Bible Encyclopedias
Expression

• M. Fishberg, Materials for the Physical Anthropology of the Eastern European Jews, in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1905;
• S. Wateff, Anthropologische Beobachtungen der Farbe der Augen, der Haare und der Haut bei den Schulkindern von den Türken, Pomaken, Tataren, Armenier, Griechen und Juden in Bulgarien, in Correspondenzblatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1903, , Nos. 7, 8.
• also Eye and Hair.

What is popularly known as "the Jewish type" is not a correlation of definite anthropological measures or characteristics, but consists principally in a peculiar expression of face, which is immediately and unmistakably recognized as "Jewish" in a large numberof cases of persons of the Jewish race. It has been observed that children in New York, Gentile as well as Jewish, can unerringly distinguish between Jew and Gentile, whether juvenile or adult. The negroes of the Gold Coast are said to differentiate the two types of Europeans with equal exactitude, saying "here come two whites and a Jew," instead of "here come three whites" (Andree, "Zur Volkskunde der Juden," p. 38). Yet when taken together in large numbers, a considerable proportion of Jews fail to betray their racial provenience. In collective photographs of Jewish school-children and inmates of institutions it has been found that while about 53 per cent of the subjects can be more or less certainly identified as Jews by their facial expression, the remaining 47 per cent fail to show any distinctive feature which would definitely mark them as Semites, though if compared with Gentiles of the same class they could probably be differentiated. It has also been remarked that persons who do not have the Jewish expression in their youth acquire it more and more as they grow from middle to old age. Although Jewesses appear to be more variable in appearance than Jews, they seem to show the type in its greatest purity when they actually are Jewish in features.

Expression.

The precise nature of this Jewishness is very difficult to determine with any degree of certainty or accuracy. Evidently it is not in any one feature, for whenever any single trait, such as the shape of the nose or the brilliancy of the eyes, is assumed to be characteristic, the very next example is liable to disprove the validity of the test. The sole attempt to obtain any scientific discrimination of the Jewish expression was made by F. Galton and Joseph Jacobs in 1885, by means of composite portraiture. In their experiments Jewish boys of the Jewish Free School, London, were selected as being typically Jewish in appearance, and full-face and profile photographs were first taken on a uniform scale, and then superimposed on a single plate, so that the eyes and mouth in each case fell upon the same spots on the plate. By this means all the varying traits and features blurred out, while the common characteristics were emphasized and became stronger. The results were given in "The Photographic News," April, 1885, and in "The Journal of the Anthropological Institute," 1885.

Composite Portraits.

The full-face composite here given is made up of (a) that of five Jewish lads, (b) that of another five, and (c) one of (a) and (b), thus giving the summary of the characteristic features of ten typically Jewish boys. The result is remarkably Jewish in appearance, and it will be found that this character is given by the eyebrows, eyes, nose, and lips, while the position and contour of the cheek-bone also serve to determine it. The eyebrows are generally well-defined, somewhat bushy toward the nose, and tapering off toward the extremities. The eyes themselves are generally brilliant, both lids are heavy and bulging, and it seems to be the main characteristic of the Jewish eye that the upper lid covers a larger proportion of the pupil than among other persons. This may serve to give a sort of nervous, furtive look to the eyes, which, when the pupils are small and set close together with semistrabismus, gives keenness to some Jewish eyes. The lymph-sac beneath the eye is generally fuller and more prominent than among non-Jews. The high cheek-bone gives as a rule the hollow cheek that adds to the Jewish expression, while the nose in full face can be discerned only by the flexibility of the nostrils, the chief Jewish characteristic of this organ (see Nose). The upper lip is generally short, and the lower projects, giving a somewhat sensual appearance to the face. The chin almost invariably recedes from the lip, leaving an indentation beneath it in the great majority of instances. The ears of many Jewish persons project, and in boys increase the impression of Jewishness.

Adults.

With growth, as already noted, the Jewish expression becomes even more marked. In males this may be due to the appearance of the mustache and beard, and it is frequently found that the mustache is somewhat sparse, a rather bare portion intervening between the tuft under the nostril and the mustache proper. The beard is in some cases comparatively thick and in others luxuriant, curling, and parting naturally. It is to be observed that some Jewish faces have almost all of these stigmata. The miniature of Spinoza (Jew. Encyc. 11:512) shows the brilliant and sensitive eye, the conspicuous nostril, and the thick underlip. That of Benfey (ib. 3:16) has the projecting ears, the thick underlip, and the conspicuous alæ of the nose, while the lymph-sac is well developed and the pupil of the eye is nearly half hidden by the upper lid. The same characteristic will be seen in the portrait of Moses Berlin (ib. 3:80), which has, in addition, the marked eyebrows and the curved nostril.

Besides all these details, there is something in the whole formation of the face which is generally found in the Jewish type. As a rule, the face is oval in shape, especially in the best type of Jewesses, and if regarded in profile, it is distinctly convex, the nose being, as it were, an appendix to the ellipsoid. It is rare indeed that a Jew is found with a prognathous jaw.

Notwithstanding the similarity of expression found in large measure among all Jews, there are a number of distinctions which enable a close observer to distinguish between various subtypes of the Jew. Close attention to Talmudic study, combined with the peculiar work of the sweat-shop, produced in eastern Europe what is known as "the ghetto bend." The need for wearing phylacteries on the forehead while the head is covered has led in many instances to the hat being worn upon the back of the head. These two characteristics often enable observers to identify Jews from eastern Europe, even before their faces are seen. Among them, too, it has been claimed, various subdivisions can be discerned, consisting mainly in differences in the projection of the cheek-bones, the formation of the eyelids, and the thickness of the lips. It has even been held by those who believe in a strong admixture from surrounding nations that there is a Slavonic, Mongoloid, and Armenioid type of the Jew, due to admixture of Slavic, Tatar, or Armenian blood. Luschan indeed professes to regard the last-named as the original source of the Jewish race.

Numbers of Jews are found, on the other hand, who possess none of the characteristics here noted, and yet are recognizable as Jews. This is especially true of the Little-Russians, who apparently resemble their Gentile neighbors in every facial characteristic, but are differentiated from them by some subtile nuance which distinguishes them as Semites. It is seemingly some social quality which stamps their features as distinctly Jewish. This is confirmed by the interesting fact that Jews who mix much with the outer world seem to lose their Jewish quality. This was the case with Karl Marx, Halévy the musician (Meyerbeer was remarkably Jewish), Sir Julian GOLDSMID, Sir John Simon (in whom there was a mixture of Gentile blood), Sir David SALOMONS, and Rubinstein. Two illustrious living Italians, Lombroso and Luzzatti, would scarcely be taken for Jews; and even the late Theodor Herzl was not distinctively Jewish, all observers drawing attention to his resemblance to the Assyrian rather than to the Jewish type.