Kosher Nostra

English

Alternative forms

• kosher nostra

Etymology

A pun on Cosa Nostra and kosher.

Proper noun

Kosher Nostra (dated, informal)

1. (US, chiefly historical) A nickname for Jewish-American organized crime.

   Synonyms: Jewish mafia, Jewish mob

   • 1970 June 22, Gus Tyler, “Book of the Week: The Kosher Nostra”, in New York Magazine, volume 3, number 25, New York, N.Y.: George A. Hirsch, →ISSN, page 50:

     The rise of the kosher nostra began at the turn of the century when the brutish Monk Eastman (Jacob Osterman) ended the reign of the Irish gangs in the Five Point area of the old East Side.

   • 1972 March 15, Washington Observer Newsletter, number 135, →OCLC:

     Kosher Nostra boss, Meyer Lansky, now domiciled in Israel, will not be extradited to the U.S.

   • 1992, Mike Rothmiller, Ivan G. Goldman, L.A. Secret Police: Inside the LAPD Elite Spy Network, New York, NY: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 145:

     [M]en like Jimmy Fratianno of the Cosa Nostra and Benjamin Siegel of the Kosher Nostra—were certainly not insignificant either.

   1. (humorous, figurative, sometimes derogatory) A nickname for various groups of Jewish people.
      • 1981 winter, Herbert Kupferberg, quoting Itzhak Perlman, Present Tense, volume 8, number 2, New York, NY: American Jewish Committee, →OCLC, page 37:

        "and that's when people began speaking of us as the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Nostra and things like that […] "

      • 1992, Mihir Bose, Michael Grade: Screening the Image, London: Virgin Books, →ISBN, page 254:

        ‘ […] brigade’ of rich, mostly Jewish entrepreneurs such as Charles Saatchi and Gerald Ratner who are jocularly referred to as the Kosher Nostra.