The histories of famous gangsters and lesser known thieves
The Jews of Sing Sing
For more than two decades the writer Ron Arons learned that his great-grandfather had done a “stretch” in Sing Sing. Rather than suppress the story, he embarked on a journey to learn more about why his ancestor committed crimes that landed him in jail. Soon after, Arons decided to expand upon the topic by exploring all Jews who served time in the famous prison, “up the river” from Manhattan. The Jews of Sing Sing traces the histories of both famous gangsters and lesser-known gonuvim (the plural of the Yiddish word, gonif, meaning thief), examining their childhoods, the lives of the people around them, and the impact they had on their descendants.