Reply to Is the refernece "he/she looks very Jewish" benign or an insult?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Except the thing is MANY OF US DON'T look that different.

Not everything is this "oh it's just a huge melting pot" thing. Yes there's diversity in the Jewish population, but 10-11 million of the roughly 16 million Jews in the world are Ashkenazi. We have physical similarities. THAT'S NOT A BAD THING.

We have a strong history that binds us together. I'm not ashamed of looking Jewish. I'm not ashamed of looking at my family--and my people--and seeing physical similarities.

Us Ashkenazi Jews have such strong similarities that there is a genetic panel done during pregnancy called the Ashkenazi Jew panel.

We aren't Christians, who come from every country in the world. There are only 16 million of us, and we are clustered in a small number of countries. [/quote]

Thank you!!! This is the sentiment that feels right to me. Jews ARE binded together. There is enormous pride in being Jewish. There are some physical similarities among Jews. It is never an insult to look Jewish. If someone hates Jews and makes a negative comment that is altogether a different story. [/quote]

This. If it's said negatively, it's negative, no matter who says it. If it's a neutral comment or observation, it's not an insult.

It's silly to deny there is an Ashkenazi "look" even if not everyone looks that way. I was in shul for the High Holidays and there was absolutely a more pronounced resemblance among the congregants than, say, among the non-Jewish white folks at my workplace. Lots of very dark wavy/curly hair, fair bit of wavy auburn or dark red hair, pronounced noses. Nothing wrong with these features. And of course plenty of folks don't have them - for example my Jewish mother had white-blond hair until she was 12. But overall enough Jews do have similar features that one can say someone looks Jewish as a general descriptor. My family certainly all plays the "is h/she Jewish?" game, though we are not always right![/quote]

Ashkenazi Jew here. I totally agree! I think a lot of non-Jews just don't get it. I think they don't realize how much we just make fun of ourselves. Example:

My family of NY Jews was talking the other day about a sort of hilarious chart on Wikipedia that shows the number of Jews in various countries. Typical exchange: "Oh wow, there are 100 Jews in South Korea." "There are Jews in South Korea? But they don't even eat bagels and lox there! How could Jews survive?"

You really have to be a NY Jew to understand why that conversation isn't really offensive. We've been persecuted for such a long time that we really have grown to embrace self-deprecating humor. It's a survival mechanism. [/quote]

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