Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tenement Museum Event: Jews Behaving Badly, March 11


I was at this event this past week. It was excellent. I got my copy of "Starker" signed by Rose Keefe. Rich Cohen has a future as a stand up comedian. In the discussion one comment was made that would have caused KV group emails to heat up. To paraphrase, "one big difference between Jewish gangsters and gangsters from "other" ethnic groups was that for them it was a one generation deal, they did it to survive, they insisted on the next generation go on to college." Maybe so in many cases, but maybe the next generation had enough of a bankroll from the gangster generation that they didn't need to follow... or those ill-gained profits were moved into legitimate businesses. Or if Joe Columbo Jr. or Jr. Gotti followed their fathers, perhaps the third generation didn't. So what we're talking about is a difference, if any, in "crime" time duration, not natural inclination.
Some links
Rich Cohen's Tough Jews
Ron Roth's, The Jews Of Sing-Sing
Rose Keefe's, "The Starker, Big Jack Zelig, The Becker Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster"
We had a previous post on Jack Zelig last October

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