JTF.ORG Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: White Israelite on March 29, 2010, 07:52:26 PM
-
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.
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/17.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/18.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/19.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/20.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/21.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/22.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/23.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/24.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/25.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/26.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/27.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/4-1.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/5.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/6.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/7.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/8.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/9.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/1-2.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/10.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/11.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/12.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/13.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/14.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/15.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/16.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/2-1.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/3-1.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/guess2.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/guess3.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more3.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more2.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more4.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more5.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more6.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more7.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more8.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more10.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more12.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more9.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/more11.jpg)
-
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! :laugh: It's a good look!
Oh and HAPPY PASSOVER my Jewish looking brothers and sisters! ;D
Can you tell I had a couple of glasses of wine this evening? ^-^
-
I have heard this most of my life. Its either the nose or the eyes
-
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.
-
People tell me I look either Jewish, or Italian American. I certainly could not pass as a Scandinavian.
-
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
-
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.
-
Isn't your mother a Bavarian?
-
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.
-
Isn't your mother a Bavarian?
She's Germanic (Northern region) near Hamburg.
She's Jewish convert though, fathers full blown born Jewish.
-
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
-
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"
(http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer2/01082004/508465/YE0191915_a.jpg)
(http://thereaganwing.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/colmespic2.jpg)
(http://www.partecipiamo.it/Aforismi_e_citazioni/Immagini_aforismi_citazioni/golda_meir.jpg)
(http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/pv/Adam%20Goldberg-8.jpg)
(http://www.poster.net/streisand-barbara/streisand-barbara-photo-barbra-streisand-6226733.jpg)
-
Yes all those people allan comes and Barbara streisand i won't call people look very Jewish
-
But then you have Jews who look like this harder to tell
(http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2537/061028secherwidehlarge.jpg)
-
Yes true. There is a wide variety of looks among Jewish people.
-
or this actor (http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5980/kirk06.jpg)
hard to tell
-
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.
(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9208/againtr2.jpg)
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6595/dadoldwh8.jpg)
-
http://forwomenonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/paul-newman.jpg
:clap:
-
http://forwomenonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/paul-newman.jpg
:clap:
YES ALL THE WOMEN TELL ME HIS WAS GOOD LOOKING
-
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.
(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9208/againtr2.jpg)
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6595/dadoldwh8.jpg)
HE DOES LOOK MIDDLE EASTERN
-
I think they refer to the Nebbishe look
(http://sideways8.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/woody-allen01.jpg)
Obviously we don't all look like that :laugh:
-
Yep Ze'ev, that's a perfect example of what people are talking about.
Here are some more examples (scientists):
(http://www.egge.net/~savory/einstein55.jpg)
(http://www.sciencenews.org/view/download/id/46820/name/Murray_Gell-Mann)
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?! :o
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.
-
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.
(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9208/againtr2.jpg)
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6595/dadoldwh8.jpg)
HE DOES LOOK MIDDLE EASTERN
Middleeastern - yes. But not typically Jewish. I wouldn't necessarily have identified him as a Jew. And I am good at spotting Jews. Some Jews look typically Jewish, and others have more neutral looks. Still there is such a thing as Jewish looks.
-
Yep Ze'ev, that's a perfect example of what people are talking about.
Here are some more examples (scientists):
(http://www.egge.net/~savory/einstein55.jpg)
(http://www.sciencenews.org/view/download/id/46820/name/Murray_Gell-Mann)
My father was a dead ringer for Albert Einstein. If they made a film about Einstein they should have chosen my father to portray him.
-
I think that many Jews do look slightly similar, and that's because Jews are a relatively small group and never intermarried (until recently). However, there is a wide variety of appearences among Jews. My brother once met someone who thought he was Italian. The guy asked my brother, "what's your name?" My brother then said "Jeff." The guy then said, "Jeff what? Jeff Spaghetti? Jeff Tortellini?" Also, I once saw a video on youtube showing Bill Kristol, and someone wrote, "I'm surprised he's Jewish. He looks like a WASP."
-
I agree with KWRBT about Alan Colmes. I also think that Woody Allen, Larry David, and Barbara Streisand look really repulsive. You can tell by their looks that they are real self-hating Jews.
-
I don't like the way Alan Colmes looks on the outside either.
-
Golda was the cream of the crop in that group of pictures. She always reminded me of a nice old grandmother.
-
White Israelite: Those pictures look like they are from the 1970's. Your dad looks like a pretty big guy, over 200 pounds, I'm guessing. Is he over 6 feet tall? My great grandfather was 6 feet 4.
-
colmes looks like one of uglier dinosaurs a little bit like a tyrannosaurus
-
http://www.foxnews.com/images/402479/2_61_getty.jpg
:love:
-
White Israelite: Those pictures look like they are from the 1970's. Your dad looks like a pretty big guy, over 200 pounds, I'm guessing. Is he over 6 feet tall? My great grandfather was 6 feet 4.
My dad was 6ft2
My grandpa was about 6ft4 and my uncles are around 6ft2 to 6ft4
my dad was about 260 pounds, he was a big guy, definitely not someone to mess with and he loved his guns.
Used to joke that maybe one of our ancestors mixed with Goliaths relatives because of how tall the family was.
-
When im told I look Jewish, I say "thank you" the rest of the world tries to put in our head Jews look like Nazi propaganda photos. Its nonsense... Jews are the best looking people on earth...That is why they were able to start Hollywood.
-
As a matter of fact there is something of a Jewish look, or more accurately Jewish looks, because there are several archetypes. But then again other gentiles have often "Jewish looks". I think the most Jewish looking nation is Portugal. There is an unfortunate historical reason for this- the Portuguese had forcibly converted the Jews in Portugal in great numbers, as much as 25% of the total population.
-
When im told I look Jewish, I say "thank you" the rest of the world tries to put in our head Jews look like Nazi propaganda photos. Its nonsense... Jews are the best looking people on earth...That is why they were able to start Hollywood.
I'm with you 18 chai, ther is something about this thread that is starting to seem self-hating
-
my children are beautiful,intelligent healthy and yes they are Jews and look
Jewish
:israel: :serbia:
-
I still seem to be getting confused as South American and Mexican. I have also been confused as having Native American blood on a number of occasions but I don't think I have any Native blood in me at all. I do have a friend who's a baptist from Mexico and he says his brother gets confused as Arab all the time and he is full blown Mayan. Weird. I did find out my grandma came from Canada but I think they only married with other Jews. Phenotypes are strange because people from different ethnic groups will claim you are "one of them" and recognize your face and then treat you hostile once they find out your Jewish. Whites think i'm one of them and Spanish, Mexicans think i'm one of them, Greeks think i'm one of them, and Jews say I am one of them. Maybe the Jewish look is more common around the world than we really believe and people are just using this "invisible boogy man" to scare themselves into irrational fears.
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/guess2.jpg)
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i249/PILMAN/guess3.jpg)
-
It's tough to say if there's a Jewish look. I come from a family of sephardic Jews and we look like a cross between arab and mediterranean peoples(italian, spanish, etc). It's funny though, the sephardim I've met and know are all way more attractive than arabs though. Maybe that's b/c they stay with their own kind and never inbreed or rape camels like the arabs?
I've been mistaken for arab, italian and of all things albanian and turk.
-
It's tough to say if there's a Jewish look. I come from a family of sephardic Jews and we look like a cross between arab and mediterranean peoples(italian, spanish, etc). It's funny though, the sephardim I've met and know are all way more attractive than arabs though. Maybe that's b/c they stay with their own kind and never inbreed or rape camels like the arabs?
I've been mistaken for arab, italian and of all things albanian and turk.
Same here, I get confused as Arab a lot especially by other Arabs, some people think I look like king of morocco, or 100 percent Iberian. I've also been confused as Turk and Armenoid. Ironically these same people will claim that we aren't the descendants of Israelites and say that we look like Khazars if they find out we're Jewish, but if we never mention our Jewish heritage, they assume we're from the middle east? Makes no sense at all. I guess that shows the real agenda of the enemy. It's because we preserve our ancient roots and culture that they hate us.
I think the results I posted speak for it's self.
-
It's funny though, the sephardim I've met and know are all way more attractive than arabs though.
I agree ;D ;D ;D
-
I compiled the statistics from a few different places and here are the results. 84 people responded to what I asked.
I was confused as the following
-Italian 5 people stated I look italian, in person and on forums
-Albanian 2 people have stated I look albanian on forums
-French 3 people have mentioned I look french
-British 2 people on forums mentioned I resemble Mr Bean?
-Mediterranean 7 people have described me as having Mediterranean features or gracile med genetics.
-Hungarian 1 person stated I look Hungarian
-Irish one black person said I look Irish lol
-Dutch 2 people have mentioned I look Dutch on 2 forums
-Greek 6 people have assumed I'm Greek both in real life and on forums
-Portuguese 2 people have stated on forums I look Portuguese
-Spanish 2 people have mentioned I look Spanish
-Balkans 4 people have mentioned my family and I look like we come from Balkans countries
-Eastern European 2 people have mentioned I look Eastern European, one person said I look Ukranian and would fit in there? I don't think so
-Latin American 11 people have described me as appearing to be of Mexican, Columbian, Argentinian, or Puerto Rican descent.
-Levant Middle East 3 people have described me as being native to the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel)
-Native American 5 people have stated I exhibit Native American features found in Metis and Mestizo populations.
-Turkish 5 people have mentioned I look Turkish on forums including a Turk at a restaurant I eat at.
-Jewish 3 Jews have mentioned I look Jewish without ever mentioning my background.
-Arab/Middle Eastern 10 people have mentioned I look Arab from Iraq, Morrocco, or some other Arab country. Some Arabs have accused me of self hating my identity and stated I look Arab until I revealed I was Jewish.
-Iranian 5 people have claimed I resemble someone from Persia, on Yahoo answers
-German 3 people have stated my parents look German from Southern Bavaria
46% 36 people in total assumed I was Mediterranean assuming the countries ( Italian, Albanian, France, Greek, Portuguese, Balkans, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish)
21% 18 people in total assumed I was Middle Eastern background (Arab, Iranian, Levant, Armenian, Assyrian)
19% 16 people in total assumed I was of Latin American or mixed Amerindian background (Native, Columbian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Argentinian)
14% 11 people in total assumed I was of some other European background (Dutch, German, Hungarian, British, Irish, Eastern European)
Mind you these are people of various backgrounds and they are going off phenotypes to what they see in every day society, not every Jew looks alike, infact the only few people who could tell I even looked "Jewish" were Jews themselves. I find that interesting...
Truth is, I am Romanian, German, and some North African background.
My mom is German and converted to Judaism in the 70's, my dad is Romanian and some Algerian background. My moms background is still being looked into because most people don't think she looks German, my dad on the other hand most Romanians assume he is Romanian and Romanians descend from the Dacians and Romans which were Mediterranean people. We can assimilate and look like the places we live but yet they react hostile when they find out we are Jews.
Considering that the vast majority chose Mediterranean (54 total) and a large number also voted Middle Eastern (since the Levant and Israel is a part of the Mediterranean and share similar phenotypes/genetics), I would say that this blows the whole "Khazar" myth out of the water. We're assumed to not be direct descendants of the Israelites and coming from some distant land yet the majority of people in the poll assumed the region I would be from. Funny how that works.
-
It was really fascinating when you posted that if you mentioned being Jewish that people thought you looked Khazar and if you didn't mentioned it they mentioned Middle East.
-
No one ever thought I was other than German. Although my mother is Brazilian (of German and Dutch descent), But most people are always surprised to see how warm-hearted our family is. ;D
My father's mother always had troubles in her childhood. She was called an "Arab camel" because she had crispy black hair and that what was called a "hook nose" here. She told me that one day she went to a hair stylist and let her hair be cut completely - what did not improve the situation. Their Jewish doctor asked my grandma if she was sure that she had not a Jewish father...
-
No one ever thought I was other than German. Although my mother is Brazilian (of German and Dutch descent), But most people are always surprised to see how warm-hearted our family is. ;D
My father's mother always had troubles in her childhood. She was called an "Arab camel" because she had crispy black hair and that what was called a "hook nose" here. She told me that one day she went to a hair stylist and let her hair be cut completely - what did not improve the situation. Their Jewish doctor asked my grandma if she was sure that she had not a Jewish father...
I never understood the hook nose, I don't have a hook nose, my nose isn't small but it's not "hooked", my dads wasn't really "hooked" either. I've seen that hooked nose feature more often in people of Roman or Italian descent than Jewish.
-
I think this discussion misses the point on a bunch of levels.
-
White Israelite,
We don't allow people to post their own pictures here.. We never know who is reading..
Please remove them... that is my recommendation..
BTW: I would accept you as a Jew... You look Jewish enough to me..
-
I've been told I look Armenian before, by Armenians in an Armenian neighborhood I rented from. Funny to me because Armenians look like regular run of the mill white/European folks to me.
---
Now a joke, stop me if you've heard it before:
A Jew from New York goes on a trip around the world. He stops in China and manages to find a Synagogue to visit. He goes to the Shul and meets a Rabbi who in a somewhat puzzled state goes up to the man and asks, "Are you Jewish?".
The man replies, "Yes! I am Jewish!"
The Chinese Rabbi then says, "Funny, you don't look Jewish!".
Ba-zing!