Joseph Rosenzweig
Encyclopedia
Joseph "Joe The Greaser" Rosenzweig (c. 1891-19??) was a Jewish American and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 labor racketeer
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...

 in the early 1900s as an ally of "Dopey" Benny Fein
Benny Fein
Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein was an early Jewish American gangster who dominated New York labor racketeering in the 1910s. With a criminal record dating back to 1900, Fein's arrest record included thirty charges from petty theft and assault to grand larceny and murder...

 during the labor slugger war
Labor Slugger War
The Labor Sluggers War was a 15-year period of gang wars among New York labor sluggers for control of labor racketeering from 1911 to 1927. This began in 1911 with the first war between "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig against a coalition of smaller gangs and continuing on and...

 from 1914-1917.

Biography

Born in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Rosenzweig arrived in New York during the 1890s and worked as a tailor's presser for several years before forming a criminal gang around 1907. Controlling labor slugging in New York's Lower East Side, Rosenzweig's organization of around one hundred acted mostly as strikebreaker
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...

s, specializing in breaking up union picket lines, demonstrations and other protests. With political protection from Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...

 Rosenzweig maintained complete control of strikebreaking and labor slugging well into the early 1910s.

Rosenzweig's dominance was challenged in 1913, when Philip "Pinchey" Paul
Philip Paul
Philip "Pinchy" Paul was an early New York labor racketeer who led an alliance of independent labor sluggers in an attempt to break the monopoly long held by Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenweig and Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein resulting the first labor sluggers war...

 began a war with Rosenzweig, lasting over several months. The war ended with Paul's death the following year, when he was killed by Rosenzweig and several gunmen, including Jacob Heiseman, Benjamin Snyder
Benjamin Snyder
Benjamin "Benny" Snyder or Schneider was an American criminal, union organizer and thug for hire during the turn of the century...

, and Hyman Berthstein. When he was later arrested for the murder Rosenzweig agreed to testify against the other gang members. Despite his testimony Rosenzweig was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, along with Snyder, to Sing Sing Prison in December 1915. Upon Rosenzweig's release in 1925 he returned to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 to find his gang had long since disappeared. After he received a warning from ex-lieutenant Waxey Gordon
Waxey Gordon
Waxey Gordon was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition he was caught up in a power struggle following his death...

 against attempting to reform his gang he soon left New York retiring from crime thereafter.

Further reading

  • Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-231-09683-6
  • Pietrusza, David. Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-7867-1250-3
  • Chiocca, Olindo Romeo. Mobsters and Thugs: Quotes from the Underworld. Toronto: Guernica Editions
    Guernica Editions
    Guernica Editions is a Canadian independent publisher established in Montreal, Quebec, in 1978, specializing in Canadian literature, poetry and nonfiction...

    , 2000. ISBN 1-55071-104-0
  • "Another Gang Head Confesses Murder; "Joe the Greaser" Pleads Guilty and Tells of Labor Union Thuggery.", New York Times, May 29, 1915.
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