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New Jersey Minutemen

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Nat Arno (center) with the Minutemen
Nat Arno (The Bayonne Times, 1931)

The New Jersey Minutemen were a militant anti-fascist group that operated in Newark, New Jersey, from 1933 to 1941. They were antagonists of the pro-Nazi German American Bund and the Christian Front group inspired by Fr. Charles Coughlin's Social Justice doctrines. The commander of the Minutemen was a former featherweight[1] and lightweight[2] class boxer of Jewish ancestry, Nat Arno (April 1, 1910 – August 8, 1973).[3][4] The group was organized at the behest of New Jersey–based Jewish-American organized crime leader Abner Zwillman.[3] The membership consisted of "tough guys...recruited from Zwillman's Third Ward gang."[3] According to one historian, "The mob hastened the Bund's demise by introducing mortal risks to its leadership."[5]

The Minutemen initially attacked a meeting of Friends of New Germany with pipes wrapped in cloth or rubber; three Friends of New Germany were injured.[3] This was followed shortly thereafter by a massive street fight outside the Schwabenhalle in Irvington,[6] a brawl that encompassed nearly 2,000 people over 12 city blocks, 20 injuries with three hospitalizations, and seven arrests.[3][7] Two men in a black sedan shot at Nat Arno and another Anti-Nazi Minutemen leader Max Feilshus on Fourth of July 1934; Feilshus was hit in both legs.[8]

The "hoodlums" of the Minutemen coordinated with S. William Kalb of the respectable Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League. They had different approaches to the shared goal of disarming antisemitism and Nazism in New Jersey before World War II.[9]

A similar program dedicated to punching Nazis was organized by Meyer Lansky in New York. Lansky's efforts—which included 1938's so-called Battle of Yorkville Casino, in which 60 Jewish-American World War I vets wearing American Legion caps fought the 1,000-strong German American Bund at a birthday party for Hitler[10]—were partly at the behest of former U.S. Congressman Nathan Perlman and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.[11] Lansky put together a team for this work that included the likes of Bugsy Siegel, Lepke Buchalter, Gurrah Shapiro, Tick Tock Tannenbaum, and Blue Jaw Magoon.[5] Lansky and Siegel declined an offer of payment for these services, considering it, rather, a duty and an honor.[12][13] Lansky, who referred to the Bundists as brownshirts, later said "The main point was to teach them that Jews couldn't be kicked around."[11]

In both states, respectable leadership involved with the campaign specified "no killing please" even though the lower-level muscle were willing to provide additional violence.[9][14] Meanwhile, opposing the rise of American fascism was sound policy for criminal underground leaders whose business prospects would likely be compromised by the rise of an authoritarian regime; Mussolini, for his part, had not been a particular ally of the Sicilian Mafia.[11][5]

The New Jersey Minutemen took their name from the Continental Minutemen rapid-reaction militia of the American Revolutionary War. The slogan of the New Jersey Minutemen was "No Ism But American-Ism."[3]

Nat Arno enlisted on January 1, 1941,[15] and served as a sergeant in the infantry of the U.S. Army during World War II.[16][17] He later moved to California, started a family there and died in 1973.[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Washington times, Washington, D.C. 1902-1939, July 24, 1928, Image 15". 1928-07-24. ISSN 1941-0697. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  2. ^ "The Washington Times, Washington, D.C., 1902-1939, February 05, 1931, Image 26". 1931-02-05. p. 26. ISSN 1941-0697. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Grover, Warren (December 15, 2021). "Minute Men document discovered after 80 years: Local historian learns more about how Jewish thugs saved Newark from the Nazis". Jewish Standard. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  4. ^ Source Citation Place: Los Angeles; Date: 8 Aug 1973; Social Security: 145229235 Source Information Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
  5. ^ a b c Dezenhall, Eric (September 2011). "Operation Underworld". American Spectator. Vol. 44, no. 7.
  6. ^ Rockaway, Robert (2018-07-03). "Gangsters vs. Nazis: How the Jewish Mob fought American admirers of the Third Reich". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  7. ^ "NAZI GATHERING ENDS IN A BRAWL; 800 Leaving Newark Hall Are Met by 1,000 in Street; 12 Hurt, 7 Arrested". The New York Times. 1933-10-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  8. ^ Rose, Jerome (1934-07-05). "Newark Foe of Nazis Shot at Curb". New York Daily News. p. 192. Retrieved 2023-02-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b Alexander, Michael (2005). "Nazis in Newark (review)". Jewish Quarterly Review. 95 (2): 418–419. doi:10.1353/jqr.2005.0047. ISSN 1553-0604. S2CID 162324437.
  10. ^ "U.S. Veterans Lose Battle with Germans in Manhattan". LIFE. Vol. 4, no. 18. Time Inc. 1938-05-02. pp. 18–19 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ a b c Blumberg, Arnold (August–September 2011). "Taking It To The Streets: The Battle of Manhattan". History. Vol. 12, no. 6. pp. 36–38.
  12. ^ Santoro, Gene (July–August 2007). "The Navy's Friends in Low Places". World War II. Vol. 22, no. 4.
  13. ^ Farley, Todd (2022-05-07). "Jewish gangsters once took on Nazis in the streets of NYC". New York Post. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  14. ^ Lovy, Howard (2022-06-09). "BEFORE WWII, JEWISH MOBSTERS FOUGHT NAZIS IN THE US -- WITH THEIR FISTS". Washington Jewish Week. Vol. 58, no. 23.
  15. ^ a b "U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File, 1850-2010", Ancestry.com
  16. ^ "Officer Accused of Extortion". The Courier-News. Bridgewater, N.J. 1947-04-03. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-02-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ SIDNEY NAT ARNOLD Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Jewish Servicemen Cards, 1942-1947 (Original data: Alphabetical Master Cards, 1942–1947; Series VI, Card Files—Bureau of War Records, Master Index Cards, 1943–1947; National Jewish Welfare Board, Bureau of War Records, 1940–1969; I-52; boxes 273–362. New York, New York: American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History)

Further reading

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  • Benson, Michael (2022). Gangsters vs. Nazis : how Jewish mobsters battled Nazis in wartime America. New York: Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0-8065-4179-2. OCLC 1294395203.
  • Grover, Warren (2003). Nazis in Newark. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-7658-0193-0. OCLC 51781752.
  • Rockaway, Robert A. (2000). But he was good to his mother: the lives and crimes of Jewish gangsters (Rev. ed.). Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-249-4. OCLC 42955023.
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