Price Busting
News!
89

Nigh Quality Dry (leaning
Each Item Is Only $2.89
Shirts

Beautifully Laundered
4. No Minimum Box or Hanger
4. Must Be Paid For In Advance
Same Day Sentice
For Only

89

( h
gcNOt Paid

For In Advance

- Excludes: Suedes, Leathers, Formal Gowns,
Wedding Dresses And Household Items
- All Items Paid For In Advance Are $2.89
Otherwise 50( Extra Per Item

Same Day Service

$1)89

DRY CLEANERS

26079 Southfield Rd.

(at 10'/2 Mile Rd.) Across From AM Lathrup Village

MasterCard

569-1440

/1111FRICAll
EXPRESS CARD

sc ipi

1•D‘

Mr. Big Stuff

The strange life of one of the most prominent mobsters
in American history.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Q: Who was the Jewish gangster
known as Mr. Big?

The criminal to whom you are
referring was Arnold Rothstein,
for many years the undisputed
master of American crime. In his
own sinister way he was a pio-
neer, by becoming the first to cor-
rupt a major American sport and
by turning criminal activities into
major businesses.
Rothstein also had more nick-
names than any other bad. guy:
The Brain, Mr. Al, AR, The Man
To See, The Man Uptown, The
Big Bankroll, The Man Who
Dwells In Doorways, King Of
Gamblers.
Unlike most of his criminal
contemporaries, Rothstein had
solid, middle-class roots. He was
born in New York City in 1882,
the son of Esther and Abraham
E. Rothstein, whose parents had
immigrated from Bessarabia.
Abraham Rothstein became a
wealthy thy-goods merchant and
a pillar of New York's Orthodox
Jewish community — a founder
of the West Side Jewish Center
and chairman of the board of
Beth Israel Hospital. He was so
honest in business and of such
high moral character that he was
known as "Rothstein the tzadek
(the just)."
Son Arnold was blessed with
genius-level intelligence and an

insatiable appetite for gambling,
a tendency that made itself
known in his childhood. Arnold
grew up to become one of the
most successful professional gam-
blers in New York. He soon
branched into loan sharking and
prostitution.
In the 1910s, Rothstein
achieved even greater notoriety
through two audacious ventures.
In 1918, he masterminded the
theft of more than $2 million in
highly negotiable Liberty Bonds
(sold by the U.S. government to
help finance America's role in
World War I). He probably will
best be remembered as the man
who "fixed" the 1919 World Se-
ries. He bribed eight Chicago
White Sox players to throw the
first and second games of the se-
ries to the underdog Cincinnati
Reds (Chicago won the series).
With the onset of Prohibition,
Rothstein turned rumrunning
into a major business. He bought
whiskey in England and brought
it into the United States with his
own fleet of high-speed boats, in
the meantime having paid off the
Coast Guard and local police. Lat-
er, Rothstein began smuggling
drugs and diamonds with equal
success. He also became involved
in the struggles between compa-
nies and unions in the heavily
Jewish garment trade, making
money by supplying criminal
muscle to both sides. He was a
multimillionaire running a crim-
inal empire that spanned the
globe.
Rothstein's luck ran out in No-
vember 1928 when he was shot
dead in a dispute over a poker
game in New York's Park Cen-
tral Hotel. No one was ever sen-
tenced for the crime.
What kind of a Jew was
Rothstein? Aside from violat-
ing numerous Torah corn-
' mandments against murder,
thievery and other despicable
behavior, Rothstein had a bad
attitude. According to Hank Mes-
sick, researcher of American
crime, Rothstein's father tried to
encourage Arnold to follow the
example set by Arnold's older
brother, Harry, a brilliant yeshi-
va student. Arnold replied, "Who
cares about that stuff? This is
America, not Jerusalem. I'm an
American. Let Harry be the Jew."

Q: The other night I saw a news
report about a church that suc-
cessfully promotes racial under-
standing. In an interview, the

church's minister said that "Jesus
taught us two things Love God with
all your might, and love your neigh-
bor as yourself." Am I mistaken, or
aren't these Jewish concepts?
A: They certainly are Jewish,
and Christianity has derived
them directly from the Torah.
Although the mitzvot to love
God and to love our fellow hu-
mans are quoted or referred to
many times in the New Testa-
ment, the min.ister probably
was alluding to the passage in
Matthew 22:36-42. In it, Jesus
is asked the greatest com-
mandment of the Torah, and he
replies that the first and great-
est is to love God, and the sec-
ond is to love one's neighbor.
The reference to love God is
from parshat Va'etchanan,
Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love God
your Lord with all your heart,
with all your soul and with all
your might." In fact, verses 4-9
form the first paragraph of the
Sh'ma, which Jews recite three
times daily.
The references to love one's
fellow human is from parshat

Kedoshim, Leviticus 19:18:

"You shall love your neighbor
as yourself." This mitzvah has
given rise to an entire body of
Jewish law and philosophy of
proper human relations, in-
cluding respect for privacy, pri-
vate property and the need to
make peace.

Q: When I was young I used to
sing a really stupid song called
"Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its
Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?"
(And adults today complain that the
music their children listen to is id-
iotic?) I seem to remember that it
was written by someone Jewish. Is
that so?
A: This fabulous number —
surely one of the classics of the
modern era
was written by
not one but two Jews, Billy
Rose and Marty Bloom. Tragi-
cally, it was Bloom's only hit. It
was recorded in 1961 by Lon-
nie Donegan. ❑

—

Send questions to Tell Me Why,
The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Road, Southfield, MI
48034, or fax to (810) 354-6069.
All letters must be signed and in-
clude the writer's address. Ques-
tions answered in the column will
feature only the writer's initials
and city of residence.

c=.

