Views of Meyer Lansky

There are many contradictions and ironies in how Jews view themselves, as well as how they are seen by non-Jews. Like the Gypsies, who regard themselves as superior to the majority populations in which they have always lived, Jews have had an uneasy relationship with the societies in which they have lived over the centuries. Both these ethnic groups have been the victims of persistent and horrific persecution. But each of them have also always had a significant percentage of criminals among their members. This paper will deal with the issue of how Jews and the mainstream press portray Jewish crooks, specifically the late Meyer Lansky.

One must understand Jewish history to grasp the reasons why

many Jewish organizations and individuals are quick to see even legitimate, fact-based criticism of Jews or the State of Israel as due to prejudice ag

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ion of governmental officials, the US government sought to catch him on the grounds of tax evasion. Fearing arrest, he fled to Israel in 1970, only to be deported and arrested on his return to the United States. But he had covered his tracks too well to be convicted, and after a short prison sentence, he was released and died of natural causes in 1983. While certainly no embodiment of the Jewish ethics enshrined in the Torah, Lansky was an ardent Zionist and a rabid supporter of Israel as an exclusively Jewish nation (Giancona and Corbett, 2003). In the years running up to the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, Lansky worked for the Mossad and was the source of significant arms and financing for the Jewish forces, with most of the operations being controlled from Panama. In his 1999 review of the HBO film Lansky Tom Tugend, writing for the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, says about the character of the mobster ½áat all times the protagonist of this film sees himself as the embattled Jew, with the Cossacks hard on his heels. Whether battling investigating US senators or FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover's men, Lansky voices his conviction that he's facing a bunch of anti-Semitesá+. Such a portrayal echoes the institutionalized paranoia
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1984
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)