In what ways does Rich Cohen's Hard-Jews add to our understanding of the development of organized crime? This book deals with the obscure stories of Jewish gangsters who, in the 1920s and 1930s, were in association with the Sicilians and, in many ways, equally influential. But this is much more than just a story of organized crime; the writer connects the legends and thoughts of Jewish children growing up among these gangsters to the value system of his father and his friends, and how their attitude towards "tough Jews" gave them an option over stereotypical roles that America as a whole allowed them. In its strange and violent way, it is a luminous and striking explanation of the experience of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in America. (Kaminsky, Stuart M. "The Individual Film: Little Caesar and the Gangster Film." American Film Genres. Pflaum Publishing, 1974: 13-32.) When organized crime reared its ugly head in late 1920s Brooklyn , at the base There were men like Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel, both Jewish. Rich Cohen's romantic tale of Jewish gangsters, Tough Jews, brings the ta...