Is there a Jewish type of face? asked Professor Hans Friedenthal, head of the Anthroplogical Research Institute here, in an article on heredity and environment in relation to the Jews, which appears in the “Berliner Tageblatt.”
We find among the Jews, he writes, white, yellow and black skinned people as we do among the members of all great religious communities. In China, Africa, India. and even among the Redskins, there have been many natives who have adopted the Mosaie faith, and their descendants are Jews. If there is no single characteristic which in the anthropological sense distinguishes Jews from non-Jews, there is, however, among religious communities a certain identity of expression and a mimicry which is not due to heredity. We realize that when we speak of a Facies Judaica, or a Jewish type of features, we cannot be referring to any one anthropological characteristic. Neither the hooked nose, nor the wrinkles under the eyes, nor the voluptuous lips, can be regarded as Jewish characteristics. Fate has been such for many Jews that their mode of life and that of their co-religionists has been different from that of the people among whom they live. While the European branch of the white race during the whole of the Middle Ages developed the physical powers rather than the intellectual the Jewish communities, because of the conditions under which they lived had to develop the intellectual qualities. It is a very rare thing for non-Jews to enter the Jewish community through marriage, whereas Jews leaving Judaism bring a great deal of Jewish blood into the neighboring peoples. Much blood has flowed out of Jewry, but very little new heredity has come in.
The Jewish problem would be very simple, Professor Friedenthal procceds, if Central Europe and the rest of the world had been settled only by Jews from Western Asia. The problem becomes complicated, however, because in South Russia whole races with blonde hair and fair skin and light grey eyes went over to Judaism. so that the Eastern and Western Jews are a mixture of different heredities. When we speak of a Jewish type of features, we mean a totality which embraces both the Eastern and Western Jews, despite the difference of their physical build. Centuries of identical education together with inbreeding has impressed a definite stamp upon the Jews exactly as upon non-Jewish families of like tradition, so that if we do not look into it very closely, it may mislead the onlooker into considering absolutely non-Jewish people as Jewish. The ability to distinguish Jews and non-Jews is indeed so slight that even with the best photographs, we would say with certainty that the majority of European non-typical Jews would not be recognized as Jews, whereas a large number of non-Jewish Europeans would be taken for Jews. Stratz is even of the opinion that the Jewish type is bred among all peoples, where close inbreeding goes together with a high standard of education. He points, for instance, to the Jewish appearance of the ancient Incas. as shown in their royal families and to the aristocratic Japanese with their to us. Jewish appearance. In general, it can be said that the Jewish type of face expresses very acutely the characteristics of the white race. It is only a prejudice to think that the crookedness of the lower part of the nose is a Jewish characteristic, even if it is found among Jews more frequently than among non-Jews.
Where the Jews, as in North America today, have joined completely in all the customs and habits of the surrounding population, it is hardly possible still to speak of a Jewish type of face, while in all places where the Jews are brought up and educated differently from the surrounding population and earn their livelihood by other occupations than the surrounding population, they stamped in such a fashion that people fall into the error of thinking that there is a specific Jewish type of features, just as the segre?ation of Jews in many places in Europe has resulted in the mistaken view that the Jews are a separate race with their own racial characteristics which distinguish them from non-Jews.
Arthur Kober, who went to Europe recently to try to bring the Garnowsky Players of the Jewish State Theatre in Moscow here for a tour, announced that the Soviet Government had lifted the ban and would permit the players to come to America.
The Garnowsky Players are now in Berlin. They are expected to arrive here about Jan, 10. Mr. Kober stated.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
