Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Mob, the Kosher Mafia, the Yiddish Connection, and Kosher Nostra"Forgetting sixth commandment: Jewish gangsters were once known in organized crime circles as the 'Kosher Nostra'" , The Jewish Independent, September 19, 2008 or Undzer Shtik (). The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian Cosa Nostra; the former is a play on the word for kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws, while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' (Italian for "our thing") into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century in New York City, Monk Eastman operated a powerful Jewish gang known as the Eastman Gang that competed with Italian and Irish gangs, notably Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang, for control of New York City's underworld. Another notorious gang, known as the Lenox Avenue Gang, led by Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz, consisted of mostly Jewish members and some Italian members (such as Francesco Cirofisi). It was one of the most violent gangs of the early 20th century and became famous for the murder of gambler and gangster Herman Rosenthal.

In the early 1920s, stimulated by the economic opportunities of the Roaring Twenties, and later stimulated by Prohibition, Jewish organized crime figures such as Arnold Rothstein were controlling a wide range of criminal enterprises, including bootlegging, loansharking, gambling, and bookmaking. According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top."Katcher, Leo (1959/1994). The Big Bankroll. The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein, New York: Da Capo Press Rothstein was allegedly responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series.Pietrusza, David (2003). Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. At the same time, the Jewish bootlegging mob known as The Purple Gang dominated the Detroit underworld during Prohibition, while the Jewish Bugs and Meyer Mob operated on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before being absorbed into Murder, Inc. and becoming affiliates of the Italian-American Mafia.

The largely Jewish-American and Italian-American gang which was known as Murder, Inc. and Jewish mobsters such as Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen, Hooky Rothman, Dutch Schultz, and Bugsy Siegel developed close ties with the Italian-American Mafia and gained a significant amount of influence within it; eventually, they formed a loosely organized, mostly Jewish and Italian criminal syndicate which the press named the "National Crime Syndicate." Jewish and Italian crime groups increasingly became interconnected in the 1920s and 1930s, and their connections continued into the 1960s and beyond, partially because both groups often occupied the same neighborhoods and social statuses of the time. The two ethnic crime groups became especially close in New York City following the establishment of the close relationship between partners Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky and their subsequent elimination of many of the so-called "Mustache Pete" types ⁠— Sicilian-born gangsters who often refused to work with non-Italians and even non-Sicilians. The lines between Jewish and Italian criminal organizations often blurred throughout the 20th century. For decades after, Jewish-American mobsters would continue to work closely and at times compete with Italian-American organized crime.Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia, pp. 319–321

Origins and characteristics

Jewish-American gangsters were involved in many different criminal activities, including murder, racketeering, bootlegging, prostitutionEdward J. Bristow, Prostitution & Prejudice, The Jewish Fight against White Slavery, 1870–1939, Schocken, 1983 and narcotics. Their role was also significant in New York's burgeoning labor movement, especially the garment and trucking unions, as well as the poultry industry. Jewish organized crime fueled antisemitism and deeply concerned the Jewish community.Killer Jews , by Rachel Rubin, Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 8(2) (2001) 145–148 Jewish organized crime was used by antisemites and anti-immigration supporters as arguments to bolster their agenda. Jewish gangs controlled portions of the Lower East Side and Brownsville in New York City,Richard F. Shepard, "Books: Jewish Crime" , The New York Times, August 8, 1984 and were also present in other major American cities. American Jewish mafia boss Kid Cann held sway over Minneapolis for over four decades and remains the most notorious mobster in the history of Minnesota.

Jewish-American organized crime was a reflection of the ethnic succession among gangsters, which has tended to follow the immigrant waves in the United States: English, German, Irish, Jewish, Italian, Asian and Latino. Ethnic involvement in organized crime gave rise to alien conspiracy theories in the US law enforcement community, in which the conception of organized crime as an alien and united entity was vital. The involvement of a small percentage of recent immigrants in organized crime created a lasting stereotype of devious immigrants corrupting the morality of native-born Americans. Organized crime was a complex set of relations between the recently arrived Jewish and Italian criminals and groups like the Irish-American organized crime networks, which had been established before the 1920s and which the newer groups were sometimes subordinate to.Organized Crime, USA: Changing Perceptions from Prohibition to the Present Day , Michael Woodiwiss, BAAS Pamphlet No. 19 (First Published 1990)

Although never receiving close to the level of cultural attention of the Italian-American Mafia, from the late 1960s, Jewish-American gangsters would figure as characters in Jewish American literature. For some writers, Jewish gangsters and boxers in the post-World War II era were seen as tougher, more aggressive literary role models, freeing the community from the stigma of defenselessness and powerlessness, compared with the physical aggressiveness and lawlessness more associated with the Irish and Italian immigrants."European antisemitism and Anti-Americanism", by Andrei Markovits, in: O'Connor, Brendon (Ed.) (2007). Anti-Americanism: Historical perspectives , Westport (CT): Greenwood Publishing Group "Defenders of the faith" , by Linda Grant, The Guardian, July 6, 2002 According to Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons and Gangster Dreams: "If Jewish gangsters still thrived today, if they hadn't gone legit, if Jews of my generation didn't regard them as figments, creatures to be classed with Big Foot and the Loch Ness monster, I think the Jewish community would be better off".Cohen, Rich (1999). Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams, London: Vintage; Review of Tough Jews in The New York Times. For a critique on this interpretation, see: Adam Levitin, "Tough Jews by Rich Cohen" , Commentary, August 1998. See also: "Home Boys", by Paul Breines, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1998; "Jews You Can Use: The so-called glamour of the Jewish mob" , by Jeffrey Goldberg, Slate, April 12, 1998; and Tough Guys , by Tom Teicholz, Jewish Journal, August 13, 2004 However, Cohen's description of Jewish gangsters ignores their criminality and immorality. These tough characters were still gangsters who extorted, exploited and murdered other members of the Jewish-American community for profit. They forced Jewish women into prostitution, and were generally considered a scourge within their own community."Gangsters, Genes, Guns & Gamblers" ,Moment, July/August 2008 The Yiddish press and literature of the 1920s and 1930s were resolute in their condemnation of Jewish mobsters.

History

19th century to early 20th century A large wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced Jewish mobsters such as Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, "Big" Jack Zelig, and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis, who competed with and were acknowledged by Italian and Irish gangs.

Just as with their Italian counterparts, gangs specializing in extortion began operating in the heavily Jewish neighborhoods of New York's Lower East Side, most prominently the so-called Yiddish Black Hand headed by Jacob Levinsky, Charles "Charlie the Cripple" Litoffsky, and Joseph Toplinsky during the early 20th century. A significant Jewish underworld already existed in New York at the start of the 20th century, with Jewish mobsters conversing in a jargon with Yiddish origins. A pimp was known as a "simcha", a detective as a "shamus", and a loafer as a "trombenik"."Free-wheeling U.S. spirit stoked gangsters, prof says" , Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, December 4, 1998 Jewish-American organized crime arose among "slum kids who as prepubescents stole from pushcarts, who as adolescents extorted money from store owners, who as young adults practiced schlamming" (wielding an iron pipe, wrapped in newspaper, against striking workers or against scabs) – until as adults they joined well-organized gangs involved in a wide variety of criminal enterprises boosted by prohibition."This You Call a Stick-Up?" , The New York Times, April 12, 1998 (Review of Tough Jews by Rich Cohen)

In Chicago the Maxwell Street area became a center of Jewish organized crime in America, when the area was dominated by Eastern European Jewish immigrants from the 1880s to the 1920s. Like other ethnic groups in the area, the Jews organized themselves into gangs. The Chicago Tribune in 1906 referred to the Maxwell Street area as "the crime center of the country". Other contemporary news reports refer to it as "Bloody Maxwell" and "the Wickedest Police District in the World." Independent Jewish groups ran by gangsters like Jules Portugese, Davy Miller and Benjamin Zuckerman ran the Maxwell Street and greater Lawndale areas. Later Chicago Outfit affiliated Jews like Leonard Patrick and David Yaras took over the area when they killed Zuckerman and unseated his organization.

The lure of quick money, power, and the romance of the criminal lifestyle was attractive to both second-generation Jewish and Italian immigrants. There was a supposed Jewish "crime wave" in early 20th century New York. In disturbing numbers, young Jews had joined crime "rackets", it was said, along with children of Irish, Italian and other immigrants."The Second Generation from the Last Great Wave of Immigration: Setting the Record Straight" , by Nancy Foner, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York & Richard Alba, State University of New York at Albany, October 2006 However, the supposed Jewish-immigrant crime wave may have been exaggerated by the press and law enforcement. Crime and population figures show that Jews in New York committed crimes at a rate far below the average for the wider society. As described by sociologist Stephen Steinberg, less than a sixth of the city's felony arrests were Jews during the 1920s, when Jews constituted nearly a third of the city's population."Higher Immigration, Lower Crime" , by Daniel Griswold, Commentary magazine, December 2009