Bessner, Ellis, Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II [pb, New Jewish Press, 2019] 978-1988326047 [While primarily about military service, it explores how Jewish soldiers often had to overcome the “tough guy” or “gangster” stereotypes prevalent in Canadian cities at the time.]
Section 6.5
Canada – General
Canada – General Non-Fiction
Koffman, David S. [ed], (No Better Home? Jews, Canada and the Sense of Belonging [hc, U. of Toronto Press, 2021]) 978-1487504892 [pb, U. of Toronto Press, 2021]) 978-1487523572
Morton, Suzanne, (At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919–1969 [hc, U. of Toronto Press, 2003] 978-0802035646 [pb, U. of Toronto Press, 2003] 978-0802084415 [A historical examination of how gambling shaped Canadian social mores, including the transition from independent operators like Bluestein to organized syndicates. – Google/AI]
Penner, Norman & Roland Larsen, (Tales from the Underworld and Other Stories [pb, self-published, 2009] B00AR8A6TK [This collection focuses on the legal and criminal history of Manitoba, including anecdotes and biographies related to the Jewish criminal element in the Winnipeg underworld.]
Rabinovitch, David, (Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream [hc, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2023] 978-1538172599 [pb, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2025] 979-8216369189 [Tells the story of the author’s uncle, William “Wolfe” Rabin, a self-taught electronics genius who became a central figure in the corrupt jukebox industry. Wolfe was born in Morden, Manitoba, the son of Jewish immigrant parents and was considered the “black sheep” of the Rabinovitch family. Post-World War II, he designed a jukebox that became an icon of popular culture, leading to his status as an aspiring tycoon in Chicago. To protect his business from street wars, extortion, and the kidnapping of his brother, Wolfe partnered with a coin machine racketeer and the Mafia. The Mob used his jukeboxes to evade taxes and launder money because they could easily falsify record sales. Wolfe masterminded a massive money-laundering scheme involving stolen bonds to help finance Mob-controlled casinos in Havana during the Cuban Revolution. In 1958, Wolfe and the jukebox industry’s underworld were exposed during nationally televised Senate hearings led by committee counsel, Robert Kennedy. Following a sensational trial where his associates were acquitted, Wolfe “took the fall” for the conspiracy.
At a time when there was a jukebox in every restaurant, diner, bar, barracks, arcade, and canteen, Rabin’s trajectory from inventor to promoter to outlaw is set against the Mob’s growing infiltration of the jukebox industry. In a world of music, machines, and money, popular culture and organized crime collide in an epic drama of invention and greed. David Rabinovitch’s investigation into his own family history pieces together an epic puzzle that begins in Chicago with the invention of the jukebox and spans the casinos of Havana and the financial giants of Europe, leading to what the FBI called “the biggest bank robbery in the world,” the 1958 heist of a bank in Brockville, Ontario. Wolfe died in 1967 and is believed to be buried in Chicago. – Google/AI and Amazon]
Schneider, Stephen. (Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada [pb, Wiley, 2009]) 978-0470835005
Tulchinsky, Gerald, (Canada’s Jews: A People’s Journey [hc, U. of Toronto Press, 2008] 978-0802090621 [pb, U. of Toronto Press, 2008] 978-0802093868 [a 240-year history, examining the search for a livelihood and the struggle against antisemitism, which sometimes led to involvement in marginal or illicit activities as part of the immigrant struggle.]
Weinfeld, Morton, (Like Everyone Else but Different: The Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews [hc, McGill-Queen’s UP, 2nd edition, 2018] 978-0773552807 [pb, McGill-Queen’s UP, 2nd edition, 2018] 978-0773552814 [- notes that while Canadian Jews exhibit low rates of violent crime, they are the demographic most targeted by hate crimes in Canada, contributing to a “paradoxical” sense of insecurity. Weinfeld further indicates that when Jewish involvement in crime occurs today, it is generally concentrated in white-collar offenses, in contrast to the more violent patterns of crime in the immigrant generation in the context of lower social status, economic hardship and more confrontational anti-Semitism.]