Our Gang : Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940

by Jenna Weissman Joselit

Our Gang provides a fascinating historical portrait of the Jewish criminal world from the era of mass immigration through Prohibition and beyond. Jenna Weissman Joselit traces the origins, nature, patterns, location, and impact of Jewish crime from the early years, when it was inextricably bound up with the East Side community as a whole, with criminals living among the more or less law-abiding citizens they preyed upon, to the post-World War I period and the gradual assimilation and absorption of Jewish crime into the mainstream of the American underworld.

Parallel with this theme is a broader one: the New York Jewish community's reaction to Jewish crime, evolving from disbelief to denial to concern and the establishment of a network of correctional and preventive agencies, and finally--as the nature of Jewish crime changed, and as the community itself felt a growing sense of security--a sort of acceptance.

Genres: History, Crime, American History, Jewish, Nonfiction, Judaism

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[a. · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this book and i can't say how much! it was a fantastic study that i wish was longer. joselit's writing is very readable and interesting even outside of academia. i particularly liked that the focus wasn't just on the criminals and salacious details, but the community and how it reacted, viewed itself, and dealt with the fallout from these things. i loved the use of the schoenfeld papers and the little details of lesser known "characters" (i need an entire book about stiff rivka, pls.) my only complaint is that it wasn't longer, because i could have easily read 700 pages of it.