Personal Brand Stereotypes #9: Jews Have Big Noses and Bald Spots
April 15, 2008 at 10:20 am | In Personal Branding, Podcasts | 16 CommentsTags: jews, judaism, religion, stereotypes
There will be one more post in this series, marking #10. Today, I wanted to bring out religion, so that maybe we could have a great discussion around the perception of Jews. Feel free to examine the information in this post, as well as my analysis and comment on it. This series has been much better than I ever thought it would be and I think the result of your participation has motivated me to get this series up to 10. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for the final one tomorrow.
The Series:
- #1 – Tall people are basketball players
- #2 – Glasses make you look smart
- #3 – Men who wear pink are homosexual
- #4 – The hippie phenomenon
- #5 – Only punks wear mohawks
- #6 – Ageism puts Gen-Y in danger
- #7 – A nice car means you’re successful
- #8 – Choose your major wisely
What is a Jew?
Jewish people originated from the Israelites of the ancient Middle East. Judaism is the base religion and like any religion, we have our own events and traditions, such as Passover and “The High Holiday’s.” Historically Jews were persecuted and in 2007 there were about 13.2 million Jews worldwide. The common language for Jews is Hebrew. There are 3 different levels of Judaism, including Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed. I’m a Reformed Jew, which means I don’t have to keep Kosher (no milk and meet, bacon, etc) and I just don’t celebrate that much. As you move up the chain to Orthadox, the differences are obvious. You will see many Orthadox Jews wear Yamika’s 24/7 (covering their head) and their services are three times as long as Reformed.
Analysis
We tend to think of Jews as successful and intellectual doctors, teachers, lawyers and accountants. Also, Jews are called greedy and are said to only care about money. In this way, they are categorized as “cheap” individuals who count ever penny. They are said to have big noses and a bald spot in the middle of their heads (the men). Another attribute Jews are said to have is bushy hair and facial hair. As a Jew, many of the Jew’s I’ve met have shared these attributes, but some haven’t, therefore my conclusion is that it is false stereotype. I don’t really get offended by this at all and recognize that many Jews, such as Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg are successful. Another item I wanted to point out was last names. Typical Jewish last names are “stein,” “Levy,” “Levine” or anything ending in “Berg.” If you are Jewish, have you had these experiences and if you have different religious beliefs, do you stereotype Jews in this manner?
Some Humor At My Expense
Son: A Jewish boy comes home from school and tells his mother he’s been given a part in the school play.
Mother: “Wonderful. What part is it?”
Son: The boy says,”I play the part of the Jewish husband.”
Mother: The mother scowls and says, “Go back and tell the teacher you want a speaking part.”
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One interesting thing about stereotypes is that they are cultural. For example, The Jewish nose is an old one, caricatured many times over but originally it only related to Ashkenazi Jews i.e. Jews who spent the past millennium in Northern/Eastern Europe and the FSU.
Bald spots is a North American stereotype if anything.
As for money/success, that’s a universal Jewish stereotype and not surprising. The heights of Judaism are to be learned, which you can only do if you can read. Even non-practicing Jews – be they Orthodox, Conservative or Reform – prize schooling. Success will most often come to the educated.
Comment by Jacob Share — April 15, 2008 #
Perhaps it’s because I live in Montreal, with a large Orthodox community which has been here for a few generations but these stereotypes are offensive.
Surely, you know not everyone thinks like this or even had an inkling that others did. All Jewish people have curly hair?!
I don’t know if you have such an organization in America but we have B’Nai Brith here in Canada…
http://www.bnaibrith.ca/
…which is an anti-semitism watchdog organization that constantly reports stats on such. Every year, there’s an increase in anti-semitic remarks. It’s never trended downwards.
Not sure if it’s truth or marketing or truth in marketing but, as a Black person who also deals with occasional discrimination, it’s sad that such an organization has to still exist.
That said, ignore the ignorance of others. Beyond education, I’m not sure what can be done to help racial or religious stereotyping…especially if it’s institutionalized. Would you want to work for a company that had this kind of bias?
Comment by Natasha — April 15, 2008 #
Great post Dan! You definitely do a great job highlighting the key issues about this stereotype. It is sad, but true that humans tend to jump to conclusions before getting the full story…Oh well…life will go on! Keep rockin!
Comment by Scott Bradley — April 15, 2008 #
“Historically Jews were persecuted…”
Oh, stop whining through your big nose.
Seriously though that was a great article and I enjoyed reading it. Very informative and good stuff all the way around.
Best of luck to you.
Comment by nonracist — April 15, 2008 #
Great post Dan! I’m in Australia and we have some stereotypes about Jews here too, but I wouldn’t have thought it was as bad as all that!
There is an extremely racist comment I’ve heard though – “you got jewed” in reference to being ripped off. Some also say “you got gyped” as in ripped off by a gypsy. Ever heard those.
Well, my stereotype about Jewish people is that they are generally nice, generous, ethical and successful people.
Some people just can’t handle other’s success.
Comment by CS Thompson — April 16, 2008 #
These stereotypes seem dated to me. The hot ones seem to be from the middle east and view Jews as the sons of pigs and monkeys who are conspiring to run the world.
This kind of propaganda is a primary reason for Canada’s refusal to attend “Durban 2″, the UN bizarro world conference on anti-racism.
http://tinyurl.com/5wfr6b
Comment by Recruiting Animal — April 16, 2008 #
One of my first memories of the Jewish religion was from my classmates who taught me a song about the dreidel while learning about Hanukkah. I wanted to convert just to receive gifts for eight days. As a child you don’t see the stereotypes or negatives in any particular religion or race. You want to be part of that cool thing someone else does.
Stereotypes are a domino affect. I corrected one of my Hispanic co-workers in front of a group of Anglo co-workers for saying that all Hispanics carry knives. I certainly don’t carry one.
Comment by lucilla — April 16, 2008 #
[...] Dan Schawbel Bio Personal Brand Stereotypes #9: Jews Have Big Noses and Bald Spots [...]
Pingback by Personal Brand Stereotypes #9: Jews Have Big Noses and Bald Spots : Brazen Careerist — April 17, 2008 #
Dan, as you know Im one of 5.5 million Israeli jews and I can tell you one thing – We all so different from eachother.
As you can see in the Video clip we have all kinds of jews origins – from Russia, Poland, Romania, Morocco, Ethiopia, Iraq, Tunis, Germany, Argentina, and the list go on and on. so many people from so many places – no way they can have the same look or mentality!
But as you can imagine, every single ethnic group has its own stereotype which surely effects the personal branding of his/her indiviuals.
the stereotype is most of the time false, but it gets stronger after every ethnic joke, not to mention rasict remarks.
Here, “The big nose Jews” is someting that belong to a very dark past.
BTW – You are more than welcome to come visit here and see for yourself
– a place to stay you already have…
Comment by Maor Kaplanski — April 17, 2008 #
[...] #9 – Jews have big noses and bald spots [...]
Pingback by Personal Brand Stereotypes #10: Connections to Corporate « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel — April 17, 2008 #
Many Jews don’t have big noses, and I don’t mean just because some are converts or have surgery. It’s not like part of the conversion process is nasal enhancement surgery.
Comment by Rachel — May 31, 2008 #
[...] lot of people stereotype Jews (I’m a Jew) about being rich, greedy and smart business people. How would you respond to this [...]
Pingback by Learn How to Brand Yourself From a Rabbi! « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel — October 14, 2008 #
[...] lot of people stereotype Jews (I’m a Jew) about being rich, greedy and smart business people. How would you respond to this [...]
Pingback by HRM Today - Blog Archive » Learn How to Brand Yourself From a Rabbi! — October 15, 2008 #
hahahaha! This is so funny! Im sorry but it is so true! Something I have always heard is that jewish women have b*tchy attidudes! Lol! I came accross this, because I am trying to write a paper on jewish stereotypes.
Wonderful post
Shalom!
Comment by Madai — November 6, 2008 #
Hi to all, That is really an interesting topic which is being dicussed over here and I would like to say few words about Jew People though I’ve never come across to see or meet any jew person myself but I strongly believe that in every single religon that we have on this planet earth is not useless at all, It is just the boundry of understanding in different cultural background. In every religon there are good people and there are bad people, When we say someone is bad just because that someone represents abc religon this whole concept is wrong because it is not the religon the that someone himself/herself. I’m a Muslim by religon but i’m not that religious person but as per my understanding the best religon on planet earth IS humanity and the best weapon is Love and Peace.
Comment by KARIM — November 30, 2008 #
Very interesting topic indeed.
You just can’t escape stereotypes where ever you go. That’s not to say all stereotypes are bad.
If you’re called rich and successful; surely that can’t be such a bad thing. Though on the flip side of things; if you’re Jewish, and don’t conform to such sterotypes; it can leave you feeling a little complexed. There’s so much community pressure to perform. I know this because I’m a Bengali. We come from a culture where academics is placed on high priority. I’ve never been academically inclined; and I’ve been looked down upon because I’m not a doc,engineer or a corporate hotshot!! Another bengali stereotype wud be that Bengali men are hen pecked, we just eat fish and rice, that bengali women have big eyes, that we all sing and that Bengali women are wild in bed!!! it’s a lot to live up to!
Comment by pinki — January 24, 2009 #