Kosher Mafia #1: Kvelling or kvetching? You decide.

Kosher mafia by author David Hazan and artist Sami Kavelï is a crime thriller set in Cleveland Heights in 1936, Cleveland, and centers on Howard Berkowicz, an accountant for the Jewish mafia, who gets in trouble with a mafia hitman for his efforts to stem the tide of the rising pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic fervor that has been spreading across the country. The hitman in question, Ephraim Gold, is a ruthless killer who has little qualms about killing anyone his bosses order him to. The two couldn’t be more polar opposites, but the progression of this story and where it leads is the strongest point of the book.

The book is a fictional historical crime drama set in the uncertain time before the United States entered World War II. It is a thoughtful, introspective look at a time when the majority of the United States was very sympathetic to the Nazi regime, something that is often glossed over in the average high school history class. Howard and Ephraim are two men who couldn’t be more different. Howard is a white-collar guy trying to make a living for his family. He has reservations about working with the Jewish mafia, so he lies to his wife. Ephraim is a cold-blooded killer who will pistol-whip or shoot someone and has no qualms about it.

The bulk of this story takes place at Howard’s kitchen table, where the two men have a conversation about who they are and how they got to where they are. Howard is portrayed as a gentle person, who lives by his beliefs. Despite being pushed around by others, the organization insisted on talking to the mob bosses to enlist their help against the Nazi regime that was destroying the Jewish population across Europe. It is this chutzpah that impresses Ephraim as they continue their conversation, causing him to change his mind and move on to the next phase of their relationship: kidnapping and murdering a kraut.

Sami Kivelä is the artist here and their style fits the wartime noir storyline very well. His style is very straightforward and he doesn’t waste the space allotted during the storyline. His style is reminiscent of the late, great Tim Sale and it evokes some of his work over the years. Since most of the story revolves around the gentlemen’s conversation, it’s up to Kivelä’s artist to tell it through facial expressions, body language and story composition. The characters here express fear, anger, humor and that’s what the story requires to properly convey the seriousness needed for a story like this.

Hazan leans into this with the characterization here, giving these two a depth that is very subtle, and it is this subtlety that is the ultimate reward. Hazan and Kivelä deliver a provocative and interesting story set in a particularly dark period for the Jewish people. You can’t help but notice the similarities between the veritable powder keg of anti-Semitic fervor that comes from both sides of the political spectrum, which I fear could overshadow the message of the book.