By HENRY SREBRNIK In the twentieth century, many middle-class Egyptians adopted a cosmopolitan cultural style. They wanted to move the country toward a more liberal and secular state. 

But they always came up against, and were unable to surmount, the strength of a very strong Islamic religious culture. In despair, some, despite their own preferences, ended up preferring autocracy to what they considered a backward and dangerous ideology.

In 1952, a revolution brought the Free Officers movement, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, to power. It seemed to have brought a secular quasi-socialist regime to power.

But the undercurrents of politicized religion, though banned by Nasser, did not disappear. The Muslim Brotherhood, which had been founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna and preached a fundamentalist Islamism guarded exclusively by the sharia, was outlawed. Its most prominent theoretician, Sayyid Ibrahim Qutb, was executed in 1966. 

But secular movements fell from favour following Egypt’s defeat by Israel in 1967, and the country was transformed into an autocracy following Nasser’s death three years later. From 1981 until 2011, Egypt was ruled with an iron hand by Hosni Mubarak, until popular unrest forced him to step down during the Arab Spring. 

Would this herald a new, democratic chapter in Egypt? Would free elections bring about a rebirth of secular politics? The answer was no.

Mubarak’s ouster cleared the way for the Muslim Brotherhood to participate openly in Egyptian politics, and to that end the group formed the Freedom and Justice Party. In April 2012 the party selected Mohamed Morsi to be its candidate in Egypt’s presidential election. Morsi defeated Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister under Mubarak, that June.

Morsi soon issued an edict declaring that his authority as president would not be subject to judicial oversight until a permanent constitution came into effect. Although he defended the edict as a necessary measure to protect Egypt’s transition to democracy, mass demonstrations were held against what many saw as a seizure of dictatorial powers.

Worsening economic conditions, deteriorating public services, and a string of sectarian incidents, including attacks on the country’s Coptic Christian minority, strengthened opposition to Morsi’s rule. Clashes between Morsi’s supporters and critics in late June 2013 culminated in massive anti-Morsi protests around the country. 

On July 3 the military under the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, removed Morsi from power. A figurehead president, Adly Mansour, was installed, but it was clear that Sisi, who retained the title of defence minister, wielded power. 

Sisi claimed that the military had carried out the will of the Egyptian people, as expressed in the anti-Morsi protests, and that the Islamist-dominated administration led by Morsi had put the Muslim Brotherhood’s interests before those of the country.

A month later the Egyptian police and armed forces committed what Human Rights Watch deemed “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.” 

Eleven years on, the murder of over 1,000 supporters of the deposed president, known as the Rabaa Massacre, has gone largely unpunished. The Muslim Brotherhood was formally outlawed that September and Morsi was jailed. Prison conditions were harsh, and he was denied adequate medical attention. He died in 2019. 

Sisi officially left the military to run for president and was elected in a clearly fraudulent manner in May 2014. He has been re-elected twice since, in March 2018 and again in December 2023, when he was reported to have won with 89.6 per cent of the vote after several opposition figures were prevented from participating. Under his reign, Egypt has degenerated into a police state even more repressive than the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.

Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, Egypt’s pro-democracy and civil society movements jettisoned their long-standing commitments to human rights and the rule of law and enthusiastically supported the return of military rule.

One of those civil society leaders, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, was among Egypt’s most influential intellectual figures. He had spent his career insisting that democracy is the solution both to political authoritarianism and to the allures of religious fundamentalism in the Arab world. 

Pushing back against the prevailing view that Islamist groups must be marginalized, he argued that they should be included in the democratic process. He even went so far as to advocate, in an article titled “Toward Muslim Democracies,” that “it will be better for us as democrats, for the Islamists, and for Egypt to enlist Islamists under the flag of democracy.” 

He encouraged Egyptians to support this vision and put aside common fears about Islamist movements and had been arrested for his views under Mubarak. Yet even he abruptly became an apologist for authoritarian rule.

The “problem” was that the bulk of the Egyptian masses were unwilling to part with their religious traditions or wholly consign them to the realm of the private. Put another way, if most Egyptians were given the choice between being liberal or being Muslim, they would overwhelmingly select the latter.

Faced with that reality, these intellectuals forged authoritarian alliances to forcibly impose their worldview on an otherwise unwilling populace. When Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were in actual control of the state rather than at its fringes, the liberal secularists chose authoritarian rule. This is the same tragedy found in most of the Arab world.

Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.

By BERNIE BELLAN It was prior to an event featuring Col. John Spencer speaking here on September 11 that we first became of something called “Tafsik.” We had received an email from whatever Tafsik was, inviting us to attend the Spencer event, but there was absolutely no information contained within that email explaining what Tafsik was.
Then, at the actual event, there was the logo for Tafsik emblazoned on a screen overlooking the stage at the Berney Theatre where Spencer spoke. Granted, there were logos for other organizations as well, but the Tafsik logo was larger than any of the others.
We were intrigued by the notion that an organization about which we knew nothing had been involved in bringing a notable expert on urban warfare to our city – and who has established a fierce reputation as a defender of the Israel Defence Forces, so we contacted Adam Levy, Publlc Relations and Communications Director for the Jewish Federation, to ask him whether he knew anything about Tafsik?
Adam said he didn’t and referred us to the organization’s website.

When we sent an email to Tafsik directly, asking who was behind them and what they were all about, we received a rather generic reply containing information that was already available on its website, but which left us even more intrigued as to who was behind it:
“Tafsik organization emerged resolutely from the tragedy of October 7th, dedicated to combating Jew Hatred in Canada and beyond. By forging alliances with diverse communities—including Iranian, Indian, Christian, Yazidi, Venezuelan, and many other groups—Tafsik is uniting voices against Jew hatred on a global scale. The organization hosts significant events featuring prominent figures such as Douglas Murray, Gad Saad, Hillel Fuld, and Colonel John Spencer, to illuminate the challenges faced by Israel and the Jewish community worldwide. Additionally, Tafsik is leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to combat Jew Hate more effectively. As one of the fastest-growing grassroots organizations in Canada, Tafsik is committed to fostering understanding and solidarity in the fight against hatred.”

Then, on September 30, we received yet another email from Tafsik, this time advertising the upcoming appearance in Winnipeg (on October 22) of well-known Columbia professor Shai Davidai.
If you don’t know who Shai Davidai is, he came to prominence soon after October 7 last year when Columbia University in New York City became a hotbed of antisemitism, where Jewish students and professors alike were being intimidated into silence – and fear for their physical safety, by fiercely antisemitic mobs that were being allowed to run rampant on that university’s campus.
A Youtube video appeared of Davidai speaking to Jewish students at Columbia, in which he spoke quite emotionally about how “unsafe” he felt at Columbia – and it quickly went viral. (You can watch that video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPVe2CsBqmM or simply by entering “Shai Davidai” in the Youtube search bar.)

So – two well-known speakers – John Spencer and Shai Davidai, both sponsored by an organization called Tafsik – about which we still knew very little. We were determined to find out who was behind Tafsik. We sent yet another email to the organization, but this time we were rewarded with a very expansive reply – this time from the organization’s founder directly, someone by the name of Amir Epstein.
Here is what Epstein wrote to us, in response to our suggestion that the original email we had received from Tafsik explaining what the organization wall all about was rather generic in its content:

“I apologize for the ‘generic’ explanation as to what Tafsik Organization is all about and our accomplishments.  I hope my overview below satisfies any curiosity and questions you may have. I’m always happy to answer any specific questions I didn’t touch on.

“I cofounded Tafsik Organization after October 7th in response to the complicity I witnessed in the communities I have dedicated my life to defending. Suddenly, our community found itself isolated. I recognized that the rise of antisemitism in Canada had eroded our institutions, such as our universities, school boards, unions, media, and politics, all leading to a troubling apathy toward the horrific attacks on our people in Israel.

“As a law graduate who briefly worked in criminal law and previously owned a successful tech company in the food and beverage industry, I felt compelled to take action. I realized our community faced a serious existential threat. I approached my tech colleague, Bryan Lipovetsky, who had built my companies framework and website, and together we launched Tafsik Organization. Initially, we acted quickly, driven by a desperate need to help, although we were still defining our purpose and how best to combat the overwhelming hate directed at Canadian Jews.

“Our focus became twofold: building alliances and leveraging technology to combat antisemitism. In February, we launched TECAH (The Emergency Coalition Against Hate) alongside the remarkable Douglas Murray in Toronto, quickly becoming Canada’s fastest-growing grassroots ally-building organization. We have formed strong connections with the Indian and Iranian communities, commemorating significant events such as the anniversary of the Air India bombing, the murder of Mahsa Amini, and the genocide in Bangladesh. We have also engaged with various communities, including Venezuelan, Afghan, Arab, Chinese, and Black communities, and are working closely with Sheikh Mirza Ismail on reunifying Yazidi families still in refugee camps in northern Iraq with their relatives in Canada.

“Additionally, we have built meaningful relationships with leaders in politics, including some of the top politicians in our country. We understand the critical role their government positions play in protecting our community.

“We have hosted numerous sold-out events featuring prominent speakers like Douglas Murray, Gad Saad, Hillel Fuld, and Colonel John Spencer, with an upcoming event featuring Shai Davidai. These events aim to present the truth to diverse communities within our city.

“On the technology front, we are actively seeking funding to develop AI software capable of identifying individuals and accounts online that glorify terrorism. This technology will assess account histories, such as comments, likes, and posts, to evaluate potential radicalization and threats. Our goal is not commercialization but to provide law enforcement with tools to prevent real danger and violence against our community and others.

“In response to the overwhelming amount of antisemitic graffiti in Toronto, we are developing a new app called ‘Graffiti Watch’ that will map instances of hate speech in public spaces, empowering our community to take action against it.  Graffiti Watch will be free to download.

“While our primary focus is on ally building and technology initiatives, we occasionally respond to urgent needs outside these pillars. For instance, this past June, we received a request via WhatsApp to help children from Kibbutz Kfar Szold, who were under missile attack from Hezbollah. When a major organization in Toronto declined to support this initiative, we launched a GoFundMe campaign and successfully raised more than we needed. As a result, we flew 15 children to Canada, where they attended Camp Northland and enjoyed a week of fun activities, including visits to Canada’s Wonderland, Niagara Falls, Ripley’s Aquarium, and a shopping spree.  We also organizers a big dance party for the children, fostering new friendships with children from our community.  Again, all free of charge.  We are not a business.  We are a non profit, and soon to be charity.  Everything we have done has been self funded by me and a little money from donations, with exception to the Israeli kids who we brought with donations.

“This past year has been incredibly successful, exceeding our expectations. We now have just under 10,000 subscribers on our mailing list and a growing social media presence, including followers like Douglas Murray, Aviva Klompas, The Imam of Peace, Eylon Levy, and Colonel John Spencer to name just a few. These leaders recognize us as a driving force in Canada, dedicated to protecting our community and helping those in need.

“I hope this clarifies who we are as an organization and what we aspire to do.”

We thanked Amir Epstein for his quite expansive explanation, not only about how Tafsik came about, but who he is. We asked whether he’d be willing to send us a photo of himself and he readily agreed.
By the way, we’re not sure if there are still tickets available for Shai Davidai’s appearance here on October 22, but if you’re interested in attending you could try this link: www.tafsik.com/shai-winnipeg

The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld

Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN For those readers who can remember the story of “The Untouchables,” the crime-fighting unit led by Elliot Ness, which was established by the Bureau of Prohibition in the US in the 1930s, tales of shoot-outs between courageous crime-fighting “good guys” and villainous underworld bootleggers and other assorted criminals would probably be thought of as something that wouldn’t have its origin in a Jewish-led crime-fighting unit established several years earlier.

But, would you believe that not too many years before the often bloody events that were depicted in “The Untouchables” came to pass there was another organization in New York City – led by Jewish crime fighters at that time, which had a somewhat tacit affiliation with the New York City Police Department, and whose purpose was to wage war on Jewish criminals on New York’s East Side? That organization was known as “The Incorruptibles” and the story how it came to be created is told in a fascinating new book, titled “The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld,” written by a New York crime reporter by the name of Dan Slater.

As someone who has long had a fascination with shady Jewish characters, I’ve come to realize over the years that a rollicking good story of a Jewish mobster, such as the close friendship a former Winnipegger by the name of Al Smiley had with the notorious Bugsy Siegel, about which Martin Zeilig wrote for The Jewish Post & News in March 2017, resonates with readers in ways that stories about more righteous Jews don’t.
While Martin’s story about Al Smiley was by no means the first story we’ve ever had about Jewish mobsters, a quick search of our online archive would lead you to numerous stories about Jewish gangsters and other assorted criminals.
In the summer of 2023 we ran two stories in relatively rapid succession that elicited a higher than usual amount of interest from readers. One was my review of a book called “Jukebox Empire,” about someone by the name of Wilf Rabin, who actually grew up in Morden, Manitoba. The other story was about bootlegger Bill Wolchock, written by Bill Redekopp, and which appeared in our 2023 Rosh Hashanah edition. Later, when I posted that story to our website it received so many views that I’ve returned it to our home page twice since. (You can now read that story if you missed it by reading it here: “Booze, Glorious Booze“

All this serves as a preamble to my review of “The Incorruptibles.” I have to couch what I’m about to write with an admission: As a youngster growing up in a sheltered environment, and attending the Talmud Torah, where all we were ever told about was Jewish “heroes,” and the only villains were Jews who didn’t lead properly observant lives, reading “The Incorruptibles” came as a real shock to my conception of how much Jews could be associated with the most sordid type of criminal activity.
It’s one thing to realize that many Jews were involved with bootlegging – something that has developed an almost romantic connotation over the years through books, movies and television programs, but to learn that in the latter part of the 19th century Jews in New York were in control of that city’s: prostitution (and most prostitutes were Jewish!); drugs (however, with the understanding that drugs, including heroin and cocaine, were legally available in the U.S. until 1907 and could be readily purchased in pharmacies); gambling; and protection rackets – does come as somewhat of a shock to a sheltered Winnipeg Jew.

Dan Slater’s depiction of life in New York City at the turn of the 20th century is unremittingly harrowing. For the first part of the 20th century the lower East Side of New York was the most densely populated area on Earth. Housing conditions were horrible and the hundreds of thousands of new immigrants arriving yearly – beginning in the 1870s, from what was known as the Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe – fleeing persecution and pogroms, found themselves being shunted into unspeakably barbaric working conditions in lower East Side factories, predominantly garment factories – owned by fellow Jews. (The author actually spends a considerable amount of time explaining how exactly the Pale of Settlement came into being and how sudden and incredibly violent wholesale persecution of hundreds of thousands of Jews could happen almost overnight – with the death of a particular czar, for instance.)

It was amidst this churning cesspool of a city that Jewish criminal activity of all sorts ran rampant. Two images from “The Incorruptibles” in particular haunted me. One was Slater’s explanation how so many young Russian Jewish women – most in their early or mid-teens, and only recently arrived in New York, were forced into prostitution. Many of these young women would go to a dance – looking to find some relief from the slave-like conditions that permeated the factories in which they worked. While at the dance, they would be approached by a young Jewish man who would offer them a drink. These guys, known in the colloquial as “Alphonses,” or, in Yiddish, as “schimchas,” would lace the girls’ drinks with drugs (a common occurrence to this day) and take the girls home, where they would rape them. But – now defiled, the girl could not possibly return to her family home out of shame; thus, tens of thousands of young Jewish women were forced into prostitution.
The other image that haunts me was the widespread practice of “horse poisoning.” Protection rackets have probably been around from time immemorial, but in this particular incarnation, criminals would confront business owners with a choice: Pay for “protection” or see your means of transportation (and remember, this was at a time when a horse-drawn buggy or carriage was the principal means of transportation) poisoned.
(There is actually a photo in “The Incorruptibles” of a horse lying dead on a New York street after it had been poisoned. Apparently it happened on a regular basis to the point where it didn’t draw much attention.)

While the book chronicles one sordid story after another so that the reader can understand just how tough life was on the lower East Side – often with reference to the colourful names of some of the most famous Jewish thugs who terrorized their fellow Jews, such as “Bald Jack Rose” or “Big Jack Zelig” (no relation to Martin Zelig – I checked), the biggest mobster of them all was the legendary Arnold Rothstein.
Rothstein is undoubtedly most famous for reputedly having fixed the 1919 World Series by bribing eight members of the Chicago White Sox, the overwhelming favourite to defeat the Cincinnati Reds, to throw the series. (It has never been proven absolutely conclusively that Rothstein did that, but as “The Incorruptibles” explains, the evidence points overwhelmingly in his direction.)
Rothstein was the kind of gambler who could lose $350,000 in a single night of playing poker – and not worry about it.
Here is an example of Slater’s ability to describe a character, when he sums up Arnold Rothstein: “Picture in one individual a sentimental and tender lover, a genial and humorous companion, a charitable giver, a loyal friend—and—a wholesale drug dealer, a crooked sports fixer, a welching gambler, a stolen securities fence, a rum-ring mastermind, a corrupter of police, a grafter through politics, a gunman, a judge-briber, a jury-tamperer, a blackmailer, a pool shark, a swindler.”

But, up against the villains of “The Incorruptibles,” Slater also depicts the stories of two very talented – and brave, young Jewish men, who were willing to challenge the criminal class: A lawyer by the name of Harry Newburger and Abe Shoenfeld, the son of a well-known New York reformer by the name of Mayer Shoenfeld.
As Slater explains, it was only when members of New York’s largely German-Jewish upper class began to take note of the horrid conditions in which the vast majority of the Eastern European Jews who had recently immigrated to America were living did an impetus to try and change things develop. Two men, Jacob Schiff (who is described as the J.P. Morgan of his day in terms of his vast wealth), and Felix Warburg, together with the rabbi of the leading temple of its day, Rabbi Judah Magnes of Temple Immanu-El, organized a group known as the “Kehilah.”
The Kehilah mandated Newburger and Shoenfeld to do whatever they deemed necessary to begin cleaning up the lower East Side. Of course, given how corrupt New York officials were at the time – under the control of the notorious Tammany Hall, led by “Big Jim Sullivan,” most of the New York City Police Department was also thoroughly under the control of criminals, which made the challenge set out for Newburger and Shoenfeld all the more difficult.
The book describes, sometimes in painful detail, the difficulties faced by the group assembled by Newburger and Shoenfeld, known, naturally, as “The Incorruptibles.” They weren’t above busting heads themselves, it turns out.

Again, one of the more interesting aspects of history to emerge from this book is that men would often switch sides at the drop of a hat – to go from violently attacking one particular group – at the behest of this or that mobster, to attacking the same group they were supposed to be defending the next day.
As has already been noted, the garment trade played a pivotal role in the development of New York City into becoming not only a magnet for immigrants, it also also played a prominent role in New York’s becoming the vast economic powerhouse that it is today. Slater notes that, at one point, 80 percent of all garments produced in the U.S. came from the lower East Side.
As workers began to organize themselves into unions, garment factory owners hired thugs, known as “shtarkers” (strong men) to beat up workers, occasionally to kill union organizers. In time though, the tide began to turn and, as unions gathered strength, the same tactics of violence and intimidation that had been used against workers began to be employed by unions – with workers who dared to cross picket lines (known colloquially as “scabs”) often being on the receiving end of that violence, occasionally ending with them being killed.
Newburger and Shoenfeld were thrust into the midst of this turmoil, trying to bring some peace to the labour disputes. Ironically, Mayer Shoenfeld (Abe’s father) was a longtime advocate for workers’ rights, but he would not talk to his son, who tried to straddle both worlds – of employers and employees.
“The Incorruptibles” describes the many battles fought to rein in the gambling, prostitution, protection rackets, and what became the illegal drug trade that were part and parcel of life on New York’s East Side. As the years went by, the Jewish dominance of the New York underworld gave way to the ascendance of the Italian mob. (Slater also acknowledges the roles that other groups also played in New York criminal activity, including the Irish), but his main focus is on Jewish criminals.

“The Incorruptibles” is a long and detailed book, drawing upon a great many different sources, and at times, the proliferation of names entering the scene can be more than a little confusing. But, for anyone who has an interest in reading something that peels back the layers of a very disturbing aspect of Jewish history that might not fit all that well with the notion of Jewish righteousness, then “The Incorruptibles” might be of interest.

“The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld”
By Dan Slater
432 pages
Published by Little, Brown and Company, 2024