He operated from the shadows, shunned cameras, and cultivated an aura of mystery that made him appear less like a political consultant and more like a figure from a spy novel. Arthur Jay Finkelstein spent half a century whispering in the ears of presidents, prime ministers, and strongmen, teaching them the dark arts of political...

Hollywood motion pictures would have you believe that organized crime in America was a duopoly of Irish and Italian thugs, but there is another ethnic group that not only pioneered the corporate structure of the underworld but continues to exercise profound criminal influence to this day: organized Jewry. The Lower East Side of the late...