Breaking History — "A History of Tough Jews"

Podcast: Breaking History
Host: The Free Press (Host: Eli Lake)
Date: December 22, 2025
Main Guests: Pamela Nadell (American University), Rich Cohen (Author), Adam (Bergen County Shomrim organizer — pseudonym)

Episode Overview

This episode of Breaking History dives into the historical—and newly urgent—dilemma facing Jewish communities: what to do when governments are unable or unwilling to protect Jews from violent or menacing neighbors. Using recent examples of attacks, antisemitic demonstrations, and grassroots Jewish self-defense in the U.S., Australia, and Europe, host Eli Lake connects today’s landscape of antisemitism to its 20th-century American predecessor. The title’s "Tough Jews" refers to both the literal and figurative fighters: Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky, who beat back Nazis with their fists in the 1930s, and the modern self-defense volunteers answering new forms of bigotry and threats in 2025. Throughout, Lake and his guests explore how the lessons—and myths—of Jewish resistance resonate today, and ask what responsibility communities have when the system fails them.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Contemporary Antisemitism: Global and Local Shocks

• Recent Attacks and Police Inaction: The episode opens with examples such as the Hanukkah shooting at Bondi Beach, Australia, highlighting the 20-minute police inaction and the heroism of a Muslim fruit vendor who intervened.
  • "[The police] did nothing for nearly 20 minutes as the terrorists fired at defenseless Jews like it was target practice." — Eli Lake (03:36)
• Surge of Violence Since October 7, 2023: Eli Lake notes a post-Hamas attack wave of incidents targeting Jews—arson of synagogues in Sydney, violence at Dutch soccer matches, shootings of embassy staff, Molotov cocktails at solidarity marches, and intimidation outside U.S. synagogues.
• Changing Nature of Protest and Harassment: Pro-Palestinian protests have crossed, in some cases, into explicit or implicit antisemitic threats, especially when staged at synagogues with no actual Israeli government business.

Notable Quote

"Sometimes the mobs have not been murderous, but menacing nonetheless."
— Eli Lake (05:08)

2. Grassroots Jewish Self-Defense: Then & Now

• Formation of Volunteer Security Units (Shomrim): In response to rising intimidation, Bergen County Jews formed the Shomrim—to monitor, patrol, and fill gaps in police coverage, especially outside religious or school hours.
  • "Shomrim fills the gap of when you're not in school, in synagogue, when you're walking around your community, when you're not in services."
    — Adam, Shomrim Organizer (07:07)
  • The effort is framed as an ancient necessity revived by crisis after a "vacation from history," and is compared to Hasidic self-protection units dating back to the 1960s.

Notable Quote

"The quotas at elite universities are no more... Most of us have thrived in post-war America. Antisemitism was rare, but this vacation from history is over now."
— Eli Lake (09:07)

3. History Rhymes: The Nazi Threat in 1930s America

• Anti-Jewish Organizing in the U.S.: The episode details how Nazis, the Christian Front, and the Silver Legion brought open antisemitism—and violence—to American streets in the 1930s.
• Institutional Antisemitism: Pam Nadell, historian, outlines how Jews faced employment and university quotas, barred neighborhoods, and systemic exclusions even before WWII.
  • "There were all these structural discriminations against Jews in the 1930s...they're demonstrating for Nazi Germany. But what they're doing is Jews are getting caught in the crosshairs, and they're also getting physically beaten up on the streets." — Pamela Nadell (19:11-19:54)
• Mainstream and Militant Jewish Response:
  • Mainstream organizations lobbied, held mass rallies (e.g., "We Will Never Die" at Madison Square Garden), and conducted intelligence gathering, but many in immigrant neighborhoods looked to gangsters for more direct protection.
  • The parallel: in both eras, government and established organizations often failed to guarantee safety.

4. Meyer Lansky and the Mythos of "Tough Jews"

• The Lansky Legend: Through archival clips, dramatized quotes, and the account from Lansky himself, the show reconstructs the real (and mythic) story: Lansky and other Jewish gangsters, sometimes with mainstream Jewish leaders’ blessing, violently disrupted Nazi activities in New York and New Jersey.
  • "We wanted to teach them a lesson. We wanted to show them that the Jews would not always sit back and accept insults." — Meyer Lansky (Reenactment, quoting 1971 interview) (35:06)
• Myth vs. History: Both Pam Nadell and author Rich Cohen caution that the Lansky origin story is part folk-legend, in part unverifiable:
  • "You're dealing with kind of folklore, you know...I am certain that the gangsters did beat up the Nazis. The question is, like, who?" — Rich Cohen (38:17)
  • Historians doubt the existence or documentation of a meeting between Lansky and Rabbi Stephen Wise (as Lansky claimed), but agree gangster intervention was real.
• The Ethical and Communal Dilemma: The Jewish press and communal leaders oscillated between lauding the "tough Jews" and condemning them for using violent methods—Lansky claimed even Rabbi Wise eventually asked him to stop.

Notable Quotes

"Rabbi Wise is, at least from Lansky's telling, one of the conduits. Because not only was he a giant...but in the 1930s...he had [FDR]'s ear."
— Eli Lake (31:57)

"They referred to us as the Jewish gangsters...This was the first time I was ever publicly mentioned as a gangster. The Jewish press helped create a pressure group...who objected to our direct action."
— Meyer Lansky (Reenactment) (36:25)

5. Assimilation, Opportunity, and the Costs of Comfort

• From Street Fighters to Suburban Professionals: Lake argues that postwar America’s prosperity and new freedoms led Jewish gangs to disappear as their children went "legit"—becoming professionals and leaders, not toughs and gangsters.
• Loss of Hard-Won Survival Instinct: There’s a lament for how this absorption into American society—while a victory—has left the Jewish community less streetwise or prepared to defend itself.
  • "Men like Meyer Lansky would go into investment banking or become corporate CEOs. Despite many Jewish communities after October 7th forming the Shomrim...most...are still guarded by contractors." (41:57)

Notable Quotes

"What's interesting about the gangsters was they recognized the Nazis as a gang, and that's how they dealt with them...that's so gone now."
— Rich Cohen (42:43)

"[At] Tulane...there was like Jewish kids getting punched and beat up. Where the hell are the ZBTs, man?"
— Rich Cohen (43:15)

6. Modern Antisemitism: New Masks, Old Lessons

• Social and Academic Discrimination: Nadell offers a personal account of being shut out of academic dialogue post-October 7; pro-BDS scholars refused to even talk, and some colleagues would denounce antisemitism but deny Israel’s right to exist.
  • "Calling for the destruction of the state of Israel, calling for the destruction of 45% of world Jewry...I could see that as blatant antisemitism, but I understand that they do not." — Pamela Nadell (45:26)
• Host's Recommendation: Lake advocates community assertiveness—not violence, but refusal to be intimidated or erased.
  • "If anti-Zionist fanatics want to send mobs to synagogues...the worshippers should get in their face and let them know that their temple is not so easy a target." (46:51)

Notable Quotes

"...We will not be intimidated into silence. If anti-Zionist fanatics want to send mobs to synagogues...the worshippers should get in their face and let them know that their temple is not so easy a target."
— Eli Lake (46:51)

"In other words, stand up to the bullies. That's what Meyer Lansky and the Jewish mobsters did 90 years ago. And in their small way, the American Nazis at least were forced to retreat."
— Eli Lake (47:22)

Memorable Moments & Quotes with Timestamps

• "We wanted to show them that the Jews would not always sit back and accept insults."
  — Meyer Lansky (Reenactment), 35:06

• "The place where I've seen it personally was after October 7th...as part of their BDS movement, they won't dialogue with us."
  — Pamela Nadell, 45:00

• "Some of this was also because the freedom afforded Jews in America unleashed a creative genius that benefited the entire country."
  — Eli Lake, 41:38

• "I must say I enjoyed beating up those Nazis."
  — Meyer Lansky (Reenactment), 35:47

Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:30] — Start of discussion on police inaction and Hanukkah shooting, Bondi Beach
• [07:00–10:00] — Adam on modern Shomrim, Bergen County
• [18:27–19:56] — Pamela Nadell on deep discrimination in 1930s America
• [23:10–24:10] — Archival reporting on 1938 Yorkville brawl, Nazi event disrupted by Jewish gangster crew
• [31:18–36:20] — Lansky’s own account: the secret support of Wise/Perlman, the myth-building and reality
• [42:43] — Rich Cohen on today's loss of "tough Jews" instinct
• [45:00–46:23] — Pamela Nadell on new forms of academic exclusion and antisemitism
• [46:51] — Eli Lake’s personal assertion: the lesson for today

Conclusion

This episode of Breaking History is a timely, provocative look at the cycles of antisemitism and resistance through the lens of "tough Jews"—from Meyer Lansky's fists in the 1930s to community patrols and cultural debates in 2025. Eli Lake and his guests make clear that while the settings and tools may change, the lessons resonate: security cannot be taken for granted, nor can the moral imperative to stand up, forcefully if necessary, to those who attack Jews or wish to erase Jewish presence and rights. The show ends on a call not for vigilantism, but for confident, unbowed communal assertion, inspired by the "tough Jews" of history.