the actual culture of the Jewish gangster. I remember being a kid and teen in the 70s and 80s and my mom would point out Jewish actors in the TV shows and movies. I wonder if she new about these guys.

[Chas Bayfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew? Anyone thinking New York and Chicago tough guys were all Italian think again. Welcome Meyer Lansky. Bugsy Siegel. Louis Lepke et al who shoot bash and whack like the rest of them. You'll never think of Jewish people the same again.

[Louis Spirito · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of mob history, there's a lot to savor in this fun look back at the Jewish gangsters of the early and mid 20th Century, with the focus on Lepke, Kid Twist Rules and the exploits with Murder Incorporated.

[Vader · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable shabbos read and my neigborhood.

[Doug Cordova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read into a part of the mafia that many people do not know about.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is, without a doubt, one of my FAVORITE books. absolutely fascinating!

[Lilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. As a fan of organized crime and Jewish history, it was such a fun mash up of the secret story of the Jewish mob.

It is anecodal, although in this book's defense, it's never presented as an academic work. But most of it is factually accurate and in the places that may be gray, Cohen indicates as much. Cohen is fantastic writer and, to a Jew, so empowering in a very badass way (My favorite among them may be "Jews were bullied in America, but in America Jews could fight back" or, "Don’t let the yarmulke fool ya. These Jews will kill you before you get around to killing them").

I did feel like this book needed a name glossert. Cohen weaves stories in and out of one another and sometimes it's hard to remember who is related to who and which nickname is which.

[Brian Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d don’t enjoy this book by Rich Cohen much as I did Israel Is Real and The Avengers. Though the author did do a fine job of putting the time period in which Jews were gangsters into a context that made good sense from a historical perspective. And also why Jews didn’t seek to be gangsters after this time period. At times the story line was jammed with too much information as though the author were trying to boil the ocean, rather than focus on a small segment of the story. Yeh, these guys were smart in keeping law enforcement confused and off track. But eventually, a few guys were slopping and law enforcement was able to flip a few guys to be rats. Then the house of cards came tumbling down.

[Jeff Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exciting page turner and fun read

One of those books where you don’t want to end. An exciting “page turner” colorfully written and well-researched. The Jewish Mob was as tough and murderous as any. Tough times breed tough people. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and I thought about my immigrant great uncle who ran liquor from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit during prohibition and the stories he must have had. I also enjoyed how the author weaved his own father (a wannabe gangster) into the story. As someone who grew up in L.A. I could definitely relate to the four friends and imagine them sitting in the “schvitz” at the Beverly Hills Health Club or at Nate n’ Al’s schmoozing about Brooklyn and the old days.

[Philip Fortuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

New York, new killers.

A man obviously proud of his heritage and the world his father grew up in, uses his tremendous penmanship to deliver us the violence that formed a generation and never repeated itself.

From the shtetls of Central and Eastern Europe, Jew's took what they wanted in the promised land.
In turn their children where pushed to college and proper society.

A fascinating telling of the formation of a long forgotten aspect of a major American culture.

Take the trip.

*works well with other of Cohen's books. The theme of adventure and understanding carries well.

[Daniel Krolik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and well intentioned...and painfully overwritten. It's great that Cohen's dad was boyhood pals with Larry King in Brooklyn, but that's a tenuous connection at best to Louis Lepke and Abe Reles. Still there are some terrific stories and some great parallels between how both the vanished Jewish gangsters and the founding of the state of Israel represent a new kind of Jew who is more than ready to fight back.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this book. I like Cohen's writing style. if you haven't read The Fish that ate the Whale, then you should do that immediately.
This is an intensely personal story for the author; the narratives trade between the histories of Jewish gangsters and the authors father and friends, as well as stories of his own youth.