Meyer Lansky, Jewish gangsters, battles with American Nazis, and secret arms shipments to Israel—Myron Sugarman reveals a forgotten chapter of organized-crime history.
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins sits down with Myron Sugarman, author of The Chronicles of the Last Jewish Gangster: From Meyer to Myron, for a revealing conversation about the Jewish underworld and its role in major events of the 20th century.
Sugarman recounts how Jewish gangsters confronted Nazi sympathizers holding rallies in American cities during the years leading up to World War II. He discusses Meyer Lansky’s involvement and explains why these men relied on fists, clubs, and intimidation while carefully avoiding actions that might turn the Nazis into martyrs.
The conversation also explores the largely forgotten role organized-crime figures played in supplying weapons to Jewish forces fighting for the creation and survival of Israel. Sugarman describes the risks involved in acquiring and secretly transporting arms when official assistance was unavailable.
Gary and Myron examine Meyer Lansky’s place in Mafia history, the relationship between Jewish gangsters and the Italian Mafia, and the line separating historical fact from the legends surrounding the mob.
Myron also discusses his personal connection to this world and what it means to call himself the “last Jewish gangster.” His stories offer an inside look at loyalty, violence, survival, and a generation of underworld figures who sometimes used criminal organizations to defend their communities.
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Transcript
myron sugarman
Gary Jenkins: [00:00:00] Hey, all you wiretappers out there, good to be back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. I have a, a special show, something that just came on me out of the blue just the other day. A man that some of you may know and some of you may not know, you should know if you’re any kind of a mob historian at all, especially from the New Jersey area and on out to Las Vegas, is Myron Sugarman.
Myron Sugarman is coming to Kansas City, and he’s gonna do a presentation, and they’re gonna have a special dinner with cigars and whiskey , at a real high-end fancy country club for him. I’ll have links to that stuff down in the show notes if you .. think you wanna attend.
The free program is Sunday morning, October the 11th, 2026 at 10:00 AM, be a presentation, a book signing at the Keneloth Israel Synagogue, that’s at 10501 Conser Street in Overland Park if you’re here in Kansas City. Have a RSVP of Mens Club, M-E-N-S C-L-U-B, @K King, I, Ida, S, Sam, [00:01:00] Y, Young, N, Nora.org, O-R-G.
That’s K-I-S-Y-N.org, so you can… But I think you could just show up. It’s a pretty good size synagogue, so you can just show up, and it’s free admission, and the that evening they’re gonna have that special program where you have to pay some money to go. Get hold of me if you have any desire to know any more about that.
I really appreciate everybody listening, and Myron welcome. I really appreciate you coming on the show. Thank
Myron Sugarman: you, Gary. And it’s a pleasure, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Yeah. And to heard so much greatness about you, , it’s fascinating how life turns out. Yes a little bit of background with regards to myself, I’ve written the book, my autobiography, which is called The Chronicles of the Last Jewish Gangster: From Meyer to Myron, and when I talk in terms of the being the last Jewish gangster, I’m of that, on the tail end of [00:02:00] the era of my father and Meyer Lansky and that particular world, which of course separates and distinguishes itself from just being , a the new generation which is not the same as the old school.
So I just wanted to make, I wanted to make that statement and for your listening audience.
Gary Jenkins: That’s a good tagline for your book, from Meyer to Myron, that you guys, between you two, you span the entire panoply- Yeah … history of organized crime in United States.
Myron Sugarman: My, my father, may he rest in peace, was , in prohibition. He was part of the Newark, New Jersey Jewish crowd, the Jewish mob that was led by Abner “Longy” Zwillman.
They called him Longy, he was tall, and from the Yiddish expression longer, he got the name Longy.
And he was 6’2″, good-looking man , he was known as the Al Capone of New [00:03:00] Jersey because all the alcohol that came in through the ports of N- of New Jersey came in under his rule and under his jurisdiction, and he waxed extremely wealthy.
He was on an equal level together with Meyer Lansky as far as the leadership of the Jewish mob of the United States. Although he was not as well-known, he was not as prominent as was Meyer Lansky he had the the distinction of sharing leadership with, together with Meyer. I knew Meyer Lansky.
He used to come to Newark, New Jersey with his brother Jake and with Bugsy Siegel, and they would come, and they would of course meet with Longy. And the other gentleman was Joe Doc Stacher, who was one of the most prominent individuals that very few people ever heard [00:04:00] of. He was prosecuted and made a deal with Kennedy, with Robert Kennedy, accepting exile from the United States.
In 1964, he he actually ended up in Israel. I met Meyer Lansky. We spent an entire day together in 1970. It was two months after he left the United States. He apparently knew that he was going to be indicted for income tax evasion. At that time, Gary, you probably remember Nixon and Mitchell-
Gary Jenkins: Yeah
Myron Sugarman: were hot on the trail of of Meyer Lansky, and he knew that he had no shot whatsoever. He went to Israel, and under the law of the return, he was really entitled to be to be granted immediate citizenship. But the [00:05:00] Nixon government applied tremendous pressure at that time on Golda Meir.
She was the prime minister, and they told her, “Listen, we give you $3 billion worth of financial assistance for especially for military.” All right? He’s not worth, this man is not worth $3 billion. You gotta send us, we want him back here in America. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of, for the State of Israel made a political decision, not a judicial decision, and agreed to cancel his visa, which was totally illegal, and they sent him they sent him back They sent him back to not the…
No, I’m sorry. They didn’t send him back. They he made arrangements to go to Argentina from Israel But the United States government had already advised the Argentine government, under no [00:06:00] circumstances let that man out of customs. And eventually he went, ended up in the United States, went to trial, and the, the case was a poor case that the government brought against him, and the witness that they had was a guy called Vinny Terrasino.
He was a fat guy, 400 pounds, and he said, “I gave Meyer Lansky 50,000 cash on such and such a date.” And the proof was that Meyer Lansky was not at the place where he claimed that he gave him the money. There was a subsequent trial. Eventually the government threw up their hands, said, “Okay, let the guy die a free man.”
And when he did in 19- I think in 1981, or in 1983. He died in 18- 1983. So there’s a big program right now in Israel, a documentary in which I appear. Several years ago they interviewed me with regards to the history of the [00:07:00] Jewish mob in the United States, specifically about Meyer Lansky’s story, and I’m on television right now in Israel, and I got phone calls from everybody all our relatives and friends say, “Oh, my goodness gracious you’re a celebrity.”
Gary Jenkins: When you spent that day with him, was this just before he went to Israel?
Myron Sugarman: No, it was i- in Israel, it was in Tel Aviv.
Yeah. So it was two months after, after he left the United States, so it was a Friday afternoon, and Mr.
Stacher says to me, Doc Stacher, who was, I told you, who accepted exile- … and lived in Israel, and he was very close to Meyer. The two of them were old buddies going back years in time. And he told me, this is a very interesting story. So he told me he never asked me, he never spoke to me politely, he just told me, “Hey, kid, kiddo.”
I was th- 30 or 31 years of age at the
Myron: time.
Myron Sugarman: And I was just ready to go to Nigeria to run [00:08:00] slot machines for Bally Manufacturing, for a Panamanian company, a backdoor company that they had. And he says to me “You be here tomorrow for the Sabbath lunch, the Shabbat lunch.” And sure enough, Saturday afternoon I showed up at the hotel, and there was an empty chair.
A big table, a lot of guests- And there was an empty chair sitting next next to where I was sitting, and people were told that chair is reserved for somebody, and sure enough, Meyer Lansky walked into the hotel, sat down. And very, he was a real gentleman, really very polite, nice man old-timer, and was like my father.
Had the same style as my father. My father was a very nice guy, very classy, very well-loved. And Mr. Lansky spoke… He was very articulate. He was very articulate. You [00:09:00] would think that you were talking to a librarian, not, not to the iconic number one Jewish gangster of the world. So he was very educated, and we engaged in a nice discussion, and nobody else seemed to be was included in the conversation at the end of the conversation.
At the end of the lunch, it was very nice. People got up, left, and then the two of them Mr. Lansky and Mr. Stacher, they said to me, “Come on, young fella, we’re going to the corner. Young man, we’re going to the corner of the lobby where nobody can hear us. We need to talk to you.” The the name Gerardo Catena, Gerry Gary, Gerry Catena, Gerardo Catena was the boss of the, acting boss of the Genovese crime family after Vito Genovese- Yeah … went to prison [00:10:00] for on a drug charge. So he named two, two, two individuals to take over the Genovese crime family. One was Gerry Catena and the other one was Tommy Ryan Eboli And As far as Meyer was concerned and and Doc. So they asked me, “What’s the story with Mr. Catena? Where is he right now?” I said he’s locked up in Artsville Prison.” That was a Jersey state prison. What had happened on a grand jury investigation, Gary, they were , 19 mob guys of prominence were brought in for questioning.
And at the time they were granted immunity Not one of the s- not one of them broke down. Not one of them, that not one of them [00:11:00] was testifying. They were… The grand jury was looking into criminal activity in the state of New Jersey, and not one of them broke. They all held up like cigar store Indians.
And Mr. Catena, of course, was the most prominent, and they went to jail. So I told Meyer Lansky and Doc Stacher exactly what I, what a newspaper would tell you, that he was refused to testify. After being granted immunity, refused to testify, and he was incarcerated. So the two of them said, “Okay, thank you,” and that was it The next day, Doc Stacher said to me, “We’re gonna have dinner, so meet me at the hotel lobby in the evening.”
That evening I go downstairs, and while I’m sitting and talking to Doc Stacher [00:12:00] before we go to eat, friend of mine that was in the gambling machine business owed me some money showed up and handed me $5,700.
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Myron Sugarman: He said, “Here’s the money I owe you.” And remember, this happened in 1970. This happened 56 years ago.
That’s pretty good for an old man that’s turning- Yeah … 89 in January. That’s, my memory’s pretty good about- Yeah … details like this. So I said, “Thank you.” But Doc says to me, “Give me the 5,700. And you’ll go home, you’ll see such Abe Green, and he’s gonna, he’ll give you the money.
You just tell him you gave me the money.” When you belong to Kosher Nostra, Gary-
Gary Jenkins: Yeah, the
Myron Sugarman: Kosher Nostra. … and you’re a young fella-
Gary Jenkins: Yeah …
Myron Sugarman: and you’ve been born and raised in that family, in that world, you think, “Oh,” so handed him the 5,700. And there was no question in my [00:13:00] mind I’m getting the money when I go home.
I did go home but, to, to cl- get ready. I was going to Africa. The Bally people made a, a, a business with two gangsters from Beirut, Lebanon, two Arab gangsters, Beirut, Lebanon, and I was dispatched to go there to be the manager.
It was casinos in the jungles- … of Nigeria. I went home and I went to see Abe Green, who was my father’s best friend and partner from days going all the way back in time from Brookfish.
And to make a long story short, he acted as though he didn’t know anything about this 5,700, told me, “Go to Nigeria and go fix the, take, bring home the money from Nigeria.” Anyways- it turns out ultimately that the story, I didn’t put the two and two together until years later, and that’s the thing about experience, [00:14:00] Gary.
So you find out as the older you get, you start to think, you’re, you find yourself thinking about so many events in your life, and you think, and you know that world, and the truth of the matter is you really don’t know it until you’re later in life, is it’s, as your experience increases, you start to put the pieces together.
The truth of the matter is that when Meyer Lansky and Doc Stacher Took me to the far corner of the lobby of the hotel, the old Hotel Sheraton in Tel Aviv, and inquired about Jerry Catena. It wasn’t about his health, either his political health or his financial health. In all probability, it had much to do with the rake-off coming out of Vegas and their share of the skim.
Gary Jenkins: What do you think? Were they just wanting to [00:15:00] know, trying to get a feel
Myron Sugarman: for who he was? They wanted to know, they wanted to know because Mr. Catena was in charge of the skim, and what was his political situation at that point?
Gary Jenkins: Oh,
Myron Sugarman: okay. ‘Cause he was locked up in Yardsville Prison. So basically it meant that this was the end of the era of the Jews completely.
See, Meyer Lansky was a brilliant individual.- Extremely intelligent, got a question to ask you, Mr.
Lansky What was the greatest mistake you ever made?” And you know what the answer would be Gary?
Gary Jenkins: What’s that?
Myron Sugarman: It would, it, he invested something like $20 million of his own money in the Hotel Riviera in Havana, Cuba.
And he probably guaranteed some of the other people’s monies that they put up for that hotel as [00:16:00] well.
I only assumed that if he didn’t guarantee it, they must have told him, “You guaranteed it.”
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Myron Sugarman: The era of the Jewish mob probably ended in the 1930s, and we were one generation. The Jewish mob was a one-generation crime criminal enterprise. If you stop and think about all your friends, Gary all your Jewish friends, oh, they’re either doctors, professors-
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Oh, yeah. …
Myron Sugarman: accountants- Yes … lawyers.
Gary Jenkins: Yes.
Myron Sugarman: All right?
Gary Jenkins: Yes.
Myron Sugarman: Corporate people. The, the parents, the fathers and the, of the of the men that were in the Jewish the mob didn’t want their kids to pursue criminal careers, and there was no need for it. The wise ones invested their money and the younger ones went to college, got a [00:17:00] college education, and they went on to become businesspeople, or they became professional people, or they became educators, or they became scientists, or they become research and development or technology.
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Myron Sugarman: But no- nobody really wants their kids to go into criminality.
Gary Jenkins: I’m curious about your perception of one thing. You have the Italian La Cosa Nostra mafia that’s this tight Sicilian organization that has a structure, and then alongside you’ve got your Jewish guys who were working alongside you.
I- it was like in Kansas City we had three or four Jewish guys who ran all the gambling, and they seemed to work hand in glove with the mob. How did that relationship work? How did you perceive that, and how did you guys talk about those Italian guys? Did you, How did that work?
Myron Sugarman: So that’s a good, great question.
So basically what as the, as we’re both, both people s- started to acculturate and [00:18:00] to assimilate into the American way of life, we bonded because we could make money together, and the, not, the old school Sicilian black hands, all right? Just like today, there is no n- need for the mafia anymore.
You’re sending your kids to the university to get the best education, get the best jobs. You’re gonna make so much money legitimately, there’s no need for mafia. Mafia or Cosa Nostra or the underworld was a result of of a need. Just like when they created prohibition, when they created prohibition, they opened the opportunity for a fantastic opportunity for people that never went to grammar school- to become rich, to make money. So the question as the Black Hand, they were xenophobic. The old school mob bosses of New York [00:19:00] prior to Lucky Luciano forming the modern Cosa Nostra they banned doing business with ethnicities like particularly the Jews. They said, w- this is crazy.
We don’t even wanna do business with Neapolitans. Why the hell do we wanna do business with Jews? We can’t trust them. We can’t trust Calabrese. So how are we gonna trust Jews?” However, the young Turks, like Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello that crowd started to see and recognize that, wait a minute, these Jews are tough, they’re killers, but they have another quality that we don’t have we, or we need to have, and that’s called that’s called entrepreneurship.
The Jew by nature is a businessman., The one that created modern-day Cosa Nostra was a Jew, [00:20:00] the name of Arnold Rothstein, the guy that fixed the 1919 Chicago Black Sox World Series. He was brilliant, and he was the one that hired the Italian kids and the Jewish kids to run protection for him on his trucks of his whiskey and his alcohol during the time of the prohibition.
There was a recognition that if I’m just as strong as you are, and you’re just as strong as me, and why fight? Let’s join forces. Let’s make money. Cooperation is better than competition.
Gary Jenkins: Competition gonna
Myron Sugarman: kill each other, and eventually the government’s gonna kill the two of us. But if we cooperate, and we have rules and regulations, and we have limitations and all the rest, and we have our own jurisdictions, this is great.
And so you had the [00:21:00] formation of the modern-day mafia, as well as the crime syndicate
Gary Jenkins: Now Myron, as a Jewish guy working with these Italian guys, did you ever get a little frustrated with their disorganization rather than organization? You Jewish guys, you’re all about business and all about getting it going.
A lot of those Italian guys are about vendettas and being angry at somebody and getting disorganized.
Myron Sugarman: The fact that I would tell you, I would tell you that the, the discipline within the Italians is something admirable. Very admirable. And it kept things in order because the, the idea of organized crime is not to allow it to get out of control so that it affects the public welfare.
– For example, in the case of Dutch Schultz, remember that Gary, in your- Oh, yeah … studies? So they had to kill Dutch Schultz. That was a way of con- of a control [00:22:00] process, that Dutch Schultz wanted to kill Dewey, Thomas Dewey. Dewey was running for- The mayor of he was the pr- special prosecutor that used the war on organized crime.
He took down Abe Reles. Abe could… You remember the guy they threw out of the hotel in Coney Island? Yeah. He took down Dutch Schultz.
Gary Jenkins: . He sent Lucky Luciano up the river- He took down Lucky Lu- … for
Myron Sugarman: 50 years … Lucky Luciano
Gary Jenkins: He
Myron Sugarman: was- And he took down Lepke Buchalter.
Buchalter, yeah They had a mur- murder incorporated. And took down a lot of guys from Murder Incorporated, Phil Strauss and a few of the other guys, and they got the electric chair. He made his career on the basis of going after organized crime.
Dutch Schultz ended up in Newark, New Jersey with the intention of killing Thomas Dewey. The mob made a decision, “We gotta get rid of this guy before he, he [00:23:00] kills Thomas Dewey.” And exactly what happened is they, Murder Incorporated, brought in two, two Jewish hit men, and they killed him.
Gary Jenkins: As you move on into modern times you’re talking about you had a job, you’re going down into Nigeria, and I remember reading about Lucky Luciano and Sam Giancana out of Chicago establishing gambling networks and gambling operations, casinos or more places in the Caribbean and maybe in, in Mexico and other countries.
So how did that work? How do you guys like fight these local contacts to that, and you get your money back out of it if you get it going?
Myron Sugarman: So what happens is, for example everybody finds everybody. It’s very… I was known from one end of the world to the next. I traveled and lived in many countries.
I, actually 65 countries that I did business. So you get a reputation, you get around, and I’ll give you an [00:24:00] example. I had a machine called the, the Electro Sport Quarter Horse. It was a fantastic money earner. And at the time, we had opened up a business in Brazil. I had a couple of good guys running it, and we weren’t making money, and I said, “It’s very strange.”
And I asked, “Who we’re partners with then?” They told me the name of the guy. I says, “Listen that’s not even small potatoes. What’s the name of the… Who’s the boss? Who’s the boss today?” They told me a fellow by the name of Antonio Calil. He’s he’s called El Tacón, the, the Arab. The Arab.
He’s a Lebanese Christian Maronite from Rio de Janeiro, from the Terói. I said, “Okay, get ahold of him. Tell him that Myron Sugarman would love to come down to Brazil to meet him.” They called me back. My guys called me back, said they got an appointment [00:25:00] next week for breakfast, such and such a hotel.
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
So this morning I go to the hotel, and sure enough, I put on a nice jacket, pair of slacks, and in walks a guy with a pair of shorts and a, and slippers and a Hawaiian shirt that I don’t think he paid more than $6 for the whole outfit. A big guy. And they introduce me and we have a cup of coffee, and who do you know and what do you like and so forth.
And after about a 45-minute discussion, he says to me, “What do you want? What do you, what, what’d you wanna see?” Very right to the point, “What do you want?” I said listen.” I got the quarter horse, the Electro Sport quarter horse. He says, “Are you the only one that’s got it?”
I said, “Yeah, I got the exclusive on it for Brazil.” He said and I said to him, “Listen, I don’t want your money. I don’t need your money. What I need your protection. [00:26:00] You got all the connections, put the- where to put the machine. You know all the cops, all the robbers, all the drug dealers. You know all the politicians.
You know the lay of the land, and if you can give me a roof, if you can give me a roof up from my head so I don’t get, so I have a protection and I, we can run smoothly and so forth, I’ll give you the lion’s share of the net income.”
He says to me, “I like you.” He says, “You’re old school.” And he says, “Your approach is absolutely perfect for our business. I like your business model.” Shakes hands. We lived together for 10 years. We lived together for 10 years until the president of the country because of political concerns, he knocked out all the illegal gambling.
All right? I I saw him once a year. I used to go to, Rio. His wife would make a nice dinner. [00:27:00] She would never make anything with that wasn’t kosher. Everything was fish dinner. It was out of respect and everything, I would bring her records of Billie Holiday. And by the way, he was a very big customer of Donald Trump.
He had a picture on the wall of him and Donald Trump, and that was his great source of pride. He loved to gamble. He made the money gambling. He ran all the numbers business in Brazil. He was a hell of a guy. And the… Years later, I ran into my manager from, that took care of the business in Brazil.
I said, “Rudy, I never asked you this question. How much did you give to the old man?” He said, “We gave him 65%.” I says, “You did the right thing.” I never knew it. I left it up to my manager to make the right cho- We made a lot of money. We made, at 35% we made a fortune. But it’s, again, it’s a [00:28:00] calculation my, my guy knew very well my philosophy.
This man was protecting us. You couldn’t be, you couldn’t be there in his territory without showing the proper respect and showing the proper amount of money. He had a lot of expenses, this guy.
Gary, one of the things that we learn in life, in the underworld, and you certainly know the rules as well as the guys that are in it, because you dealt with them on a nonstop basis- Yeah
and you understood their mentality, is that greed kills more men than bullets.
Gary Jenkins: That’s for sure. That is for sure. Yep.
Myron Sugarman: So by not being greedy y- the, the guy that’s on the podcast with you right now is alive at 80, gonna be 89 years of age. And otherwise, if I would’ve been a greedy guy,
Somebody would’ve said, this Jew is just, he’s just too greedy.” But nobody could ever say that. [00:29:00] I made everybody, I made sure everybody ended up with a fair, with better than a fair deal. By the way, that’s the story of Meyer Lansky. Yeah. He was fair beyond … very wise to make sure that everybody made money.
That’s the reason why this man survived.
And anybody who thinks that in this world there’s not those that are jealous and and, Can’t control themselves. They, because they see what you got and they, you shouldn’t have it. You’re not qualified to have it, I should have it.
How come this guy’s got it? First of all, he’s not Italian, he’s a Jew or this, that, and so forth. But basically, the idea is in life itself, greed kills more people than bullets.
Gary Jenkins: Really? I guess I have to ask about Mayor Lansky, one story that you had been a young man, really young [00:30:00] man, and the fighting the Nazis back in the ’30s.
I it’s kind of a famous story and he was on board with that, the German American Bund. I just watched a documentary about that era and how many right-wing Nazi groups we had in the United States at the time. So what do you remember about that?
Myron Sugarman: I know the whole story better than anybody.
Newark, New Jersey was the original battleground. Newark, New Jersey, we had a very large German population going all the way back to the turn of the, to the 1820s, 1830s, 1840s. The water of, the water was very good for making beer. We had 19 breweries in Newark, New Jersey. So who were the j- who were the brewer- who were the, the beer manufacturers?
The Germans.
But we had no problem. We had many German Jews immigrate, and our the German Jews they went into the department stores and the [00:31:00] German non-Jews had the breweries. There was never any problem until the end of World War I, the defeat of the three empires, the German Empire, the Kaiser Wilhelm, and then of course, the Austro-Hungarian, and then of course, the Ottoman Empire.
We had a large immigration again of post-World War I of Germans and Austrians. And so- At that time, there was a German by the name of Fritz Kuhn. Fritz Kuhn came to the United States, and he declared himself as the Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the United States of America.
And he settled in Newark, New Jersey.
He had a large following. They were post-World War I Germans and [00:32:00] American antisemitism, and he formed what was known as the American Nazi Party, and they dressed in brown shirts. So it so happened that it wasn’t Meyer Lansky, it was Longy Zwillman, the name that I mentioned to you originally-
Gary Jenkins: Who
Myron Sugarman: was the boss of Newark. So we had a prizefighter. We had a lot of Jewish boys went into prizefighting, and a lot of people don’t know this, but they’re gonna know it now, that one-third of the champions of the world from the 1900 to the 1935 were Jews.
But we had thousands of professional Jewish boys in boxing.
So Nat Arnold, the guy’s name was Nat Abramowitz. They went, he fought under the name of Nat Arnold. He formed an organization that was called the Minutemen. The Minutemen was a name that he [00:33:00] picked in honor of the Minutemen of the American Revolutionary War that fought the American Nazi- fought the British in a minute’s notice.
And of course, Abe Zwillman had all the connections with City Hall. He had the same thing as I was telling you about with the big guy from Brazil.
He had all the, the police, he had all the politicians, he had the mayor, he had the judge, and we knew every time that there was going to be a meeting of the Nazis, so our guys would get a phone call, they’d be in a club, “Guys, get in the car, go drive to Springfield Avenue, go to this place, go to that place,” and so forth.
“The Nazis are meeting tonight,” and that’s when they would do a job on them. Now, this one is, there’s a book called The Nazis in Newark, and there’s another book [00:34:00] called Gangsters, Gangsters and Nazis. All of this is documented. I knew every one of the old-timers that participated, and so when my friend Warren Grover wrote the book Nazis in Newark, I took him to all the old-timers, and I insisted that they tell the story, and he had it all documented.
A great book. And so there was a judge in New York by the name of Nathan Perlman, and he went to, he called, reached out to Meyer Lansky, and tell him, “Listen, up in Yorkville,” which is a German enclave, “this Fritz Kuhn is doing the same thing up in Yorkville that he was doing in Newark. The church now want you to do the same thing to him-
what Longy and Matt Arno was doing in Newark with only one provision one, one, One provision that you have to [00:35:00] promise me no, no homicides. Lucky Luciano knew about it, heard about it from Meyer, and he told them, “I’ll give you all my my goombas. I’ll give you all my goombas.” And Meyer Lansky says, “Listen, that’s very nice, and I appreciate it, Lucky, but this is a Jewish problem, it’s gonna be resolved with Jewish fists.”
And sure enough, they went up to wherever the, the- they were holding their rally, and they kicked the sh- and things like that on guys. They threw them out of windows, they beat the hell out of them, and so forth. So the, the… But this was all over the United States. There was definitely mobsters, Jewish mobsters in Chicago, Detroit everywheres the Cleveland Las Vegas Los Angeles, where there was resistance.
Now, one of the guys that contributed substantially to beating up the Jew haters in Chicago, I think it was the Nazi Party or the Silver Shirts, was a fellow [00:36:00] by the name of Jake- Jacob Rubinstein. So when I tell the story at these different speeches that I give, which I’ll be telling, of course, in Kansas City, looking forward to meeting you the…
I s- I ask the audience, “People, do you recognize the name of Jacob Rubinstein?” Everybody looks, “What the hell is he talking? It’s just the name of another Jew.” I say let me make it a little easier for you. How about if I mention the name Jack Ruby?” And every- oh, my God.
Gary Jenkins: Oh, man.
Myron Sugarman: I said, “Jack Ruby was a Jewish hero.
He beat up these sons of bitches.” Oh,
Gary Jenkins: oh, my God. So- That’s a good one …
Myron Sugarman: that’s, it’s your, it’s… He was together with Barney Ross. Barney Ross was the Triple Crown champion of the world and a hero at Guadalcanal. He, … in the 1930s, he was still the champion, and they took on the American Nazi Party, which was…
When people ask me today- Why [00:37:00] aren’t we doing the same thing? I said, “First of all, it’s different times.”
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Myron Sugarman: And you don’t ha- and those guys years ago, they were a different breed altogether. They were terrific guys.
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Myron Sugarman: But you don’t have tho- you don’t have them around anymore, few and far between.
Yeah. What you need to, what we need today is we need American patriots, Jewish, Christian, we need them. We need patriots. We need guys, and unfortunately, when people ask me what’s the, the source of the problem? I said, “The source of the problem is, unfortunately, Nixon felt that he had to cancel the draft.”
If we had patriots again, guys that went to the military, went to ROTC, Re- Reserved Officers’ Training Corps you would instill the American youth with patriotism. Gary, patriotism’s almost like a dirty word today.
Gary Jenkins: Yeah.
Myron Sugarman: I wanna sound like a patriot. I am a patriot. , This [00:38:00] country was welcoming. This country was an incredible, welcoming nation for the Jewish people. We thought we’d be here for s- forever. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that way anymore.
The antisemitism is just completely out of control, but if you think about it in terms of antisemitism, it’s also anti-Americanism.
Gary Jenkins: Yeah. That’s for sure, yeah. I d- I don’t understand it but this too shall pass, as they say, we hope. I think it will.
Myron Sugarman: I’m I don’t think it’s gonna pass without some very, without almost a miracle but I’m praying for a miracle .
Gary Jenkins: Yeah, it’s crazy. All right, Myron Sugarman this has been great. I look forward to meeting you this weekend, and we will w- we’ll break some bread together maybe, and we’ll
Myron Sugarman: Not maybe, Gary. I’ve heard so much greatness about you.
I’m really looking forward to meeting you, shaking your hand, giving you a hug. You’re doing, you do great [00:39:00] work.
Gary Jenkins: All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sugarman. Thank…
Myron Sugarman: Okay. All the very best. God bless you and your family.
Gary Jenkins: Okay. All right. See you this weekend.
Myron Sugarman: Okay. Not this weekend, it’s October.
Gary Jenkins: Or Octo- I’m sorry, October.
October. Yeah. You’re, you got it. October. Okay. I got it. I got it. All right. O- Talk to you later.
Myron Sugarman: Okay. Thank
Gary Jenkins: you. All right.
Myron Sugarman: God bless.