Bible Encyclopedias
Eye

• A. Rosenzweig, Das Auge in Bibel und Talmud, Berlin, 1892;
• Friedmann, Der Blinde, Vienna, 1873;
• G. Brecher, Das Transeendentale;
• Magie und Magische Heilarten im Talmud, ib. 1850;
• Hamburger, R. B. T. 1:134 et seq., 193;
• Hastings, Diet. Bible, 1:814.

—Color:

The color of the eyes is an important racial trait. The various colors are due to the amount of pigmentation, and can be reduced to three; viz., fair (blue, gray), dark (black, brown), and intermediate (green, yellow, etc.).

The Jews have usually black or brown eyes. The appended table (No. 1) shows the colors of the eyes of 147,375 school-children in various countries:

Observations on children must, however, be taken with reserve, because their eyes grow darker when they reach maturity. The appended table (No. 2), showing the colors of the eyes in more than 7,000 Jews, brings out this point clearly:

It will be observed that the frequency of light,particularly blue, eyes among Jews reaches 25 per cent in some series (Ammon, Beddoe, Fishberg, Weissenberg). Some anthropologists claim that this trait points to intermixture of foreign, non-Semitic blood, especially Aryan. In support of this view it is shown that in those countries where light-colored eyes are frequent among the indigenous population the Jews also show a larger percentage of blue and of gray eyes. This can be seen in Table No. 2. In Baden over 50 per cent of Jewish recruits have blue or gray eyes; in Russia the percentage is less; while in Caucasia, where the native races have dark eyes, the Jews show 84.31 per cent of dark eyes. The English Sephardim show even a higher percentage of blue eyes than the Ashkenazim.

An important phenomenon in connection with the eyes of Jews is the variation of color according to sex. It appears from the figures in Table No. 2 that the eyes of Jewesses are darker than those of Jews. Joseph Jacobs sees in this a comparatively small variability of type among Jewesses as compared with Jews ("Racial Characteristics of Modern Jews," in "Jour. Anthropological Institute," 1885, ).

The Jew's Eye.

The appearance and form of the Jewish eye have attracted much attention. It is stated that a Jew may be recognized by the appearance of his eyes even when his features as a whole are not peculiarly Jewish. Ripley ("Races of Europe," p. 396) gives this description: "The eyebrows, seemingly thick because of their darkness, appear nearer together than usual, arching smoothly into the lines of the nose. The lids are rather full, the eyes large, dark, and brilliant. A general impression of heaviness is apt to be given. In favorable cases this imparts a dreamy, melancholy, or thoughtful expression to the countenance; in others it degenerates into a blinking, drowsy type; or again, with eyes half-closed, it may suggest suppressed cunning." Similar descriptions of the Jewish eye are given by Leroy-Beaulieu ("Israel Among the Nations," p. 113) and also Jacobs (Jew. Encyc. 1:620a, s. ANTHROPOLOGY).

—Color-Blindness:

Inability to distinguish colors may be the result of disease or of injury, or it may be congenital.

Among Jews the defect is known to be extremely frequent, as is shown very clearly by the first table following, taken from Jacobs.

In a later communication Jacobs gives his own investigations on the subject ("On the Comparative Anthropometry of English Jews," in "Jour. Anthropological Institute," 19:76-88), which show a yet larger proportion of color-blindness among English Jews:

The average percentage of color-blindness among Jews examined by Cohn, Carl, Ottolenghi, and others, is about 4 per cent. Among the English Jews Jacobs has found that it is more than three times as large as this. These investigations confirm the general observations that color-blindness is more frequent in men than in women (Havelock Ellis, "Man and Woman," pp. 138-145). They also show that the East End (London) Jews, who are poorer, have a larger percentage of color-blindness than their wealthier brethren of the West End.

Jacobs attributes color-blindness to the fact that the Jews are town-dwellers, where comparatively so little color, and especially so little green, is to be met with.

To this high proportion of color-blindness he also attributes "the absence of any painters of great ability among Jews, and the want of taste shown by Jewesses of the lower grades of society," which manifests itself in the preference for bright primary colors for wearing-apparel.

It must also be remembered that in the main the Jews in almost every country are poor. They are consequently the class of people which is most predisposed to color-blindness. In the "Report" of the Committee on Color-Blindness appointed by the Ophthalmological Society of London it is stated that the reason for the high percentage of color-blindness found among the Jews lies in the fact that those of them who were examined were priacipally of the poorer class.

—Defective Vision:

Jacobs and Spielman in their investigations on the comparative anthropometry of English Jews ("Jour. Anthropological Institute," 1889, p. 79) showed that London Jews could read a test-type at a distance of only 19 inches as against 25 inches by other Londoners; Jewesses were not so markedly inferior, 23 inches as against 24 inches. On the other hand, the better-nurtured Jews had a range of 29 inches.

Botwinnick reports his observations on 829 Jews and 2,763 Christians in Russia. Of the Christians2.21 per cent were affected with near-sightedness, while about 4½ times as many Jews—9.88 per cent—were thus affected. The same observer shows that cases of myopia of a high degree (technically known as "10D") are more frequent among Jews than among non-Jews. His investigations in the Jewish schools in St. Petersburg revealed the fact that among Jewish school-children 16.7 per cent (16.5 per cent in boys and 16.8 per cent in girls) suffered from near-sightedness, as against 2 to 7.5 per cent in Christian children. Beginning with the twelfth year of life, when 18.2 per cent were affected with myopia, the percentage rose, nearly one-half of all the Jewish children from 16 to 18 years of age being near sighted.

Astigmatism is also very frequent among Jews. Javal and Wecker have shown that it is of a peculiar kind. The horizontal meridian of the cornea presents the maximum of curvature. This is contrary to the rule, the maximum of curvature being usually perpendicular (Wecker, "Sur l'Astigmatisme dans Ses Rapports avec la Conformation des Os du Crâne," in "Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie," June 15, 1869, pp. 545-547).

Botwinnick attributes the near-sightedness of the Jews to hereditary predisposition to weakness of the organ of sight. But this does not by any means explain the problem. The fact that the Jews are town-dwellers must not be overlooked. Besides this, the Jews are a nation of students.

—Pathology:

Jews are known to be great sufferers from diseases of the eyes. The most frequent of these appears to be trachoma or granular conjunctivitis. Pilz ("Augenheilkunde," 1859) was the first to direct attention to this fact. In the city of New York the board of health recently (1903) investigated the frequency of trachoma among school-children. The results show that the disease was very prevalent in schools where the majority of the pupils were Jewish.

Glaucoma is another disease of the eyes prevalent among Jews. The characteristics of this disease are steadily increasing hardness of the globe of the eye, with pressure and cupping of the optic nerve; and forward pressure of the iris and dilation of pupil. It is very injurious to the eyesight.

As a result of these diseases blindness is very frequent among Jews (see Jew. Encyc. 3:249, s. BLINDNESS).

The most important sequela of trachoma is entropion, which consists in a distressing distortion of the lid-borders, due to the formation of contracting scar-tissue, which causes misdirection of the eyelashes, so that they turn against the globe. This condition is frequent among the Jews of eastern Europe, Egypt, and Palestine, who are huddled together in unhealthful dwellings and live under the worst conditions of poverty and misery.

Hervé states that lacrimal tumors are very frequent among Jews. He attributes this to an anatomical peculiarity, the narrowness of the nasal canal among Jews ("Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie," Dec. 20, 1883, p. 915).

Of the other diseases of the eyes frequent among Jews may be mentioned simple conjunctivitis, and particularly blepharitis, which consists in an inflammation of the lid-borders, with a resulting falling out of the eyelashes. In extreme cases, because of the destruction of the eyelashes and consequent distortion of the eyelids, it proves to be a most unsightly facial blemish. This disease is frequent among the Jews of eastern Europe, Egypt, and Palestine. It can be stated that the conditions predisposing to this disease are identical with those causing trachoma.