Rookie Cop: DeepUndercover in the Jewish Defense League (Paperback)

by Richard Rosenthal (Author) "Sol Hurok immigrated to the United States from the village of Pogar, Russia in 1906 and made a small living for himself by producing concerts..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York City, United States, Soviet Mission (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 1969, just before he was to be sworn in as a New York City police officer, Rosenthal was recruited as an undercover agent for the force's "intelligence gathering" department. His job: infiltrate the Jewish Defense League, the militant group led by Rabbi Meir Kahane that had disrupted public hearings and assaulted some members of other extremist groups, and was seen to have the potential for more trouble. So Rosenthal told people he decided not to join the force, drove a cab as cover andAsans gun, badge or trainingAquickly became a regular at demonstrations protesting the Soviet Union's unwillingness to let Jews emigrate. Now a police chief in Wellfleet, Mass., and the author of several books on police craft and one novel, Rosenthal does a solid job of reconstructing his undercover stint, detailing some tense situations, like how he regularly defused suspicion that he was, in fact, an undercover cop. His presence was opportune: the JDL was expanding its violent aims, gathering weapons and bomb-making materials. Kahane and others were arrested, thanks in part to the then-departed Rosenthal, after the bombing of a Soviet trade office. However, Rosenthal rarely widens his focus to discuss how he (and his wife) managed the stress of his undercover work. Also, despite his acknowledgment that Kahane "was neither a saint nor a sinner" and his observation that most JDL members represented a segment of population whose needs, fears and concerns weren't addressed by established Jewish organizations, Rosenthal doesn't say enough about the broader origins of the JDL and its place in New York history. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
About the author

Before becoming Chief of Police in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Richard Rosenthal spent twenty years in the New York City Police Department, where he ran the Heavy Weapons and Undercover Weapons Training programs and, as a detective in the Bronx dealt with homicide, narcotics, and armed robbery. Before joining the NYPD, he worked for U.S. Air Force military intelligence as a Russian language specialist. Pocket Books published his two popular books of police craft, Sky Cops and K-9 Cops, as well as his novel, The Murder of Old Comrades, "a spicy police procedural about KGB assassins on the loose in Manhattan," according to The Wall Street Journal, which "put Mr. Rosenthal on the map in big-league publishing."

"A strange true tale of a Jewish NYPD cadet recruited into the department's elite intelligence unit to spy on the Jewish Defense League, offering vivid portraits of a politically incendiary era and revealing secrets of intrusive police tactics...This is a well-tuned portrait of the stress and acrimony that permeates such radical cliques, and of the lonely, paranoid personalities at their centers - and it offers insights into the radically charged violence of the early 1970s...Rosenthal has a fine eye for human detail and a cop's mordant sensibility. Altogether an exciting tale of unusual police practices, and a solid portrait of a quintessential fringe radical group inhabiting insecure, volatile times.-Kirkus Reviews (June 15, 2000)

Excerpted from Chapter One

Sol Hurok immigrated to the United States from the village of Pogar, Russia in 1906 and made a small living for himself by producing concerts for New York City's burgeoning labor societies. Over the years, the workers' craving for high-brow entertainment grew to such an extent that his concerts were staged in the enormous amusement hall built by P.T. Barnum, the Hippodrome. Hurok became the personal manager of the great Afro-American contralto Marian Anderson and arranged the first U.S. tour for the young violin sensation and son of a poor Israeli barber, Itzak Perlman. Within several generations Hurok became known as The Impresario, importing such world class entertai

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Leapfrog Press; First Edition, First Printing edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965457885
• ISBN-13: 978-0965457880
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #632,807 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dammit, this is funny!, August 9, 2005

By	B. Wolinsky "Ben's Reviews" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The JDL were certainly a destructive group, but this book is fun to read because they were RIDICULOUS.
First off, they're all dentists and jewelry salesmen who pretend to be in special forces. They pick fights with mafiosos, louts, and even an off-duty soldier and get a real "zetz". Then they make homemade explosives and wind ip with no blast, just toxic gases. They fumble everything, make asses of themselves, nearly set themselves on fire and screw up the simplest things. This wasn't a job for a rookie cop. The JDL should have been investigated by the Fire Department.
Thankfully, Rosenthal doesn't get blown up or burned in any accidents (the JDL try to make napalm from petrol and soap) but he winds up protecting these shlemiels from "real" tough guys.
I saw some of these guys at the 2004 Israel Parade in NYC. They had these greasy-haired Jewish teens, in black suits and sunglasses (I'm not joking) collecting donations. It's a free country, and everyone has their way of doing things. But I wouldn't want a JDL by my side if there comes a fight.