"Kosher Nostra"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

I'm pretty sure Kosher Nostra is older than the 1980s.  IAC, I remember it as being in a two-part joke:
1) Do you know what the Jewish Mafia is called?  ---- (Answer): The Kosher Nostra.
2) Do you know what the Irish Mafia is called? ---- (Answer): The Murphia.
 
Gerald Cohen
 
 
Original Message from: American Dialect Society on behalf of James Harbeck, Fri 7/4/2008 8:30 PM

I first saw "kosher nostra" in one of Nigel Rees's books of collected
graffiti from around the world, which were published in the early
1980s. I can flip through them to see which one if you'd like the
citation. IIRC, the graffito in question read "Jewish Mafia: The
Kosher Nostra?" (Yes, sometimes people do write funny things on
walls.)

James Harbeck.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org