Jewish Mafia

Jewish American organized crime (sometimes called the Jewish Mob, Jewish Mafia, Kosher Mafia, or the Kosher Nostra, emerged during the late years of the 19th century and early 20th century. In its earliest form, in New York City in the late 1800s, Jewish gangs under gang lord Monk Eastman competed with Italian and Irish gangs, notably Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang, for control of New York's underworld. In the early 1920s, stimulated by the economic opportunities of the Roaring Twenties and later, Prohibition, organized crime figures such as Arnold Rothstein rose to dominate more extensive organized crime activity. According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Arnold Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top." Rothstein was allegedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. Several notable Jewish American mobsters provided financial support for Israel through donations to Jewish organizations since the country's independence in 1948. As a result, Israel became an option for Jewish-American gangsters fleeing criminal charges or facing deportation from the United States.