More in ‘mafia’

In Tablet Magazine today, Mayim Bialik, who starred in the early-‘90s series Blossom, relays how her religiously-motivated modest dress can conflict with her career. Douglas Century wraps up his saga on Israel’s criminal underground (previous sections: 1; 2; 3; 4). Betcha can’t read just one of Liel Leibovitz’s articles today: please enjoy both his ...

For all the criminal activity in Hatikvah, the south Tel Aviv neighborhood that is one of the centers of Israeli organized crime, there’s nothing quite like Shabbat in the neighborhood. One cool Friday evening, Eli Waizman–the childhood friend of Ilan, my guide to the underbelly of Israeli society–insisted that I come spend Shabbat dinner with him and his Moroccan-born father on Rehov Roni, just off Etzel Street, the neighborhood’s main artery. Hatikvah was nearly silent on Shabbat evening. You could smell the sumptuous meals simmering on stoves and the children laughing in the little one-story, ramshackle homes. I mentioned to Eli that I thought the English translation of Shchunat Hatikvah had a beautiful ring to it—“The Quarter of Hope.”

This morning, Tablet Magazine publishes the second part of Douglas Century’s look at Israel’s organized crime scene (here’s part one). Allison Hoffman profiles the rising star of the “birther” movement, a Soviet Jew named Orly Taitz who argues that Barack Obama is ineligible to be president. Book critic Adam Kirsch reviews an anthology of Albert ...

Today, Tablet Magazine features the first half of Douglas Century’s multi-part article about Israel’s new and “far more violent, ruthless, and young” generation of organized criminals. For the weekly Vox Tablet podcast, Sara Ivry speaks with Century and Century’s guide through the Tel Aviv neighborhood that headquarters many mafiosi. Allison Hoffman, who covered last week’s ...

Forty years ago, poor, crime-ridden Israeli neighborhoods were often ruled by a local mobster. It was a Godfather-style situation: the bosses were feared, but they were also respected as protectors for those who played by their rules. But today’s Israeli mafia is something quite different, younger, greedier, more ambitious, and far more reckless. In 2006, Tablet contributing editor Douglas Century visited Hatikva, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv that spawned some of the more deadly modern mafiosi. Accompanied by Ilan Benshoshan, who grew up there, Century met gangsters, drug dealers, pimps, and a frightened populace trying to steer clear of the violence. Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry spoke to the pair for a street-level view of today’s Israeli mob.