Izzy Einstein

We've profiled quite a few Jewish Prohibition-era gangsters of the years, but never a Prohibition-era gangster-catcher. You know, prohibition agents, like Eliot Ness. But that one was goyishe, so Isidor (Izzy) Einstein seems like a much better candidate for our website. And what a candidate he is!

Apparently, when Izzy first became a prohibition agent, he gained entries into speakeasies by... claiming he was a prohibition agent. Proprietors thought it was a joke, but the joke was on them! Soon after, Izzy had to design a special hidden funnel-and-flask system so that he didn't consume the hooch himself.

The number of stories about Izzy are too many for our usual profile length, so we will gloss over the "taxidermied bear stuffed with whisky bottles" and even his bust of "a ring of fake rabbis selling sacramental wine to their supposed congregations" and talk about the time he was forced to eat a ham sandwich.

By that point, Izzy's fame as bootlegger buster had spread so far that a bar in upstate New York forced newcomers to eat a ham sandwich to prove they weren't... Izzy. (Maybe they were just antisemites? We choose to believe the best about these bootleggers.) Izzy succeeded by blowing the ham out of the sandwich. (Which raises the question, exactly how much ham was there in the first place? Honestly, he should have just eaten it. G-d would understand.)

Seriously, why did it take us so long to profile Izzy Einstein? And why hasn't he gotten a Hollywood treatment like Ness? (We think we know the answer to that one.)