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Guide: Jewish Mafia Roleplay - Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla - 03-14-2021
![[Image: dnjtONi.png]](https://i.imgur.com/dnjtONi.png)
How to Roleplay a Jewish Mafioso
אונדזער שטיק
אונדזער שטיק
Credits to Myself and Mick & Son
as of March, 2021
Everyone knows the stories about La Cosa Nostra. But, what do we know about La Kosher Nostra? The Jewish Mafia. This guide will serve as a way for individuals interested in Jewish Mob roleplay to get their bearings and to know a bit more about the type of characters you would find realistically in a Jewish-ran organized crime group.
To quote my faction application thread for some history on the 'Kosher Nostra':
"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, or Undzer Shtik. The last two of these terms refer 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 phrase in Italian for "our thing" into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States."
Jewish crime organization predominately consists of Jewish members of Ashkenazic, Sepharadic, Mizrahi and American ancestries. All three are significantly different from each and other by terms of culture, history, and manners. I will categorize the characterizes of all three:
(Please note. I will not be delving into anything political. This merely serves as a way to help people thinking about roleplaying a Jewish character),
Ashkenazi Jewish - Jewish people of European ethnicity that most major communities originate in Eastern Europe. Ashkenazic Jews tend to be more sophisticated and educated than other Jewish ancestries due to their religious studies, which was literacy of the Torah, thus made them smarter than other European ethnicity and closer to the royal families. Therefore, most Ashkenazic Jewish in Europe were good traders and focused on financial services. Such knowledge contributed them to take control over many economies in different countries.
Many Jews from Europe started to flee Europe to Palestine, conquering Palestine and built a Jewish homeland called Israel. Many of the Ashkenazim Jewish members have gone for the academic studies and always been a part of the top hierarchy of Israel.
Nowadays modern Ashkenazi Jewish are tending to feel slight superior on top of other Jewish ethics and they tend to be more competitive with others, they're easily jealous at others' possession and hate those who are superior to them - this could be easily transferable to your roleplay characters. Furthermore, criminal Ashkenazi Jews are mostly to operate in white collar schemes that do not require physical work, but once it requires them to be physical they intend to use melee weapons / firearms instead of their fists.
Many of the Ashkenazi Jews tend to develop a double-faced character in order to feel empower against his rivals or his friends, they hardly trust others and only tend to show them the emotions they desire. Their weakness is the fear of being apart of psychical fights which require fist to fist fights.
They will most likely persuade their way out of the battle or take off in order to evade the fight but yet if they will engage a fist battle with another individual then they will cheat by using different methods, for example; going for the testicles or paying somebody to fight for them.
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Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews - Mizrahi Jews, or Sephardic Jews (More religious term for) Jewish people of Arab lands in Africa and parts of Asia. Mizrahi Jews are mostly of Arabic descents due to the expulsion from Spain, which made Jews flee Spain to nearby Arabic speaking countries in North Africa and East.
Mizrahi Jews lived the life of wealth and property in the Muslim-majority countries and they have desired to expand to their Jewish culture and beliefs by immigrating to Israel. As majority left their property behind in their home countries as they journeyed to Israel, many suffered a severe decrease in their socio-economic status aggravated by their cultural and political differences with the dominant Ashkenazi community, it led many Mizrahi Jews to resort to crime in the austerity era.
Mizrahi Jews tend to have a primitive culture that leads to their behavior, they tend to be in groups and never be alone, the Mizrahi Jews are a part of a very social community that leads them to have good social skills. The business of the Mizrahi Jews is being handled in a very demanding way, they tend to grow too aggressive if things do not go their way. They most likely scream and shout loudly in order to get what they desire.
Criminal Mizrahi Jews tend to be flashy and flaunt their wealth. They enjoy showing off valuable items in their possession to, others, for example, expensive jewelry. Street reputation is very important to them and they will risk everything in the attempt to make their reputation bigger and better same goes with respect.
The Mizrahi Jews dislike to be disrespected by others, they will most likely intimidate the other individual by threatening and insulting. If the other individual will continue to disrespect then it will cause an engagement of combat, Mizrahi Jews tend to proceed in combat with no regrets. They will risk everything for their respect, they will do everything to win even if it requires cheating.
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American Jews - The modern American Jews have their roots inside the American society and many of them turn out to become highly educated scholars with college degrees as their parents did before, many American Jews aren't fit in general for college, therefore, they drop-out of college becoming entrepreneurs of self-owned or leased businesses in order to succeed in life and gain their own wealth, commonly American Jews become criminals after taking large loans from loan sharks or going into a large debt to the bank and using crime as a last resort to succeed, crime is not popular among American Jews and even some members of society are being frowned upon by many, making crime the last and final chance.
American Jews tend to behave the same way as Ashkenazi Jews behave due to the fact that they share the same European mentality of being well educated and well mannered, in their own kind of way American Jews are Ashkenazi Jews but more Americanized by the simple fact that they grew up in America and know nothing about Mizhari Jews and their criminal behavior that affected the Ashkenazi Jews in Israel, making the American Jews with a more civilized mentality rather than a criminal and rude mentality.
American Jews have the tendency of having a spicy tongue in a matter of insulting, cursing or acting all-mighty among others like elitists. Their own desire of becoming rich made them behave as they are a part of high-class society even when they are living a working class neighborhood, their elitist behavior causes them to never do the physical work and let others do their dirty work for them. Most American Jews are more intellectuals other than practical, however, there are the unique few that lived in poverty and grew up in a tough childhood which caused them behave the way that they are, being practical other than intellectuals but in the modern era it becoming a rare matter and due to that most American Jews are intellectual individuals.
It is advised by myself that you either choose to be an American Jew or a fresh off the boat eastern-European Ashkenazi. Those are the easiest to replicate in your roleplay, in my opinion.
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If you do not wish to go through the convoluted process of roleplaying as one of those with the stereotypical characterizes listed above, you are free to mix all of these up, although you are encouraged to pick one if you wish to properly develop a well-rounded character.
Top Tip:
Be unique. Although the typical Jewish stereotypical roleplay is admittedly quite funny, it's much better to be a unique character without the typical 'oy vey shabbat shalom' shtick. You can be devious, be nasty and two-faced without being a walking talking stereotype. Be different.
So. What are the core elements of roleplaying a Jewish mobster?
Use the information I gave you as pointers in order to shape your character development. Not every Jewish mobster is a jack of all trades. Some don't even come from an illegal background before dipping their toes in the water. Some were born to figures so deep in the organized crime they were forced to go through the life. The origins an individual getting connected with Jewish organized crime are incredibly vast. Not all of them come from New York City either, there are crime groups and organizations all over the country. The options are there, you just have to choose one and go on with it. Jewish characters often have their own slang and catchphrases, so to say but I will touch on that below - Jewish Mobsters are often very different from one another but are unified due to one thing primarily - Money.
However, It's not ALL about the criminal aspect. A mobster won't spend all of his time in crime. These guys often have a life to take care of - Wives, legal businesses, cars, dogs and families. They are regular people, they have a life outside of their criminal activities. I can't stress this enough. RPing just the criminal side of things is a huge miss on the development of a proper, deep character.
So, how does one join the Jewish Mafia?
Nowadays, some people might get into organized crime after a period of independent criminal activity, a period long enough to make local mobsters catch wind regarding them. Then, after background checks (Yeah, they do that) and consulting within the crime group, that person is pulled into the fold. You can get involved accidentally through your day to day job, or you know somebody who knows somebody - And could speak highly of you and pass the word out. It's a dog eat dog world out there - And mostly, when a criminal sees an opportunity, he takes it.
Jewish people are very cliquey. They stick to their own people and are incredibly reclusive, being Jewish by race or religion makes it a lot easier to get involved.
Common (and uncommon) rackets.
Somebody in organized crime will usually have their own scheme and side-hustle operating in order to provide himself with a constant flow of money. There is a lot of rackets somebody can do, I'll try and state a few common and uncommon ones, just for the sake of giving examples.
Explaining each one here would make this guide longer than I want it to be - I'm sure there's various guides and material out there.
- Illegal Gambling
- Loan Sharking
- Pornography
- Prostitution (usually goes hand in hand with pornography)
- Car theft & chop shops
- Bootleg clothing & jewelry
- Drug trafficking
- Small arms trafficking
- License and ID forgery
- Running a sportsbook
How are Jewish Organized Crime Groups Structured?
Similar to Italian and Russian crime organizations - minus the pageantry and traditions. To put it rather simply, Jewish crime groups usually consist of a rag-tag group of sleazeballs trying to make a buck. In more organized and older factions of the Jewish Mafia, there would of course be a hierarchy consisting of upper echelons, their underlings, lackies and subordinates.
Yinglish. What is it?
Jews have a way with words. They speak fast and a lot! They often throw in Yiddish and Hebrew sayings and words, “Yinglish,” - You’ve probably heard the obvious ones ("oy vey" "shalom" and have possibly wondered what they actually mean. Yiddish is a fusion language written using the Hebrew alphabet, one way Yinglish words may differ from their Yiddish origins is that they tend to be charged with emotion — If you’re interested in learning more about the “Yiddish” words you’ve heard on shows like Seinfeld and from people like Don Rickles and Larry David.
You should try and incorporate these words into your character's vocabulary if possible to create a more authentic and realistic roleplay experience (especially since we're set in 80s New York). I've taken it upon myself to compile this short list of the most common Yiddish words you will hear, courtesy of various sources - Use these and you'll have lots of chutzpah!
Code:
oy vey
Exclamation of dismay, grief, or exasperation. The phrase “oy vey iz mir” means “Oh, woe is me.” “Oy gevalt!” is like oy vey, but expresses fear, shock or amazement. When you realize you’re about to be hit by a car, this expression would be appropriate.
shalom
Hello.
chutzpah
Supreme self-confidence
feh!
An expression of disgust or disapproval, representative of the sound of spitting.
mazel tov
Or mazltof. Literally “good luck,” (well, literally, “good constellation”) but it’s a congratulation for what just happened, not a hopeful wish for what might happen in the future. When someone gets married or has a child or graduates from college, this is what you say to them. It can also be used sarcastically to mean “it’s about time,” as in “It’s about time you finished school and stopped sponging off your parents.”
schlock
Cheap, shoddy, or inferior, as in, “I don’t know why I bought this schlocky souvenir.”
goy
A non-Jew, a Gentile. As in Hebrew, one Gentile is a goy, many Gentiles are goyim, the non-Jewish world in general is “the goyim.” G
kosher
Something that’s acceptable to Orthodox Jews, especially food. Other Jews may also “eat kosher” on some level but are not required to. Food that Orthodox Jews don’t eat – pork, shellfish, etc.
spiel
A long, involved sales pitch, as in, “I had to listen to his whole spiel before I found out what he really wanted.”
shmutz
Or shmuts. Dirt – a little dirt, not serious grime. If a little boy has shmutz on his face, and he likely will, his mother will quickly wipe it off. It can also mean dirty language. It’s not nice to talk shmutz about shmutz. A current derivation, “schmitzig,” means a “thigamabob” or a “doodad,” but has nothing to do with filth.
shmekel
A penis.
The list is endless:
https://sites.google.com/site/kopjikinternational/yiddish-expressions
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yiddish-words/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-yiddish-handbook-40-words-you-should-know/Research Material:
Watching documentaries on how the Jewish Mafia works and doing your own research is a good way to learn more. I will be updating the videos below when I come across intriguing and informative content that could benefit your roleplay.
RE: Guide: Jewish Mafia Roleplay - Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla - 03-14-2021
Updated accordingly with various ways and ideas in which you can add a spice to your character through illegal means alongside a short list of Yiddish slang words.