ANTHROPOLOGY OF EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWS 



259 



infrequent in the non-Jewish population of Eastern Europe. 

 Among the Poles in Galicia 6.4 percent have this variety of 

 nose, and the Ruthenians of the same country also have 6 per- 

 cent of hook-nosed individuals (Majer and Kopernicki). Among 

 the Little-Russians Talko-Hryncewicz found over 10 percent 

 among both men and women. The hook nose is thus not much 

 more often encountered among the Eastern European Jews 

 than among the Gentile populations of this region. On the 

 •other hand, in Asia Minor and in the Caucasus the arched or 

 "Jewish" nose is very often seen among the indigenous races, 

 such as the Armenians, Syrians, Georgians, Ossetts, Lesghians, 

 Aisores, etc. ; in fact, this form of nose is among these races 

 more frequent than among the Eastern European Jews. 



There are various explanations why popular opinion artists 

 and even scientists have always considered the arched nose pe- 

 culiarly Jewish. Beddoe believes that it is due to a charac- 

 teristic tucking up of the wings. Joseph Jacobs concludes that 

 '' the nose does contribute much toward producing the Jewish 

 expression, but it is not so much the shape of its profile as the 

 .accentuation and flexibility of the nostrils." From his composite 

 photographs of Jewish faces he shows that when the nose is 

 covered the Jewish expression disappears entirely, and that it is 

 the so-called "nostrility " which makes these composites "Jew- 

 ish." " A curious experiment illustrates this importance of the 



Fig. 13. 



nostril toward making the Jewish expression. Artists tell us 

 that the very best way to make a caricature of the Jewish nose 



