Do I look Jewish?

You just look like a white guy.

This made me ROFLMAO!!!

I had never been around Jewish people until I joined a gym close to my work and it is the Jewish community center. I would say the OP looks a lot like a typical Jewish person however I am sort of confused. I thought Jewish was a religion? I thought you could be German Jew or Russian Jew or Israeli Jew...but the Jew part just meant your religion but your ethnicity was the German/Russian/Israeli part of you. If being Jewish is not just a religion but an ethnicity...then where do Jewish people trace their lines back to (what country originally?). I am asking because I don't know. Now I will probably go Google this LOL!!!

I am american Indian and German (came from the bad Germans...if the community center knew this I am sure I would be shunned!)

Israel / Jordan

Yes, Jews as a nation/ethnicity go back to the Middle East. Centuries of persecution and slavery and all that jazz dove them to spread out across the world, essentially.

There are people who converted to the religion whose ancestry does not go back to those roots. However, the ones whose lineage goes back that far do tend to share genetic traits in looks, genetic abnormalities and many other things.

I know a lot of people in this thread are offended by that, but it's true. I look at the Jewish side of my family -- including the people who are NOT blood-related, but married in, pluse many Jews I've met over the years who aren't any kind of family and more often than not. there is a resemblance, just like Italians tend to resemble each other, or British people or Russians or whatever.

My Jewish ancestry came to the US from Russia, Germany, Austria and Hungary, so Eastern Europe basically.

Thank you!

I don't know why people have to feel offended by the facts.

I'm short, fat, with black hair, people always ask me if I'm hispanic!?!? LOL! I laugh and say American Indian...same difference. LOL!

People are offended because the Jewish "look" was promoted by the Nazis. It dates back though to eugenics and the rise of antisemitism in the late 19th century (and I use that term specifically to denote Jews, not Semites in general, because that is how the term was ORIGINALLY used). However, not every Jewish person "looks" Jewish. I am Jewish, but do not "look" Jewish (due to my strawberry blond hair and blue eyes). My dad is Catholic and his entire side of the family has blond hair and blue eyes, but my great-grandmother on my mom's side (the Jewish side) had strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. So, not every Jewish person who is born Jewish looks Jewish...

Judaism is a religion that one can convert to, but is also considered an ethnicity and in some cases, a nationality based on 19th century European nationalism. It gets complicated, but these debates date back to the 18th century in Germany and France dealing with questions of citizenship and where eventually, Jews were considered a religious group. As I already mentioned, the rise of eugenics in the 19th century led to the idea that Jews are an ethnicity (however, they were considered a separate entity in much of Medieval Europe and the idea of Jewish "blood," meaning ethnicity, dates back to 16th century Portugal and the "New Christians" after the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th century and when Jews were then converted en mass in 1507 in Portugal). In Eastern Europe they were considered an ethno-national group (for various reasons) by the modern period and in the Soviet Union in particular, being "Jewish" meant one's nationality.

(I'm finishing my PhD in modern Jewish history...I deal with these concepts on a daily basis from an academic perspective.)

People are offended because the Jewish "look" was promoted by the Nazis. It dates back though to eugenics and the rise of antisemitism in the late 19th century (and I use that term specifically to denote Jews, not Semites in general, because that is how the term was ORIGINALLY used). However, not every Jewish person "looks" Jewish

I do get that, but by that logic black people don't look black because they were once slaves based on their skin color.

Jews have been treated terribly for centuries and it would be nice to get past that.

As for not looking you ethnicity/nationality, that is the case everywhere. If you met my Italian (100% Italian) relatives, you wouldn't think they looked Italian, but they are. And of course, intermarriage dilutes and mingles genetic traits, so a lot of people no longer have those features or they're far less prominent.

My father has a very stereotypical Jewish look, and if you saw me standing next to him, you would swear I do, as well. Yet put me next to my mother, who is the daughter of a Northern Italian mother and a Swedish/German father -- and grew up Catholic -- and you would swear I look just like her.

Way to pick and choose and twist my words... The Nazis published textbooks on how to identify a Jew... so it's not the same thing.

But in any case, you clearly did not understand what I was saying.

People are offended because the Jewish "look" was promoted by the Nazis. It dates back though to eugenics and the rise of antisemitism in the late 19th century (and I use that term specifically to denote Jews, not Semites in general, because that is how the term was ORIGINALLY used). However, not every Jewish person "looks" Jewish

I do get that, but by that logic black people don't look black because they were once slaves based on their skin color.

Jews have been treated terribly for centuries and it would be nice to get past that.

As for not looking you ethnicity/nationality, that is the case everywhere. If you met my Italian (100% Italian) relatives, you wouldn't think they looked Italian, but they are. And of course, intermarriage dilutes and mingles genetic traits, so a lot of people no longer have those features or they're far less prominent.

My father has a very stereotypical Jewish look, and if you saw me standing next to him, you would swear I do, as well. Yet put me next to my mother, who is the daughter of a Northern Italian mother and a Swedish/German father -- and grew up Catholic -- and you would swear I look just like her.

Way to pick and choose and twist my words... The Nazis published textbooks on how to identify a Jew... so it's not the same thing.

But in any case, you clearly did not understand what I was saying.

I understood it perfectly. You're saying it isn't OK to point out a fact (that there are genetic traits shared by a group of people with common ancestors) because the Nazis.

I had family who died in concentration camps. I'm not exactly a fan of them. But it doesn't change the fact that there are certain features that a lot of Jewish people share, just like a lot of Italian people have similar features and a lot of British people have similar features.

If the Nazis had killed 6 million English people the same way, would we not be allowed to say someone looks British?

People are offended because the Jewish "look" was promoted by the Nazis. It dates back though to eugenics and the rise of antisemitism in the late 19th century (and I use that term specifically to denote Jews, not Semites in general, because that is how the term was ORIGINALLY used). However, not every Jewish person "looks" Jewish

I do get that, but by that logic black people don't look black because they were once slaves based on their skin color.

Jews have been treated terribly for centuries and it would be nice to get past that.

As for not looking you ethnicity/nationality, that is the case everywhere. If you met my Italian (100% Italian) relatives, you wouldn't think they looked Italian, but they are. And of course, intermarriage dilutes and mingles genetic traits, so a lot of people no longer have those features or they're far less prominent.

My father has a very stereotypical Jewish look, and if you saw me standing next to him, you would swear I do, as well. Yet put me next to my mother, who is the daughter of a Northern Italian mother and a Swedish/German father -- and grew up Catholic -- and you would swear I look just like her.

Way to pick and choose and twist my words... The Nazis published textbooks on how to identify a Jew... so it's not the same thing.

But in any case, you clearly did not understand what I was saying.

I understood it perfectly. You're saying it isn't OK to point out a fact (that there are genetic traits shared by a group of people with common ancestors) because the Nazis.

I had family who died in concentration camps. I'm not exactly a fan of them. But it doesn't change the fact that there are certain features that a lot of Jewish people share, just like a lot of Italian people have similar features and a lot of British people have similar features.

If the Nazis had killed 6 million English people the same way, would we not be allowed to say someone looks British?

No. I'm not saying that it's not okay to point out a fact. The poster to whom I was replying said she doesn't understand why people get so offended by it. I was simply answering that question. I am not arguing whether or not it is legitimately okay to be offended by it. I am saying that is WHY people GET OFFENDED BY IT. There is a difference. I am pointing out a fact. The rest of my post actually (briefly) explained where these ideas come from, so either you didn't read the entire post, or you misunderstood what I was saying. I am a historian and that is what I do. That is all. We are actually in agreement, so you need to relax...

I am completely blown away by the number of people who do not know that Jewish is a nationality and/or religion. Do you sleep thru Social Studies class??

And for the record, Jesus was born a Jew, from Jewish parents. I guess he changed religion when he was born?

You can be genetically Jewish, but choose to follow Judaism or not.
You can be another nationality and choose to follow Judaism.

If you were born genetically Jewish, then you are Jewish.
If you follow Judaism, then you are Jewish.
But only genetic Jews will 'Look' Jewish.

But it's not so simple and I think that's what this thread has shown. If someone is born Jewish but converts to Christianity or Islam, is that person still Jewish? (According to Judaism, yes, but probably not according to that individual. So where does one draw the line? According to the State of Israel, such a person should be considered Jewish under the Law of Return, but there are cases where people have been denied citizenship under this law because they converted to a different religion.) And not all Jews who are born Jewish will "look" Jewish. There are Jews who view themselves as Jewish by religion and others who view themselves as Jewish by nationality only. There are also secular Jews, Humanistic Jews, etc. The list goes on and these debates have been continuing for centuries.

And to answer your Jesus question/comment - early Christians (aka "the Jesus Movement") were considered a sect of Judaism (like the Pharisees, Sadducees, etc. who also existed at the same time). It was not until Paul that Christianity became a separate religion.

I am completely blown away by the number of people who do not know that Jewish is a nationality and/or religion. Do you sleep thru Social Studies class??

And for the record, Jesus was born a Jew, from Jewish parents. I guess he changed religion when he was born?

You can be genetically Jewish, but choose to follow Judaism or not.
You can be another nationality and choose to follow Judaism.

If you were born genetically Jewish, then you are Jewish.
If you follow Judaism, then you are Jewish.
But only genetic Jews will 'Look' Jewish.

BTW I am 1/8 Native American. But I have none of their traits.
I am considered American, because I live in America. 7/8 of my ancestors came from other countries, mostly Northern European.
So I am a mutt. Like most of the rest of this country.
No one 'looks' like an American, as we are not a ethnicity. Unless you consider the Native American nationality, which is actually a blend of other nationalities, if I am not mistaken.
Once people started moving to other countries, the nationalities started getting mixed up. I like it that way. Perhaps one day racism will be a thing of the past, because we are all one race- human.

my dad's mum's mum's mum was Jewish so am I genetically Jewish or not?

Personally, I'm really bad at telling what ethnicity someone is by looking at them. However I can spot archaic traits, e.g. neanderthal forehead, Homo erectus cheekbones a mile off.

As for silly rules about ethnicity that are not based purely on how science says genetics works, my favourite is the "one drop" rule, because if we apply that at the species level, nearly all of us would be Homo neanderthalensis rather than Homo sapiens :drinker:

I don't know about Jewish, I'd say more like adorable.