When Patrolman Jacob Leon hung up his cop’s uniform thirty years ago after twenty-five years of pounding the pavements, a Jewish officer of the law was as rare as a model T Ford on Park avenue today.
In those days, when the Tenderloin was tough, even if its denizens used the primitive leadpipe instead of machine guns to play their professions, the business of keeping the law was considered the special province of the gallant, thickbrogued Celts. And nobody, least of all Jews, was disposed to contest either their right or peculiar ability to fill so completely and efficiently a not particularly inviting field of human endeavor.
So when Patroman Jacob Leon hung up his gray bobby’s hat, his brass-buttoned gray coat and his service revolver, he was something of a nine-days’ wonder. And, although there are no statistics available on the subject since the department neither asks nor records a man’s religion, it is safe to assume that when Leon joined the city’s finest fifty-five years ago there weren’t any more Jews on the force than there are fingers on a man who has just tried to stop a buzz saw from buzzing.
Leon still drops in at Police Headquarters on Grand and Centre streets for a chat with the old-times and perhaps a snort at the new crop of trim, spry, eager-eyed “fiatfoots” and detectives. But today, the picture has undergone a startling change. Where once a solid phalanx of Irish faces greeted Leon, today he stares into faces that are as well unmistakably Italian, German, Swedishand Jewish.
The years have wrought changes. Policing has been lifted from the lowly status once accorded it. Time was, officials of the department point out, when all a cop needed was a stick, a pair of brawny ham-like fists, stout underpinning and a well-upholstered skull. Study to become a cop? A contemptuous snort would have been the answer to anybody with the temerity to make such a suggestion.
TEL AVIV, BEWARE!
Today, a citizen who wants to take part in keeping the peace has to go through a police academy. He must know almost as much criminal and civil law as a young attorney—and in many instances knows more. His health must be topnotch and his brain must give evidence of being something more than an inert mass of muscle serving only to fill what must otherwise have been a complete vacuum.
Whether, as a result of these requirements and the fact that their presence brought a certain measure of prestige to the job it never had before, or because the financial inducements have been raised, the fact remains that the handful of thirty years ago has come approximately 1,500 today, in a force of 18,273 men. And there aren’t nearly that many Jewish cops even in Tel Aviv, Palestine, the all-Jewish city which has a population of more than 100,000.
The influx of Jews to the business of policing, which has extended over the last two decades, has tended to emphasize an interracial cooperation that has long been the subject of joke and legend. In police work, too, as well as in business and the stage, the Irish-Jewish partnership has time and again bobbed up in spectacular fashion.
A particularly appealing illustration of this gained public attention quite recently. About five weeks ago two plainclothes buddies — Monahan and Abramovitz—were assigned to raid a disorderly house.
In carrying out their instructions Monahan was fatally wounded by a man who escaped immediate capture. At Monahan’s bier, Abramovitz swore not to rest until he had caught his pal’s killer. About three weeks ago, Abramovitz kept his pledge sensationally. He captured the man alleged to have killed Monahan after a thrilling chase in Times Square, and the man is now awaiting trial.
Incidentally, there is perhaps no other department of the city’s government where racial ancestry and religion play a smaller role. Advancement is solely on merit, by examination. At the topmost rungs of the department’s ladders are many Jews. There is one inspector, Louis A. Costuma, head of the Crime Prevention Bureau; one deputy inspector, Louis Rosenfeld, who has been on the force about seventeen years; four captains, Louis Stillman, Isaac Oppenheimer, Joseph Hemley and (acting captain) Joseph Goldstein. In addition there are unrecorded numbers of lieutenants, sergeants and detectives.
While the Catholic members of the force have their Holy Name Society to provide for their spiritual needs, the Jewish members have the Shomrim Society, organized in 1924 with a nucleus of seventeen men, under the leadership of Cantor Isadore Frank, department chaplain.
EXCELLENT FAMILY-PROVIDERS
There are at present about 700 men who are members of the Shomrim Society. One of its members, Detective William Wittenberg, who has been on the force for twenty-seven years, recently celebrated his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Judge Greenspan, who was the detective’s best man at the original ceremony, acted in a like capacity at the anniversary celebration. According to Rabbi Frank, the religious spirit among the men and their families is at a high level.
One of the noteworthy characteristics about the Jewish cop and one that is also found in those of other faiths, is that he is considered a fine family man. To a man they are anxious to make the best provision possible for their dependents. Many of them have given their children the finest education available. Their sons and daughters are lawyers, physicians, teachers.
It could not be ascertained whether any of them are bringing their children up to follow in the pavement-pounding footsteps of their fathers.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
