Rating: 
Summary: dreadful and pathetic
Review: "Tough Jews" is pathetic re-hashing of material that has previously been worked to such good effect by more skilled authors and historians. Cohen is clearly trying to work out some of his own problems with self-image, as both a Jew and a man. (A word to the wise, Rich: criminal behavior is not the only way we of the "chosen tribe" can be tough. It strikes me that the many Jewish men who served this country in uniform would be a more suitable example of this quality.)
Rating: 
Summary: why only five stars?
Review: Absolutely love it. Fascinating stories, and the answer to that nagging question: who first thought of bagging the sugar? Rich Cohen is a funny, funny writer with a magnificent imagination and an ability to make very dead people come alive.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyed the content, but was confounded by writer's style
Review: Although Cohen's stories are informative and enlightening, his style and conjectures irritated me to no end and obstructed my full enjoyment of the book. His imagination continually intrudes into paragraphs, imagining what one gangster might have said to another; how Abe (Kid Twist) Reles was probably excited by the "attempted murder" bible story of the Akedah; or how "maybe" this or "probably" that happened. I found his musing that Rothstein's secret bank loan to his saintly, nearly bankrupt father, Abe, maybe absolved himself of his murders and crimes grotesque. Likening a death camp tattoo to the indelible mark of being called a "rat"; or comparing Lepke's hiding to that of Anne Frank was author's license gone overboard. However, if you can tolerate the author's speculations of receated conversations and incidents, you can come away with a picture of how some Lower East Side Jews found a route out of poverty through crime, prostitution, gambling, loan-sharking, schlamming union-busters, schlamming union builders, preying on shopkeepers, drugs (yes, drugs), and keeping the docks clear of Nazi's.
Rating:
Summary: Giant matzo ball rolls over canneloni
Review: Click on this book now, you won't regret it. The "Tough Jews" tells the juicy stories of Jewish gangsters that rival the "Godfather". I like the title and the idea behind it: the Jews can be tough. Unfortunately, in most of the old world we are still regarded as banana-shaped losers that can't defend themselves. Ha-ha!I bought this book after reading Cohen's other one: THE AVENGERS. That one is really a must for those kvetchers that don't belive in the necessity of a "tough jew proof". If "Tough Jews" is funny, the "Avengers" is for real - it is a war story were Jews refuse to be the victims. And a great read too.
Rating:
Summary: Giant matzo ball rolls over canneloni
Review: Click on this book now, you won't regret it. The "Tough Jews" tells the juicy stories of Jewish gangsters that rival the "Godfather". I like the title and the idea behind it: the Jews can be tough. Unfortunately, in most of the old world we are still regarded as banana-shaped losers that can't defend themselves. Ha-ha! I bought this book after reading Cohen's other one: THE AVENGERS. That one is really a must for those kvetchers that don't belive in the necessity of a "tough jew proof". If "Tough Jews" is funny, the "Avengers" is for real - it is a war story were Jews refuse to be the victims. And a great read too.
Rating:
Summary: Giant matzo ball rolls over canneloni
Review: Click on this book now, you won't regret it. The "Tough Jews" tells the juicy stories of Jewish gangsters that rival the "Godfather". I like the title and the idea behind it: the Jews can be tough. Unfortunately, in most of the old world we are still regarded as banana-shaped losers that can't defend themselves. Ha-ha! I bought this book after reading Cohen's other one: THE AVENGERS. That one is really a must for those kvetchers that don't belive in the necessity of a "tough jew proof". If "Tough Jews" is funny, the "Avengers" is for real - it is a war story were Jews refuse to be the victims. And a great read too.
Rating:
Summary: a real treat
Review: Cohen's book gave me so much pleasure I embarked upon a campaign to spread its virtues among the expat community in Prague,with the inevitable result I lent it one time too many and will never see it again.My best friend described it as the best mob book he had ever read,and he's read many.It is written with great passion,almost an affection,which, however displaced it might be,is altogether winning.To all of us,who love history,it conveys a nostalgic longing for a long lost time in New York history.For me,personally,it started after reading Doctorow's Billy Bathgate. I still would like to see a convincing account of the Schultz killing.None so far,including Rich Cohen's,seem to make much sense.But that's a minor drawback in a lively,hugely entertaining work on the Jewish gangsters.
Rating:
Summary: a real treat
Review: Cohen's book gave me so much pleasure I embarked upon a campaign to spread its virtues among the expat community in Prague,with the inevitable result I lent it one time too many and will never see it again.My best friend described it as the best mob book he had ever read,and he's read many.It is written with great passion,almost an affection,which, however displaced it might be,is altogether winning.To all of us,who love history,it conveys a nostalgic longing for a long lost time in New York history.For me,personally,it started after reading Doctorow's Billy Bathgate. I still would like to see a convincing account of the Schultz killing.None so far,including Rich Cohen's,seem to make much sense.But that's a minor drawback in a lively,hugely entertaining work on the Jewish gangsters.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thought-Provoking, Enjoyable, Uneven Read
Review: Cohen's personalization of the subject makes the book's flaws easier to bear. I enjoyed his insights and deep emotional connection to the infamous characters whose exploits he describes. Sometimes, Cohen's writing is just short of poetry, with beautiful passages challenging the reader to think deeply about the paradox of the Jewish Criminal. At other times, the book is so disjointed that I found myself having to reread passages to understand the transitions. I wonder about the editing process and why transitional material from section to section is so weak in an otherwise prosaic work. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this book for me, as the daughter of a "connected" Jewish mobster, and the niece of a known Jewish syndicate member, is the feeling I get that Cohen is trying to convince the reader that a tough Jew is reality. There's a disturbing bit of what seems like self-hatred in that Cohen refers several times to the Holocaust as though the slaughter of Jews was a sign of Jewish weakness. I don't agree with this in the least and find that it brings a contradictory and apologetic feel to the book. Definitely worth a read, but I wish it had been edited better.
Rating: 
Summary: An engaging read, notwithstanding several factual errors.
Review: Factual errors: 1. Lake Michigan is not situated between the United States and Canada, hence no bootlegging was run in motorboats across it. Whiskey was illegally brought into the U.S. from Canada via the Detroit River and Lake St. Claire 2. Paul Robeson was a bass-baritone, not a tenor. 3. The Yalta Conference was not held after the defeat of Hitler in 1945. It was held in Feb, 1945, three months before the German surrender. 4. The author's father could not have listened to Sinatra's classic album "In the Wee, Small Hours of the Evening" before going into the army in the fall of 1954. The album was released in 1955. 5. The Jewish mobsters in Detroit were known as The Purple Gang, not The Purple Mob.
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