"You look Jewish" what are they talking about?

[White Israelite]

How many of you have heard the phrase "you look Jewish" or "you don't look Jewish" as if there is some sort of "Jewish look"? What have you been confused for? I have told numerous people I am Jewish and they will either state "you don't look Jewish" or they will make a comment "ah I knew you were Jewish, I can spot the features" but yet before anyone knows anything about me being Jewish, they assume i'm something else. Look at some of the responses I got on forums and yahoo answers and very few if any (other than fellow Jewish people) are able to tell that I am of Jewish background. My fathers a Kohen too and did not mix with other people.

I have been most commonly mistaken for Greek, Turkish, Spanish, Mediterranean, Hispanic, Italian, and Moroccan.

I've also been mistaken as Arab on a few occasions by other Arabs or Pakistanis, Amerindian () on a few occasions, Baltic, Persian, Macedonian, Albanian, Assyrian (Armenoid), Armenian, Kurdish, Egyptian, and Amazigh by North Africans.

A few people see some of my Romanian background particularly other Romanians.

My parents get confused as a lot of things too. My great aunt on my dads side who is less mixed than him or I gets confused as Iberian or Italian all the time.

What's ironic is that most Neo Nazis would assume us white unless they heard we had Jewish ancestry, but ironically the very features they focus on are actually native to their region such as the famous "hooknose" sometimes referred to as the "Roman Nose" which none of my family has. Aren't genetics funny? I am assumed to be what the person is familiar with via facial features, culture, and our language but as soon as they assume anything Jewish, we have become their enemy. See the responses for yourself.

If we're being associated as Mediterraneans, I think that's pretty valid support that we come from the Levant and not some Caucasus or some Khazar Asian kingdom that the anti-semites think we descend from.

[New Yorker]

Yeah, there's a Jewish look, the thing with the nose, and y'know, the Jew Fro.   

What? I can say that, I got that look! It's a good look! 

Oh and HAPPY PASSOVER my Jewish looking brothers and sisters! 

Can you tell I had a couple of glasses of wine this evening? 

[Abben]

I have heard this most of my life. Its either the nose or the eyes

[White Israelite]

I have heard this most of my life. Its either the nose or the eyes

I don't have this "Jewish nose" people talk about, mine is large but it's not this "hook shape" people claim we have.

[Lisa]

People tell me I look either Jewish, or Italian American.  I certainly could not pass as a Scandinavian. 

[JTFenthusiast2]

I get people saying, "I would have never known you were Jewish," especially from my good Christian Philipino friends who never met a Jew before or at least we're never friends with a Jewish person before.  From a Black Muslim, he once said, "yeah, I could have figured you for a Jew."  To which I said, "And why is that, Mr. Abdul?"  " I don't know I could have just figured you for one."  " I said you mean in the same way in which I could have pegged you for a Muslim?"  To which he was offended, but screw him and the horse he rode in on

[White Israelite]

I get people saying, "I would have never known you were Jewish," especially from my good Christian Philipino friends who never met a Jew before or at least we're never friends with a Jewish person before.  From a Black Muslim, he once said, "yeah, I could have figured you for a Jew."  To which I said, "And why is that, Mr. Abdul?"  " I don't know I could have just figured you for one."  " I said you mean in the same way in which I could have pegged you for a Muslim?"  To which he was offended, but screw him and the horse he rode in on

If most people saw a so called "Palestinian", take away the hijab and the arabic language, people would assume that he were either a greek, turk, or an egyptian.

Most people have this stereotype driven into their mind what someone is going to look like because of Hollywood, it's like when you watch those old westerns and they show all the Indians as looking a certain way, people look different from mixing and based on their region.

What's odd is how I was classified as Armenoid, ironically Armenoid features are native to the Levant. People want to believe Jews are these white colonists taking over the Middle East and high schools teach us the Jews were these dark Dubai looking people when no one in the Levant originally looked like that at all.

The Arabs can migrate to Europe and have a family there for generations but because of their last names, people associate they were always there. You can hardly find anyone with an original Berber name anymore or Phoenician but people will associate an Arab name as belonging to the entire middle east,parts of central asia. If you have a Jewish name, so many Jewish names have been Europeanized that you people assume Jews are just European in general. Even my last name Cohen has been Europeanized although people still associate it as a Jewish name. My original name previous to immigration was HaKohen and I'm curious if people would have viewed that as a middle eastern name or just associated it with something else. The world seems to want to pretend Judaism had no roots in the middle east or we somehow bought our names.

Without culture, you can take a picture of someone and they are anything you want them to be, it's all in the eye of the beholder, and now that we dress modern, people associate we are just assimilated and part of their cultures now.

[mord]

Isn't your mother a Bavarian?

[Yaacov Ben Yehuda]

i get mistaken for Italian, Latino, sometimes even mixed race like half black half white...its weird...and sometimes people think i'm irish or hungarian....
I get Jewish very rarely, but i do look Jewish in my eyes and to some other Jews.  I'm Ashkenazi btw.

[White Israelite]

Isn't your mother a Bavarian?

She's Germanic (Northern region) near Hamburg.

She's Jewish convert though, fathers full blown born Jewish.

[mord]

Isn't your mother a Bavarian?

She's Germanic (Northern region) near Hamburg.

She's Jewish convert though, fathers full blown born Jewish.

O.K so maybe people can't be sure if your Jewish or not.Most people can't be sure what i am they guess and guess

[Rubystars]

I should probably stay out of this thread, because the last time I said someone looked Jewish I got stomped on. However, I do think there are certain features which are associated with Jews in the public mind, even if Jews don't necessarily have that look.

Jews that look "Jewish"

[mord]

Yes all those people allan comes and Barbara streisand i won't call people look very Jewish

[mord]

But then you have Jews who look like this harder to tell 

[Rubystars]

Yes true. There is a wide variety of looks among Jewish people.

[mord]

or this actor   




hard to tell

[White Israelite]

I dunno if my dad looks like the typical Jewish guy or not, most people just assumed he was Arab. coworkers used to joke about his passport photo when he was wearing the aviators as they stated he resembled Saddam but I don't really think he did.

One of my Jewish Yemenite friends thought maybe he was a Egyptian Karaite, I guess that style moustache is common in Egypt or something.

[Boyana]

http://forwomenonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/paul-newman.jpg


 

[mord]

http://forwomenonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/paul-newman.jpg


 

YES ALL THE WOMEN TELL ME HIS WAS GOOD LOOKING

[mord]

I dunno if my dad looks like the typical Jewish guy or not, most people just assumed he was Arab. coworkers used to joke about his passport photo when he was wearing the aviators as they stated he resembled Saddam but I don't really think he did.

One of my Jewish Yemenite friends thought maybe he was a Egyptian Karaite, I guess that style moustache is common in Egypt or something.

HE DOES LOOK MIDDLE EASTERN

[Ze'ev]

I think they refer to the Nebbishe look



Obviously we don't all look like that 

[Rubystars]

Yep Ze'ev, that's a perfect example of what people are talking about.

Here are some more examples (scientists):

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

I am slightly offended that it was said here that Alan Colmes "looks Jewish."   He's about the ugliest person I've ever seen.   He looks like an alien more than anything else.

[Rubystars]

I am slightly offended that it was said here that Alan Colmes "looks Jewish."   He's about the ugliest person I've ever seen.   He looks like an alien more than anything else.

Sorry I put his picture up there. I was looking more to facial features than to the character of the people involved. I agree that inside he's a very ugly person.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

I am slightly offended that it was said here that Alan Colmes "looks Jewish."   He's about the ugliest person I've ever seen.   He looks like an alien more than anything else.

Sorry I put his picture up there. I was looking more to facial features than to the character of the people involved. I agree that inside he's a very ugly person.

You don't find him ugly on the outside?!   

I was speaking entirely physically, aside from that fact that he's a leftwing nutjob... He is just one strange looking man.

Of course when I say I'm offended I say it in jest, but it's half serious because ... I mean come on, look at that guy... Who wants to be associated with that look?    Btw, I always thought he got plastic surgery or something.  Something looks very peculiar about his facial features.