schleppylundo t1_j11ofis wrote on December 21, 2022 at 12:40 AM

Reply to comment by 76vibrochamp in TIL The Jewish mafia was nicknamed the Kosher Nostra by therealbeth

Even if your only familiarity with organized crime is movies, Lansky standin Hyman Roth’s role in Godfather II is clearly as a key part of the Italian mafia system, not an outsider making deals with them.

I wonder if this is at all because of the (comparative to the rest of Europe) harmonious coexistence of Jews in Italy between the Resorgimento and the rise of Fascism, the period in which most of the New York Mafia families emigrated and established themselves, and during which many Jews were held up as martyrs and patriots of the Unification struggle.

76vibrochamp t1_j11ptzk wrote on December 21, 2022 at 12:51 AM

I think it's just the fact that both groups immigrated to the US and were thrust into the ghettos at the same time (displacing the Irish in the same way they displaced Daniel Day-Lewis). Both groups gentrified out as well in time, but the nature of "amici nostra" meant that the Italians, by initiating their younger family members and neighborhood wannabes, were able to maintain an effective hegemony over organized crime in some cities.

Lansky himself is a key example; even though he was certainly influential among earlier Mafia leaders, he never exercised any real power. He didn't collect tribute from the Italians, he didn't conduct sit-downs, and he certainly didn't order hits. He was strictly a "partner" to Joey Adonis and later Jimmy Alo. Granted, they were very easy-going partnerships, as he made both men extremely rich.