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29
TUESDAY
Sandy Koufax, the legendary Los Angeles Dodger who refused to pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because it landed on Yom Kippur, gave my brother hope as a young ballplayer. But I’ve always been more interested in the underworld than the wide world of sports. Allen Bodner opened my eyes two years ago with When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport, which described a time when the kings of the ring included Artie Levine and Maxie Shapiro. Last year, Rich Cohen made me think that my fascination with The Godfather might be ancestral when he wrote about Jewish mobsters in Tough Jews. Now I find out that Tel Aviv University Professor Robert Rockaway offers me more unseemly role models in But—He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters. Gather the kids so they can hear Rockaway’s tales of Charlie “King” Solomon and Meyer “the Little Man” Lansky at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 12089 Rockville Pike, Rockville. Free. (301) 881-0237. (Elissa Silverman)