Why do Jews have big noses?

+69 votes
asked Sep 8, 2018 in Culture & Society by Cheri (1,130 points)
edited Feb 9, 2019
Why do Jews have big noses?

I’m not a Jew, but many of my Jewish friends have large noses. I’m not anti-Semitic, but I’d like to know why this trait evolved.

3 Answers

+27 votes
answered Apr 13, 2019 by Cheri (1,130 points)
edited May 2, 2019

The image of the Jew with the hooked nose was a propaganda tool created by the Nazis.

The following image is from a 1938 children’s publication in Germany called Der Giftpilz:

Demonization or dehumanization of the qualities of a group is pretty common in propaganda. This is why much of the Nazi art and media portrayed the Jews with rat noses or ears that resemble devil horns.

You’ll find that large noses are typical among people of all backgrounds. The type of nose you’re describing is common among just one of the many groups of Jews. Like any community separated by culture and geography, their gene pool is fairly narrow and certain recognizable characteristics are concentrated.

Of course, there are many Jews from the same group and all other groups all over the world who lack the stereotypical large nose. Also, you mentioned evolution, but that’s not really how evolution works. Evolution functions on a much larger scale than the amount of time Jews have been on Earth. If your notion of the nose size having connection to "salty air" (it’s the sea that contains salt, by the way, not the air), all people living near the Mediterranean would share the same feature.

Reference:

http://www.quora.com/Where-do-stereotypes-about-the-physical-appearance-of-Jews-e-g-hooked-noses-come-from

0 votes
answered Oct 3, 2018 by Gretchen (960 points)
edited Jun 2, 2019
Why do Jews have big noses? Well, I didn't notice the nose of Jews before I found this question. I was thinking that it is something related with race, but Jewish is not a race. There is definite difference on appearance between Jews in Europe and Jews in Arabic world. So I guess it might be kind of stereotype.

Also, any body characters attributed to Jewish people remind me the anti-Semitism in Europe. The big nose might belong to anti-Semitism, though I don't find any negative impression on this feature.
0 votes
answered Feb 8, 2019 by timallen420 (140 points)
edited Apr 20, 2019
Because air is free.
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