Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams

by Rich Cohen

Book Overview

In an L.A. delicatessen, a group of Brooklyn natives gets together to discuss basketball, boxing, the weather back east, and the Jewish gangsters of yesteryear. Meyer Lansky. Bugsy Siegel. Louis Lepke, the self-effacing mastermind of Murder, Inc. Red Levine, the Orthodox hit man who refused to kill on the Sabbath. Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, who looked like a mama's boy but once buried a rival alive. These are just some of the vibrant, vicious characters...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375705473
• ISBN13: 9780375705472
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A closer link between Italians and Jews -- Empowering for the latter.

Growing up Jewish -- especially in non-Jewish dominated areas -- can lead a child to believe that the Jews are historically a weak people. Despite the history. And maybe it's because the brightest and most famous are so self-depracating. "Tough Jews" is a compelling read. A Mario Puso like examination of a non-fiction dark tough-as-nails culture. But it also serves as a reminder that not all Jewish boys are "nice", or "sweet", or even Doctors or Lawyers. This book is a great read about the Murder, Inc. team, that serves as a reminder that Jewish history is not all "suffering", but also some "infliction", and in an odd and unexpected way, that is empowering to read. Simply put -- Mr. Cohen reminds us that, like those of any religion, some Jews shouldn't be messed with.

My Grandfather Is In This Book

Great book, but I only have one complaint. They have a great deal of info on my grandfather, "Dopey Benny",wrong, such as when,where, and how he died. So much for research.

Tough Jews are Everywhere

If the idea of jewish thugs, jewish crime bosses, jewish killers and street soldiers sounds ridiculous to you, then this book is right for you. If you live in Brooklyn, then this book is for you again. If you are a jew immigrated from Eastern Europe to New York, then you don't want to miss this book either.This is a great book that uncovers another page of hidden and "carefully" forgotten history.

how can anybody not love this book

i picked this book up because, frankly, i thought the title was funny. but from the moment i opened it, i was rapt. this is boys own stuff. somehow cohen manages to glamorize these gangsters in a way that's even more exciting and compelling than most mob movies. some people here have marked this book down because of some factual errors. big fat hairy deal! if you want facts on this subject, read "but he was good to his mother" by rockaway -- one of the most tedious and ineptly written books ever written on any subject. this is a book about having heroes and boyish fantasies. and it's a damn good one.

An exploration of Jewishness

My father was born in 1904 in a small, nondescript town called Lomza between Warsaw and Bylaistock. It was 70 per cent Jews. By 1943 not a single Jew was left. His parents bought a tickets for America that same year but but were swindled - the tickets were for no further than Liverpool. My father grew up a tough, streetwise kid, with his eyes fixed across the Atlantic always knowing that one day he would get to the Promised Land. In 1921 he signed on as a ship's baker (his father's trade) and jumped ship in New York. He got involved in running beer between Canada and New York during Prohibition and learned to be an American. In 1929, his older brother Issy was sent out to join him but on entering the country was found to have tuberculosis and was sent back. Too sick to travel alone, my father went with him, cashing in his stocks a few months before the Wall Street Crash. He arrived back in England at the start of the Depression with capital, got a girl pregnant, got married, got divorced, built a business, got married again. And his two daughters growing up in English suburbia were never allowed to forget that the greatest guys on earth were the Tough Jews - the Jewish gangsters like Arnold Rothenstein and Dutch Schultz. I never understood why he - a respectable businessman - venerated them so until I devoured Rich Cohen's book. because - and is a point some other reviewers here have missed - the Jewish gangsters gave kids like my father a sense of being big shots. As Cohen says, in time that feeling was transferred to the Israeli army and indeed my father fundraised for the terrorists who were fighting British rule in Palestine. But the need for Jews to have icons - people more powerful than themselves to give them the gumption to fight - was what made the Jewish gangsters more than just brutal thugs. This is a wonderful book. It is a book of Jewish history. I wish my father had lived long enough to read it.