Barry, Leslie K., (Newark Minutemen: A True 1930s Legend About One Man’s Mission to Save a Nation’s Soul Without Losing His Own [hc, Morgan James Fiction, 2020] 978-1631950728 [The book chronicles a dark, frequently overlooked chapter of American history: the rise of homegrown fascism via the German-American Bund and the violent underground resistance mounted against them by Jewish prize fighters, the FBI, and organized crime. The narrative is set in Newark, New Jersey, during the late 1930s, a city deeply scarred by the Great Depression. With millions unemployed, the charismatic and dangerous Führer Fritz Kuhn forms the German-American Bund. Operating under the slogans “America First” and “Make America Great”, Kuhn seeks to expand a shadow Hitler-Nazi party across the United States.
United States · Fiction author
Leslie K. Barry
Leslie K. Barry (born 1962 in Washington, D.C.; resides in Tiburon, CA with her family) [She has worked as a leading marketing executive at major entertainment and tech companies, including Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, Mindscape Video Games, Lotus Development, and AOL. She is an avid genealogy researcher. It was through this deep-dive hobby—specifically sparked at her mother’s 90th birthday celebration—that she unearthed her Uncle Harry Levine’s hidden history with the anti-fascist boxing rings of New Jersey. The historical fiction novel, originally the screenplay, that emerged from this project is her only main publication and the reason for her inclusion in this bibliography. She is involved in trying to turn the story into a major film.
3.3.2 Synopsis: Leslie Barry, Newark Minutemen (with hist. background)
The story follows Yael Newman, a fierce young Jewish boxer. Years prior, he witnessed his father’s brutal murder at the hands of anti-Semites, leaving him with an intense vow of vengeance. Seeing American democracy on trial, the Jewish Mob and the FBI join forces to recruit Yael into an underground anti-fascist militia known as the Newark Minutemen.
Yael receives orders to go undercover as a goose-stepping Storm Trooper within the Bund to gather intelligence, expose Hitler Youth indoctrination camps, and ultimately put the American Führer behind bars. His mission turns deeply personal and dangerous when he meets Krista Brecht, the daughter of a high-ranking Nazi enemy. The two fall into a forbidden, high-stakes romance that threatens to compromise Yael’s undercover operation. Moving from secret spy missions to the historic 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Yael is forced to walk an ethical tightrope—using the mob’s brutal tactics to defend his people while trying desperately to save his own soul from being consumed by hate.
While the novel uses a fictionalized romance, the backdrop of the New Jersey Minutemen and the direct involvement of organized crime is entirely factual. Abner “Longy” Zwillman was the undisputed Jewish mob kingpin of New Jersey, often called the “Al Capone of Newark”. He amassed immense wealth through bootlegging, gambling, and racketeering, effectively controlling local ports and police forces. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Zwillman’s bootlegging operation ended, leaving his enforcers with sudden downtime. Simultaneously, Nazi groups like the Friends of New Germany (later the German-American Bund) began aggressively marching and harassing Jews in Newark. Infuriated by their anti-Semitic rhetoric, Zwillman decided to weaponize his syndicate against them, starting in 1933-34. .
Zwillman funded and organized a specialized vigilante group called the Minutemen. He appointed professional featherweight boxer Nat Arno (born Sidney Nathan Abramowitz) to lead the front. Arno recruited tough guys from Zwillman’s Third Ward Gang, alongside Jewish factory workers, dockworkers, and collegiate athletes. Among the Minutemen fighters were Harry Levine and another professional boxer, Abie Bain (born Abraham Itzhok Bain). The Minutemen specialized in raw counter-violence. Armed with stink bombs, baseball bats, brickbats, and lead pipes wrapped in rubber, they regularly ambushed Nazi rallies. In famous clashes like the ambush at Irvington’s Schwabenhalle, the Minutemen smashed windows, flooded the venue with noxious fumes, and physically bludgeoned fleeing Bund members. Because law enforcement initially viewed the Nazi rallies as protected free speech, authorities were slow to act officially.
The factual backstory related in the novel starts with Judge Nathan D. Perlman, a highly respected New York judge, a former Republican U.S. Congressman, and a leader in the American Jewish Congress. In 1938, deeply frustrated that the First Amendment protected the Nazi Bund’s marches and hateful rhetoric, Perlman decided to use extra-legal means. He called Meyer Lansky—the logistical genius behind the National Crime Syndicate and Murder, Inc.—to a private meeting. Perlman offered to pay Lansky and his enforcers from private funds to physically break up Nazi rallies. Lansky famously refused the money, stating, “I am a Jew, and I feel for those Jews in Europe... I don’t want the money.” Perlman brought prominent Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise to the meeting to establish strict moral and legal guardrails. Perlman gave Lansky’s syndicate full permission to terrorize the Nazis, with one absolute caveat: “I want you to do anything but kill them.” This led to the “no head shots” rule, to avoid incrimination for murder, thus allowing law enforcement to turn a blind eye to the violent anti-Nazi campaign. Minutemen were instructed to aim exclusively for the torso, arms, and legs. Breaking a Nazi’s ribs, snapping his arms, or shattering his kneecaps with lead pipes sent a terrifying message. Avoiding the temple and jaw ensured nobody suffered fatal brain hemorrhages or fractured skulls that could result in a murder rap
Lansky’s underworld connections joined Zwillman’s local New Jersey Minutemen in interdicting American Nazi activities throughout the area. Zwillman established a quiet pipeline with the FBI and local police. Newark police officers would routinely leak the times and locations of secret Nazi meetings to Zwillman’s men, purposefully vacating the area right before the Minutemen arrived to dish out street justice. The head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, consciously used the Minutemen as an informal, aggressive proxy force. FBI field agents quietly shared intelligence on Bund movements and meeting locations with trusted mob conduits. In exchange, undercover Minutemen—who successfully infiltrated Nazi camps—fed high-level intel on German espionage operations, list of names, and Nazi youth indoctrination schedules back to the Bureau. Hoover ensured that as long as the Minutemen strictly adhered to the “no head shots” rule and left no bodies behind, federal investigators would deliberately look the other way, leaving the street warfare entirely to local precincts that were already in the pocket of Longy Zwillman’s syndicate.
Through these relentless operations from 1933 to 1941, Zwillman’s Minutemen effectively raised “mortal risks” for American Nazi leaders, severely crippling their propaganda machine and successfully deterring them from holding public meetings in northern New Jersey. [Google/AI]