On The Bookshelf

"Tough Jews" recalls a bygone era.

RICK LEPSETZ
Special to The Jewish News

ough.
That's not exactly a word
that often comes to mind
when used to describe Jews.
But author Rich Cohen in his book
Tough Jews (Simon & Schuster; $25)
uses that word with a barely hidden
sense of pride.
This fascinating book describes the
life and times of those New York Jews
of the early- to mid-20th century who
chose to lead the life of a gangster.
Cohen, a contributing editor at
Rolling Stone magazine, takes us into
the world of Arnold Rothstein, Dutch
Schultz, Meyer Lansky, Louis Lepke
and others.
These men, who formed an organi-
zation that became known as Murder
Incorporated or The Syndicate, grew
up in an age when many citizens
thought of Jews as meek, degraded
•
victims.
Cohen takes the view that these
gangsters proved that Jews could do
and be anything — even tough crooks
— that any other American could be.
If you have the freedom to be a crook,
you have the freedom to be anything
else you want to be.
In the years after the Holocaust,
faced with images of belittled Jews
bulldozed into mass graves, the gang-
sters often presented an image to be
proud of. The other Jews of their
Brooklyn neighborhood saw them as
fearless Jews. They realized that people
may pity victims but yield to the vic-
tors.
An interesting portion of this book
dekribes the professional and person-
al friendship that developed in these
years between these Jews and the Ital-
ian mobsters. Though these men
worked together in their criminal
activities, they parted company in the
end, for the Jews did not want their
children to be in the business.
Cohen writes his book with a wry
sense of humor. He describes the elec-
tric chair that was used to carry out

Rick Lepsetz lives in Southfield.

4/24
1998

the death sentences of some of the
convicted Jewish gangsters and won-
dered why it had to be so uncomfort-
able. He suggests that it should have
been made more like a La-Z-Boy
chair, so the criminals could feel com-
fortable in their last seconds.
And in one aside sure to be used in

a trivia contest, he informs us that his
grandfather was the person who
invented the sugar packet, and later,
Sweet-N-Low.
Tough Jews does an excellent job of
showing the reader a part of Jewish
American history that people often
prefer not to acknowledge or believe is

true. It is an irresistible page-turner
into a world gone by.

❑

Below left: Author Rich Cohen

Bottom: Pep Strauss and Buggsy Goldstein
seemed to enjoy their last trip, a train ride
to the death house at Sing Sing

From - Tough Jews ...

"... 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
the Loch Ness monster, I think the
Jewish community would be better
off:... For people like me, who
grew up hearing only of good
Jews, fund-raisers and activists,
the gangsters offer a glimpse of a
less stable time, like the Ice Age,
when a greater variety of species
thrived on earth."