Dating back to at least the 1920s Prohibition era, mobsters of Jewish decent comprised a very powerful underworld faction, which is sometimes referred to as the “Kosher Nostra,” that efficiently operated in many major cities all across the United States.

By the late-1980s, what had once been a very viable “Jewish Mob” had dwindled down to a small remaining faction of hoodlum diehards still devoted to pursuing illicit rackets. Even today, there are still a few Jewish hoods who ply their trade in league with the Italians. But for the better part of 80 years, Jewish hoods more than held their own within the American underworld….

The six Jewish mobsters listed below, who, in their time were each ranked as major racketeers and gangsters, lived and operated in three different cities; LA, NYC and Miami. One guy, in particular, was known to operate fluidly for many years in both NY and FL.

Here is the challenge; List the real first and last name of each hoodlum, then match the (letter) of their nickname with the corresponding (number) of the city they operated in:

A) Happy
B) Little Maxie
C) Red Hymie
D) The Stick
E) Little Gangy
F) Ruby

1) Miami Beach, FL
2) New York, NY
3) New York, NY
4) New York, NY/Miami, FL
5) New York, NY/Miami, FL
6) Los Angeles, CA

B-5 was Max Eder (Genovese)


Born back in 1908, as a young man, Max “Little Maxie” Eder resided in the Bronx, but mostly hung out with the Italians around the East Harlem section of Upper Manhattan, as well as with fellow Jewish associates in Downtown’s, Lower East Side, Delancey Street area.

Maxie was a born hoodlum through and through, who pretty much knew everybody there was to know among New York’s hoodlum set. From a young Meyer Lansky, to the notorious “Trigger Mike” Coppola, and most everybody in-between, Maxie was considered a friend.

But although he knew and partnered with many racket guys from various crews over the years, his loyalty and obligation seems to have been to the Genovese Family’s powerhouse capodecina in charge of East Harlem, Michael “Trigger Mike” Coppola.

Maxie was said to have served as a trusted “associate” of the “Coppola Regime” for decades. Maxie was also considered to be a close associate of Coppola regime soldier, Pasquale (Little Paddy) Erra, with whom he would later work with in Florida.

His criminal record started back in 1925, when he was just 17 years old. Through the years he accumulated arrests for burglary, possession of burglars tools, receiving stolen goods, fraud, vagrancy, common gambling, vehicular homicide, a Federal narcotics conviction, and maintaining a gambling establishment.

Federal authorities identified Eder as being most active in heroin smuggling and wholesale distribution, as well as running bookmaking and large-scale card games on behalf of the Mafia.

By at least the late 1940s, he was already visiting South Florida on a seasonal basis. By the 1950s, he had relocated to Miami Beach as a part-time resident, following the lead of Coppola who had also relocated to the Sunshine State around that time. Coppola quickly put Eder in charge of overseeing and running high-stakes gambling parlors along the Miami Beach area.

This is the first in a brand new series of mob "quiz" challenges focusing on "The Jewish Mob."

What happened, nobody likes to follow the Jewish hoods? These fellows were among the sharpest and toughest guys out there in their day. I "cannot" believe that none of you have ever heard of any of the 6 hoods I listed. Each of them was notorious in his own right. (hard to believe)

F-2 was the notorious New York City mobster, Charles “Ruby” Stein.

Ruby Stein lived and plied his criminal trade in New York City. As a young man he initially tried his hand as a prize-fighter and street hoodlum. But he soon found his life’s calling when he stumbled upon the usurious loan business.

Better known on the gritty streets of New York as the “shylock” racket, Stein quickly became a natural at it. With his base intelligence and sharp mind, Ruby excelled as a shylock, or loan-shark. He had a near photographic memory and was quick with numbers, which only added to his success in the business.

He started out by providing small loans to needy businessmen in Manhattan’s “Garment District” and around Queens County. But with his growing success, he soon attracted a few legitimate businessmen as investors who provided the young hoodlum with much needed funds to bankroll his growing “shylock book.”

By the mid-late 1940s, Stein had established himself as a major loanshark figure in the metropolitan area. By this point in time, he had also branched out into the field of illegal gambling as well. Specifically, horse and sports bookmaking.

With his natural ability at mathematics and sharp business acumen, bookmaking was another field of endeavor he was successful at. In fact, he soon became something of an “oddsmaker” that other local bookies utilized to set the days figures for races and games.

But his growing success did not go unnoticed. He soon came to the attention of various organized crime figures who realized Stein was an “independent” as they say, and not tied into any one crime Family.

Soon, other hoodlums started targeting him for ripoffs, strong-arm tactics, and shakedowns. They’d send in an innocent looking “beard” to ostensibly borrow money from Stein. But once the budding shylock went to collect his payments, they’d scare him off with threats of violence.

So, ever the businessman, he decided to go partners with another young hoodlum, a tough, up-and-coming mafioso by the name of Nicholas “Jiggs” Forlano. They dovetailed together beautifully. Coincidentally, Nick Forlano also happened to be a fully “inducted” soldier of Brooklyn’s notorious Joseph Profaci Family.

With Forlano now providing the muscle, and Stein providing the brains, their partnership was an instant success. From that time forward, nobody who ever borrowed money ever dared tried to “stiff” Stein again. They all paid their vigorish.

By the early 1950s, Stein and Forlano had become notoriously known throughout the underworld as simply, “Ruby and Jiggs.”

By this point in time, due to Forlano’s Mafia connections, old man Profaci was now adding to their growing shylock book by helping to bankroll their business with funds invested from the Profaci Family’s treasury. By the late 1950’s, top members of other New York Families were also investing money with Ruby and Jiggs.

All through the 1950s and 1960s era, “Ruby and Jiggs” were widely considered to be the biggest loan-sharks in the nation.

But, after several decades of unrivaled success, by the early 1970s, the magic that had once made for an unbeatable partnership was gone, and everything would change...for them both.

……But thats a story for another day!

This next guy makes for some interesting Sunday reading... “Happy Fathers Day!"


A-6 is Harold “Happy” Meltzer (Los Angeles, CA)

Although he was born in New York City back in 1908, during his lifetime Happy Meltzer was a diverse and very well-traveled Jewish hoodlum who eventually relocated out to Los Angeles, California on the west coast.

By the time he was 12 years old Meltzer had started what would eventually grow to become a lengthy police record. Starting with his arrest as a juvenile for disorderly conduct, from 1920 forward, he was picked up for larceny, assault, homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to murder, illegal gambling, escape from custody, bookmaking, conspiracy, violating federal narcotics laws, and international customs law violations.

Over the years local and federal law enforcement authorities tied him to top organized crime figures on both coasts such as Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen, John (Big John) Ormento, Gaetano (Tom) Dragna, his son, Louis Tom Dragna, and Max Cossman, among many other hoods.

One internal federal report described Harold Meltzer as, “An international drug trafficker closely allied with top Mafia racketeers. Meltzer is known to smuggle large quantities of narcotics into the United States from Mexico and Cuba for wholesale redistribution to California and New York. He is also the head of a large bookmaking and prostitution syndicate active in Southern California, and is a known associate of major labor-union racketeers.”

Over the years, federal drug agents tracking Happy’s movements say he often traveled domestically, to Las Vegas, Nevada; Laredo, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Enid, Oklahoma; New York City, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts, as well as internationally, to such exotic destinations as Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, The Philippines, Cuba, Mexico, and Canada, in furtherance of his criminal activities.

Next up is E-3, who was Harry “Little Gangy” Davidoff (Lucchese Family)


Harry “Little Gangy” Davidoff was born 1918 in the gritty hard-scrabble neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Back then it was largely considered to be a Jewish ghetto and an area rife with hoodlums, violence and organized crime.

Harry had two brothers named Willie and Al. Growing up in the neighborhood, all three Davidoff brothers were considered to be exceptionally tough street kids.

Their youngest brother, Avraham Davidoff, fought professionally as a welterweight boxer under the ring name, Al “Bummy” Davis. During his boxing career Davidoff accumulated an enviable record of 66 wins (47 by KO), 10 losses, and 4 draws. Ring magazine ranked him #54 on their list of the 100 greatest punchers of all time. During his boxing career he fought such top-ranked fighters as Tony Canzoneri and Fritzie Zivic.

Unfortunately, Bummy Davis met a tragic ending one evening in Brownsville at the young age of only 25, when he was shot dead during an attempted armed robbery inside a neighborhood tavern he had owned and operated.

The oldest brother, William “Big Gangy” Davidoff, was said to have originally operated under the auspices of the notorious Jewish industrial rackets boss, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, and with fellow members of their gang, the infamous Murder, Inc.

As young, up and coming racketeers, “Big Gangy” and “Little Gangy” as Willie and Harry would become notoriously known, operated out of their Brownsville neighborhood running policy-numbers, floating dice games, bookmaking, shylocking, strong-arm extortion and labor rackets.

Harry had a long rap sheet with the New York Police Department and the FBI that included arrests for burglary, assault, possessing a pistol (twice), grand larceny (twice), armed robbery, attempted extortion, vagrancy, policy-lottery, bookmaking, conspiracy to commit extortion, coercion, extortion (twice), terroristic threats, unlawful payments and gratuities as a union official, fraud, embezzlement, securities fraud, RICO conspiracy and racketeering.

In later years, Harry eventually befriended and decided to team up with the Gaetano Lucchese crime Family through a close friendship he developed with one of that Family’s most infamous soldiers, the notorious John “Johnny Dio” Dioguardi.

Johnny Dio eventually put him “on record” with the borgata, making Davidoff an official “associate” of Dioguardi’s personal crew, and by extension, the Lucchese Family.

Years later, after Dioguardi’s death, Lucchese capo Paul Vario Sr. stepped in to become Davidoff’s new “rabbi” in the mob.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local #295, held sway over the sprawling John F. Kennedy International Airport, located in Jamaica, Queens.

Using strong-arm methods and their iron-clad domination of Local #295, for many decades Davidoff and Dioguardi and their Lucchese Family benefactors successfully maintained a complete stranglehold over the multimillion-dollar a year air-freight industry based out of the airport.

In 1976, a United States Senate Subcommittee characterized Davidoff as, “a ruthless New York thug, a gangster who gravitated to the labor movement for no other reason than to steal from it.”

Davidoff listed himself variously as both the Local 295 secretary-treasurer and its vice-president. Over the years Harry Davidoff’s name would become synonymous with labor racketeering and extortion at JFK. Some years later, he created a second union local to tighten the mob’s grip even more over the airport, Teamsters Local #851.

Davidoff and his associates specialized in “shaking down” air-freight companies, trucking firms, and various equipment and food supply companies and others doing business at the airport.

He had previously served a short, indeterminate prison term earlier in his career. But in the mid-1980s, he was eventually convicted in Federal Court involving the Lucchese Family’s decades-long control of JFK Airport and long running shakedown schemes to sell “labor peace” to air-freight related companies, including, ultimately, a $500,000 labor rackets extortion plot involving the merger of two major publicly traded companies.

Harry Davidoff and his Mafia associates and superiors all received lengthy prison terms. Davidoff was sentenced to serve 12 years in the Federal Penitentiary and fined $150,000, effectively ending Little Gangy’s long career as an underworld potentate and rackets boss at JFK.

I've already revealed 4 guys; Max Eder, Harold Meltzer, Charles Stein and Harry Davidoff. There's only 2 left. Come on now, fellas, I know you can do better than that!