ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question:  Who was Sparky Rubenstein and why did he become famous?

Michael Benson has written over sixty books and is one of the world’s most popular true-crime writers.  During his four decades as a professional writer he has worked with a former gangster for biographies of Mafia dons, a retired Army Intelligence agent for a book about the CIA and a retired FBI agent for a book about National Security, among others.  He also regularly appears on true-crime television programs in the United States.  Benson has a B.A. with honors in Communication Arts from Hofstra University, and is the winner of an Academy of American Poets award.

His book Gangsters vs. Nazis deals with the role of Jewish gangsters in fighting antisemitism in the United States in the 1930s. Most people don’t know much about Jewish gangsters, and usually think of gangsters as being from the Italian Mafia, for example.  This book tells us about the many Jewish gangsters all over the US and how they fought against the German-American movement that supported Hitler before and during World War II.

The book is non-fiction and very well-researched, but written in an entertaining style, like a crime novel rather than an academic study. Each section of the book describes Jewish gangster activity in a different city or region of the United States, and it also includes many photographs.