Lot 127

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Lot 127
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Mobster Meyer Lansky Writes Letter to Israeli Security Agency Officer about How to Aid Soviet Jews
Mobster Meyer Lansky Writes Letter to Israeli Security Agency Officer about How to Aid Soviet Jews
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Description:

Lansky Meyer

Mobster Meyer Lansky Writes Letter to Israeli Security Agency Officer about How to Aid Soviet Jews

 

“let me know as quick as possible on Maoz. If it is a good cause for us Jew I want to be helpful.”

 

In this revealing letter, the “Mob’s Accountant,” Meyer Lansky, writes to an Israeli friend three months after his deportation from Israel and return to the United States. In February 1973, a federal judge convicted Lansky of contempt of court for failing to respond to a subpoena, but Lansky appealed that ruling and won a reversal in December. In July, Lansky was acquitted in a federal district court in Miami of income tax evasion. In August 1974, a federal judge refused to dismiss charges against Lansky related to the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas but said the case would “lie dormant.”

 

Meyer Lansky, autograph letter signed, to Joseph “Yoshki” Sheiner, January 23, 1973, [Miami Beach, Florida]. 2 p., 6.25" x 9.25".  Staple at top holding sheets together; two holes punched in right side, affecting two words on first page; very good.

 

Complete Transcript

                                                                        "Jan. 23, 1973.

Dear Yoshki:

            It is always good to hear from you. Better late then never. Don’t be concerned about not writing often; do when you are free and at ease.

            I want to thank your Adonis for his picture, he looks good. How is he doing at school? I’m willing to sponsor him to High School if he is willing to learn. If he will take his studies as serious as his eating he should be a good scholar.

            Zeppi looks real good. I hope she feels as well? I’m sorry that I can’t be a customer in her enterprise. I remember her baking very well.

            I’m not surprised at what that little Jew may do. I hope Joe will get his money back. If he didn’t he should get his Lawyer to press it to the limit. I dislike weasels and he resembled one to me. When he rushed Joe about the money I felt less confident but who knows Nicarogua could have been worst. I wonder if your trip has put you on the list here? Can you let me know if Mike is on your list? I don’t recall what you said to Dave but I will ask him to repeat it to me.

            At present I feel better and I’m little concerned of what may happen; in this materiallistic, monetary world a man has to be geared to take things in stride.

            A Russian refugee by the name of Avron Shifrin who claims he belongs to the Society—Maoz which is out to help Jews and Christians get out of the communist concentration camps came to see me for help. At present it is I who needs help. As usual I will help if you can find out who this Society is also that they are recognized to be helpful for our Russian Brothers to help get them to Israel.

            Avron is on a lecture tour in U.S. He left for Washington today he will speak before a committee of Congress (this is what he says). I’m also having my Rabbi check on him. Avron will be back in Israel about Feb. 15. Israel is the main office of Maoz Society.

            Teddy and I wish Zepora the best of luck in her new endeavor. Our warmest and kindest wishes to all of you. The same to all my friends.

                                                                        Shalom

                                                                        Meyer

P.S. let me know as quick as possible on Maoz. If it is a good cause for us Jew I want to be helpful."



In 1970, Lansky left the United States for Israel to avoid tax evasion charges. He tried to take advantage of Israel’s Law of Return to claim Israeli citizenship. A legal battle lasting more than two years ended in Israel’s highest court, which ruled that Lansky was not entitled to Israeli citizenship because his “criminal past is a danger to public safety.”



In October 1972, Israel demanded that Lansky leave the country. With Joseph Sheiner accompanying him, Lansky first flew on November 5 to Switzerland, which denied him entry. They then flew to South America, where Lansky offered $1 million to any country that would grant him asylum. Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Panama all rejected his offer. When he landed in Miami, Florida, on November 7, after a 13,400-mile exodus, authorities promptly arrested him. He quickly posted bail and was released.



The Lithuanian-born, Russian-educated Jewish electrical engineer Shabtai B. Beit-Zvi (1906-1994) emigrated to Palestine in 1947. He founded the Maoz Society in Israel in 1958 to promote the emigration of other Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel. From 1968, Ukrainian-born Golda Yellin (1920-2000) led the organization. It was associated with the Herut movement, which was the major right-wing nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its merger with Likud in 1988. Founded by Menachem Begin (1913-1992) as a successor to Irgun, Herut was initially known for its militia actions but became more moderate after 1951. In the late 1960s, the Maoz Society urged Jews throughout the world to set aside an empty chair at the seder table to symbolize the plight of Soviet Jews.



From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was no longer illegal to leave the Soviet Union, but authorities viewed it as a betrayal and erected a series of bureaucratic barriers to emigration. The Soviet Union sharply restricted Jewish emigration after the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Despite the obstacles, approximately 100,000 Jews left the Soviet Union for Israel between 1969 and 1975.



Lansky had open heart surgery in March 1973. When he was tried for tax evasion in July 1973, “Fat Vinnie” Teresa swore that he had made a payment to Lansky in Miami as part of his earnings from a London casino. Lansky’s wife Thelma “Teddy” Lansky took the stand and insisted that her husband had been in a Boston hotel recovering from a hernia operation and taking care of a sick dog on the date Teresa allegedly made the payment to Lansky. The jury ultimately acquitted Lansky of the charges. Court-appointed doctors also found that Lansky was suffering from heart trouble, chronic bronchitis, ulcers, bursitis, and arthritis.



Despite repeated efforts to visit Israel again after his deportation in 1972, Lansky never returned.



Meyer Lansky (1902-1983) was born Meier Suchowlanski in the Russian Empire (now Belarus) into a Polish-Jewish family. He emigrated to the United States in 1911 and settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There he met Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906-1947) and Charles “Lucky” Luciano (1897-1962), with whom he became lifelong friends and business partners. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1928. In 1929, Lansky married Anna Citron (d. 1984), and they had three children before divorcing in 1946. By 1936, Lansky had established gambling operations in Florida, New Orleans, and Cuba, and developed a reputation for integrity in gambling, while still making a profit because of his understanding of the mathematical odds. During World War II, Lansky reached an agreement with the U.S. Navy by which the Italian-American Mafia would provide security for warships being built in New York harbor against German infiltrators and sympathizers in exchange for the release of Luciano from prison. Lansky also convinced the Italian-American Mafia to place Siegel in charge of Las Vegas and invested in Siegel’s Flamingo Hotel there, carefully sheltering his earnings in anonymous Swiss bank accounts. In 1946, Lansky attended a secret meeting in Havana to discuss Siegel’s poor management of the Flamingo Hotel, which cost the Mafia investors a great deal of money. A second meeting determined that Siegel would have to go, and Siegel was murdered in June 1947. In 1948, Lansky married Thelma “Teddy” Schwarz (1907-1997). In the 1950s, Lansky served as an unofficial gambling minister for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The 1959 Cuban Revolution wiped out Lansky’s assets on the island, when Fidel Castro nationalized the hotels and outlawed gambling. With the crackdown on casinos in Miami, Lansky depended on the revenue he received from his Las Vegas investments. In 1970, he fled to Herzliya Pituah, Israel, to escape tax evasion charges. Despite Israel’s broad Law of Return allowing any Jews to settle in Israel, Israeli authorities could use discretion against those with a criminal background. After a 26-month legal battle that went to Israel’s highest court, authorities deported Lansky back to the United States, where he was tried and acquitted in 1974. He spent the remainder of his life in Miami Beach. Despite his years of involvement in organized crime, he spent only two months in prison, in 1953 for a New York gambling conviction.



Joseph Sheiner served as security director for Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in the 1960s. Sheiner was a member of the Israel Security Agency, who tried to secure Israeli citizenship for Meyer Lansky. When that effort failed, he accompanied Lansky on his thirty-six-hour flight seeking asylum.



This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.



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