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[b]ISIDOR LEVIN[/b][/center]
Name: Isidor Nestorovich Levin
Date of Birth: January 5, 1897 (57 years old)
Place of Birth: Odessa, Russian Empire
Occupation: Jeweler, pawnbroker
Affiliation: Levin Gang, subordinate to Hyde Park Gang 
Modus Operandi: Protection, illegal gaming, fencing of stolen merchandise 

Background/History: Isidor Levin was born into a Jewish family in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, the only son of a talented and widowed jeweler, Nestor Levin. When the pogroms of 1905 broke out, the elder Levin's store was among those vandalized and looted, while several of their friends and neighbors were killed by the Black Hundreds. Thoroughly fed up with the Russian situation and seeing no future for his son and two daughters in Russia, Nestor Levin was among the many Jews to flee Odessa in 1905, striking out for greener pastures in London.

The eight-year-old Isidor immediately fell in love with London, but it was not as kind to his father. While they did indeed know greater freedom in the new country, the Levin family found their circumstances reduced. Nestor Levin found work exactly where he wanted, in a prestigious Hatton Garden jeweler's shop, but merely as a guard. The pay was adequate but not much more. They were just another immigrant family, not the famous Levins of Odessa. Determined not to let his skill and talent go to waste, Nestor began to pass on the trade to his son Isidor.

He paid close attention to these lessons, but the lad's life took a different turn. Returning from service in the Royal Army Service Corps during the Great War (though he is proud of his service, Isidor is still humble enough to admit that he saw no combat), Isidor noticed a troubling trend in West London. Jewish-owned shops were targeted for harassment and vandalism by other returning Tommies, usually due to the names of the proprietors sounding German to untrained ears. Isidor gathered together a few neighborhood toughs and organized patrols, standing guard outside the shops and turning away anyone with ill intent. Very politely, Isidor requested a small fee for his trouble from the shopowners, citing the difficulty in getting together so many nice young men willing to stick their necks out. The shopkeepers happily paid up, most of them not even realizing that the soft-spoken, polite young Levin boy had just set up a protection racket.

That was the start of the Levin Gang, a few Jews standing in front of delis and bookstores for pocket money. Isidor carefully saved the protection money, investing in a Seven Dials pawnshop in 1921. It was then that his financial prospects really improved. Not only did the pawnshop provide a good stream of legitimate income, it also provided him an excellent opportunity to receive stolen goods and fence them to an interested buyer. Not to mention the spacious basement made a nice private setting for high-stakes games of baccarat and rummy. The money allowed him to do a lot of things- send his sister Rachel to university in Newcastle where she met a husband, send his other sister Zara back to Russia, where she met Communism. It let him buy a nice flat for his father to retire in, donations to charity and local synagogues, a couple more pawnshops, even an old run-down jewelry store.

It also bought the attention of the Adler family. Harry Adler and Levin, both reasonable men, saw the benefits in absorbing the Levin Gang into the Hyde Park set- safety in numbers and increased wealth and resources for both. Levin, unambitious and satisfied with what he was earning, and content with the respect he got from the community, remained on as a permanent lieutenant to the Adlers throughout the years. He serves as both an adviser and something of an honorary uncle to the Adlers, many of whom he watched grow up.