Chicago's Tough Jews: Peddlers, Street Brawlers, and Schoolyard Crews
David Farber
Jun 2027 · University of Chicago Press
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272
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About this ebook
The untold story of the immigrant Jewish boys and men who fought back against violent neighborhood gangs in early twentieth-century Chicago.
In Chicago’s Tough Jews, Farber tells the story of how first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe fought their ethnic rivals on Chicago’s mean streets. These Jewish immigrants used their fists and, when necessary, bats and pipes to defend themselves and their neighborhoods.
Farber first heard these stories from his grandfather and his grandfather’s cronies. Jewish Chicagoans, he was told, tried to get the city authorities to stop the vicious antisemitic attacks on peddlers, merchants, and school kids. When that failed, they decided to physically fight to claim their place in the city. Farber vividly details these street battles, particularly with Polish and Irish gangs, up into the 1920s. Ultimately, he argues, “Jewish hard men” were part of a larger community-wide self-defense struggle against violent Jew bashers, antisemites, and an indifferent political and legal system.
Today, when questions of antisemitism and Jewish identity are again being fiercely debated across the country, this account of a past generation’s struggles in Chicago presents a thought-provoking recasting of American Jewish history.
In Chicago’s Tough Jews, Farber tells the story of how first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe fought their ethnic rivals on Chicago’s mean streets. These Jewish immigrants used their fists and, when necessary, bats and pipes to defend themselves and their neighborhoods.
Farber first heard these stories from his grandfather and his grandfather’s cronies. Jewish Chicagoans, he was told, tried to get the city authorities to stop the vicious antisemitic attacks on peddlers, merchants, and school kids. When that failed, they decided to physically fight to claim their place in the city. Farber vividly details these street battles, particularly with Polish and Irish gangs, up into the 1920s. Ultimately, he argues, “Jewish hard men” were part of a larger community-wide self-defense struggle against violent Jew bashers, antisemites, and an indifferent political and legal system.
Today, when questions of antisemitism and Jewish identity are again being fiercely debated across the country, this account of a past generation’s struggles in Chicago presents a thought-provoking recasting of American Jewish history.
The untold story of the immigrant Jewish boys and men who fought back against violent neighborhood gangs in early twentieth-century Chicago.
In Chicago’s Tough Jews, Farber tells the story of how first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe fought their ethnic rivals on Chi...
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About the author
David Farber is distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, and he was a 2025–2026 Visiting Bye Fellow at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of numerous books about America in the twentieth century, including Chicago ’68 and Sloan Rules, also published by the University of Chicago Press. He grew up in Chicago and now lives in Atlanta.
David Farber is distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, and he was a 2025–2026 Visiting Bye Fellow at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of numerous books about America in the twentieth century, including Chicago ’68 and Sloan Rules, also published by ...
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