Jewish immigrants, like earlier ones, were both law-abiding and criminal in the crowded world of the lower east side of New York City.

Max Eastman

Crystal Eastman, founder of ACLU

Leon Czolgosz and the assassination of President McKinley

John Reed

Henrietta Szold

Leo Frank

Lefty Rosenberg

Dago Frank Cirofici

Lt. Charles Becker

The Five Points Gang

Jewish-American organized crime emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been referred to variously in media and popular culture as the Jewish Mob, Jewish Mafia, Kosher Mafia, Kosher Nostra,[1][2] or Undzer Shtik (Yiddish: אונדזער שטיק‎).[a][2] The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian Cosa Nostra; the former is a play on the word kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws; while the latter is a direct translation 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.

The Atlantic City Conference held between 13–16 May 1929[1] was a historic summit of leaders of organized crime in the United States. It is considered by most crime historians to be the earliest organized crime summit held in the US. The conference had a major impact on the future direction of the criminal underworld and it held more importance and significance than the Havana Conference of 1946 and the Apalachin meeting of 1957. It also represented the first concrete move toward a National Crime Syndicate.[2]

The Five Families are the five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia.

The term was first used in 1931, when Salvatore Maranzano formally organized the previously warring gangs into what are now known as the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families, each with demarcated territory, organizationally structured in a now-familiar hierarchy, and having them reporting up to the same overarching governing entity. Initially Maranzano intended each family's boss to report to him as the capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses), but this led to his assassination and by September the role was replaced by The Commission, which continues to govern American Mafia activities in the United States and Canada.