High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Yiddish Black Hand or the Jewish Black Hand Association was a criminal organization that operated on New York`s Lower East Side during the early 20th century, led by Jacob "Johnny" Levinsky. Around 1906, Levinsky, with Charles "Charley the Cripple" Vitoffsky and Joseph Toplinsky, began an extortion ring from their hangout at a Suffolk Street saloon, delivering anonymous letters signed as the "Yiddish Black Hand" threatening to steal or poison the horses of local pushcart vendors and other businessmen. This method was used earlier by Neapolitan Camorristi, Sicilian mafiosi and others who preyed on Italian immigrants as the Black Hand. Within three years, the ice cream manufacturers` association created a commercial fund from which they would annually pay off the organization.