By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

The connection between immigrants and crime has been a hot topic recently. However, it’s not a new one: Jewish immigrant involvement in crime in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th was one of the reasons U.S. immigration laws changed to limit immigration from particular European countries. Many Jews have long been fascinated by their forebears who were involved in these criminal activities. That interest can be seen in two recent works: the nonfiction “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized Crime Boss” by Margalit Fox (Random House) looks at the career of a notorious fence (receiver of stolen goods), while the novel “The Whisper Sister” by Jennifer S. Brown (Lake Union Publishing) offers a fictional look at a young woman who runs a speakeasy during Prohibition. 

“The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum” is a light, breezy, popular history that portrays not only the life of Fredericka Mandelbaum, but the thieves, police and politicians who helped make her career possible. At first glance, Mandelbaum seems an unlikely master criminal: she was a wife, mother and well-liked neighbor who hosted dinners for high society. She was considered a philanthropist, donating money to her synagogue and providing for those less fortunate. When she arrived in the U.S. in 1850 at the age of 25, though, she had been just another impoverished immigrant. However, by the mid-1880s, it’s estimated that she owned almost $10 million worth of stolen goods. She was not a thief herself, but rather received those goods for resale.

Mandelbaum helped those who brought her stolen goods by providing them with legal counsel and protection. She was able to do so because of her connections to New York policemen (who were often on the take) and politicians (who also received kickbacks) The police and politicians were also pleased to be invited to fancy dinners at her house that often included the upper crust of society. Those who bought the stolen goods from her at discounted prices were also happy because it allowed them access to goods they could not otherwise afford. Fox writes that it was at this “intersection of thrift, stuff, class and desire that Fredericka Mandelbaum found her calling. It would center on a singular kind of recycling: availing herself of choice items from one bourgeois home so that they might adorn another, or lifting bolts of silk from large textile concerns for sale to neighborhood tailors.” 

For a while, this proved a satisfactory relationship for almost all involved. However, life changed in the 1870s when attitudes changed toward the type of property crime that had brought Mandelbaum her wealth. The author notes these efforts focused on “property crime committed by people who weren’t male, native born and of Anglo-Saxon Protestant stock,” which made Mandelbaum a prime target. In addition, these reformers sought to also rid politics of members of the working class, particularly those who had recently immigrated to the U.S. According to Fox, “undergirding [the reformer’s] efforts were the class bigotry and xenophobia that had increasing polarized New York.” Efforts against Mandelbaum were successful, although she managed to avoid prison by escaping to Canada. 

Although Fox does not try to explain why Mandelbaum turned to crime, she does offer suggestions about why she was so successful. The author notes that unlike other immigrant cultures that limited women to home and hearth, Jewish women were expected to work outside the home. This was common in the Old World, where women’s occupations supported men’s ability to study Torah. Also, Jewish women in the U.S. began to claim rights – secular and religious – that had not been available to them in Europe. While Fox does not explore Mandelbaum’s relationship with her husband, readers can assume he made no objection to her business practices. 

What also helped make Mandelbaum’s career possible is the timing of her arrival in the U.S., which was at the cusp of what Fox calls “the first Golden Age of American crime.” Her enterprise began when amateurs were able to make an excellent living in criminal activities, as well as other professions from doctors to lawyers, who, at that time, could just hang out a shingle without having had any professional training. By the time Prohibition arrived, crime had became far more organized, so much so that someone like Mandelbaum would never had been able to obtain as much power as she did.

“The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum” was fun and easy to read. Readers don’t learn much about Mandelbaum’s feelings, but that’s not the intent of the work. The book is more focused on the organization she built and how it functioned within the political and social arena of New York City. While it doesn’t exactly glamorize what occurred, it’s difficult for readers not to root for this Jewish immigrant mother who managed to accomplish something amazing and unexpected.

While “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum” does not offer much discussion of Mandelbaum’s feelings, readers learn a great deal about those of Minnie Soffer in “The Whisper Sister.” The novel’s prologue, which takes place in 1932, leaves readers with a question that will only be answered in the latter pages of the book. But first, it explores Minnie’s life after she immigrated to New York City in 1920 with her mother and her brother, Max, to join a father she barely recognizes. 

At first, Minnie doesn’t realize the soda shop her father bought was just a cover for the speakeasy that sits on the other side of the building. Since Prohibition is the law of the land, her father must work with the gangsters who supply the alcohol. When difficulties arise, Minnie takes over the bar, becoming a whisper sister, as the women who ran these bars were called. She enjoys the life, working hard to make the bar more popular and prosperous, rather than the dingy, quiet place her father ran. She also enjoys her relationship with Duke, who works for Meyer Lansky (a real life gangster), and believes she has control over what happens at the bar. However, she is naive about both her relationship with Duke and those who supply her with the alcohol she needs.

Unlike “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum,” “The Whisper Sister” is not light and breezy reading. Brown does an amazing job showing just how difficult immigrant life could be, especially when money was an issue. Minnie is forced to make heart-breaking decisions about how best to help members of her family when she is unable to care for them and support herself. Although the rabbi at the local synagogue offers help, there is only so much the community can do. Plus, Minnie underestimates the dangers of her life choices. The suspense in the latter part of the novel is nerve-wracking and absorbing – almost like a car accident from which you can’t turn your eyes away.

Brown’s novel offers the background that might explain why Mandelbaum acted as she did, although Mandelbaum was far more successful and seemed to have far less remorse about her actions. But this is what makes “The Whisper Sister” so successful and absorbing: it allows readers to understand and appreciate its characters and their decisions. The novel would be an excellent choice for book clubs because readers can debate the choices Minnie and the other characters make. The work is even more complex than suggested by this review and comes highly recommended.