Tough Jews: Father, Sons and Gangster Dreams - Hardcover

Cohen, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224043781 ISBN 13: 9780224043786

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

Once upon a time, back in the twenties and thirties, in Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who exist now only in legand and in the memories of a few old men. Their names were Louis Lepke, Abe Reles, Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Meyer Lansky and they were Jewish gangsters: Jews with guns; tough, fealess Jews who roamed the streets in a time when a Jewish boy could fashion a future that was murderous and daring and wide open. Rich Cohen's father grew up in that world; his family owned the diner where the gangsters known as Murder Incorporated hung out. In Tough Jews he tells their stories and brilliantly evokes their world - a world of street corners and bars and nightclubs; a world where murder was better than cowardice; where killings were planned and executed with precision and finesse; a world of feuds, wars, schemes, where living into middle age was a kind of victory; a world in which, for a brief moment, Jews were among the most important criminals in America.

About this title

Review:

When we think gangster, hood or wiseguy we often associate these characters with such names as Capone, Luciano or even Corleone. However, when organized crime reared its ugly head in the late 1920s in Brooklyn, at the foundation were men like Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel--both Jews. Rich Cohen's romantic account of Jewish gangsters, Tough Jews, brings to life the story of Jewish involvement in the world of organized crime. Cohen persuasively achieves his objective by recounting the stories he heard from his father, who grew up with his friends (including broadcaster Larry King) at the end of the gangster era in Brooklyn, finding heroes in men like "Kid Twist" Reles and Bugsy Goldstein. The intriguing tales Cohen heard, although slightly embellished over time, offer a rare glimpse into a world that can barely be related to today's generation of Jews living in America. These Jews went to prison for committing violent felonies, not white-collar crimes, and got the chair for it. Inspired by their stories, Cohen went on to conduct extensive research through old journals, police records, and court reports to uncover the real stories behind the tales he heard as a boy.

Cohen warmly discusses his father's fascination with these powerful, charismatic figures, and openly envies his experiences at a time before Jewish people lived under the debilitating shadow of the Holocaust. In addition, Cohen shows compassion for the need of his father's generation to look up to "someone who gives them the illusion of strength". --Jeremy Storey

Review:

"A terrific storyteller, drawing you right into the tenements where young thugs were recruited, the shooting wars and the perceived betrayals, the labour rackets and all-night card games...Few of the tough Jews Cohen writes about lived to see the inside of a recruitment community. They died young and they died out. But this is a dazzling tribute to their courage and to their cool." (Penny Perrick The Times)

"In the history of American crime - organised crime - Italian names predominate, but there was a time when Jewish names ran them close...Rich Cohen...grew up long after the events he describes, but he has still managed to write an intensely personal book...It is an exciting story...In filling in the detail, Cohen doesn't just rely on family legend, or his imagination: he has done a great deal of research in police archives. But it's the sense of personal involvement which gives the book its pace and its energy...highly readable." (John Gross Sunday Telegraph)

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0224043781
• ISBN 13: 9780224043786
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272