76vibrochamp

76vibrochamp t1_j11ptzk wrote

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.

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76vibrochamp t1_j0yu1c8 wrote

The difference between the Italian Mafia and the Jewish Mafia is that the Italian Mafia was actually a thing.

Guys like Dutch Schulz and Meyer Lansky weren't part of some overriding Jewish honor culture or crime syndicate; they were independent operators who worked with, and occasionally took orders from, the Italians.

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