Jews are a nation whose roots go back to the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel. A nation that has existed without its state for more than two thousand years is scattered across many countries of the world today.
Thus, according to official figures, 43% of Jews live in Israel, 39% - in the United States, and the rest - in different parts of the world. Many of them live very close to us. Do you know how to recognize a Jew among Russians, Germans, Caucasians and other peoples of the world? What features of appearance and character distinguish this ancient and mysterious nation?
Ask
So, how to recognize a Jew? Directly ask him about it. Most Jews are proud of who they are and do not hide their origin. Many half-breeds do not even wonder which half to prefer: Jewish or Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian … And even a drop of blood is priceless for them. This, by the way, is a normal human reaction. After all, Jews are an ancient people with a rich history and cultural features. So why not be proud of it? Ask them yourself.
But there are times when people try to hide their Jewish origin. And this is not normal. For example, during the years of distant perestroika, the TV presenter Lyubimov was directly asked about this. And the live showman vowed to the whole country that he and his parents were not Jews. Characteristic features, however, were present both in his appearance and in his behavior. And the surname spoke for itself: Lyubimov is derived from Liberman.
Look in your passport
What surnames do Jews have? The characteristic features of Jewish surnames are the German suffixes "-man" and "-er." However, one must be careful here. After all, both Germans and Latvians have such surnames. For example, the well-known commander Blucher was of purely Russian nationality, and the German surname came from his ancestor who participated in the war with Napoleon. This was an award for courage and merits to the fatherland - to bear the name of the famous German commander.
There is another feature of Jewish surnames. So, it can be a kind of “geographical stamp”. Many Jews, moving to Russia from Poland, changed their names in such a way that it was possible to understand where they came from. For example, Vysotsky (the village of Vysotsk in Belarus), Slutsky, Zhytomyr, Dnieper, Nevsky, Berezovsky (the village of Berezovka), Donskoy, etc.
Jewish surnames can also be formed from diminutive female names. Indeed, unlike the Russians, they lead their pedigrees on the maternal side. Example: Mashkin (Mashka), Chernushkin (Chernushka), Zoykin (Zoyka), Galkin (Galka), etc.
But remember that a surname is not a distinguishing feature of Jews. Mashkin and Galkin may turn out to be real Russian peasants, and, it would seem, standard Ivanov and Petrov - Jews. So on the basis of only a surname it is too early to draw conclusions.
Name selection
With names, everything is much more complicated - they can be any. Of course, there are purely Jewish. For example, Leo (derivative from Levy), Anton (from Nathan), Boris (from Boruch), Jacob, Adam, Samson, Mark, Abram (from Abraham), Moses, Naum, Ada (Adelaide), Dean, Sarah, Esther (from Esther), Faina and others.
But there is a separate category of names that are of Israeli origin, but Russian people wear them even more often than the Jews themselves. The characteristic features of such names are the ending –il (Daniel, Michael, Samuel, Gabriel), as well as the biblical meaning (Mary, Joseph, Ilya (Elijah), Sofia).
Nosiness
So, what are the characteristic features of the Jews? The first thing they always pay attention to is the nose. Moreover, many believe that this attribute alone is enough to consider a person a Jew. The famous "Jewish snobel" begins to bend from the very bottom. So, the Israeli anthropologist Jacobs described in detail this phenomenon "the tip bends downward, resembling a hook, and the wings are raised." If you look from the side, the nose resembles the figure 6. The nose is elongated upwards. People call such a nose the “Jewish Six”.
However, only on this basis alone it is impossible to say with accuracy that a person is a Jew. If you look at the portraits of Russian writers, it turns out that almost all of them were nosy: Nekrasov, Gogol, Karamzin, and even Turgenev. But it is known for certain that they were not Jews.
In fact, Israelis can have a wide variety of noses: fleshy "potatoes", and narrow with a hump, and straight, long, with high nostrils, and even snub-nosed. So that only one nose is far from an indicator of "Jewry."
Common mistakes
There is an opinion that there are certain signs that only Jews possess (characteristic features) - a huge nose, black eyes, thick lips. We have already sorted out the nose. As for dark eyes and puffy lips, these are the most common negroid signs. A negroid admixture is characteristic not only of Jews, but also of persons of a different nationality. For example, as a result of the union of the Mongoloid and the Negro, the same features can be obtained. Such an admixture is often observed among Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Arabs, Armenians, Georgians.
Another mass delusion is that Jews have dark curly hair. Everything is the same here. The negroid sign is there. Biblical Jew David, on the other hand, was blond. This is a Nordic admixture. And look at the Russian singer Agutin - a typical Jew, but by no means a dark-haired one.
Sign number one
And yet, how to distinguish a Jew from a Slavic-Russian in terms of face? Are there concrete signs? The answer is yes.
If you doubt who is in front of you: a Jew or not, first of all pay attention to the racial line - the Mediterranean admixture. Even Caucasians, who are often confused with Jews because of their fleshy noses, thick lips and curly hair, do not have it. The Mediterranean admixture is very characteristic and pronounced even with great incest. What is it?
Both straight and in profile is a very narrow long face. It does not expand upward, in contrast to typical Slavic-Russian faces. This form of the head with a narrow and oblong nape is only for Jews. Characteristic features can be seen in the photographs of Louis de Funes or Sofia Rotaru. Russian Jews are a mixture of Mediterranean and Western Asians (Caucasians, Armenians). Ideal examples are Boris Pasternak and Vladimir Vysotsky.
So, the main distinguishing feature of the Jews is a very narrow, long face that does not expand to the top. If due to any impurities such a face has expanded, then anywhere, but not in the forehead. The forehead of a Jew is always narrow, as if he were clamped in a vice. In other places, in principle, the head can expand. And after you saw this sign, you can pay attention to the nose, lips, eyes, surname and everything else that makes the Jews different.
Character traits
The main character traits of any Jew are self-confidence, absolute self-esteem and any lack of shyness and timidity. There is even a special term in Yiddish that combines these qualities - “hutspa”. Translations of this word into other languages do not exist. Khutspa is a kind of pride that provokes a desire to act, without fear to be insufficiently prepared or incapable.
What is “hutspa" for Jews? Courage, the ability to change your destiny, to fight its unpredictability. Many Jews are convinced that the very existence of their state of Israel is sacred, this is an act of hutspa.
As mentioned above, there are no analogues in other languages and translations of this concept. But in non-Jewish society, hutspa has a negative color and is identified with the concepts of “impudence”, “intolerance towards other people”, “shamelessness”, etc.
Indirect signs
It is worth considering some more distinctive features of the Slavs and Jews. So, for example, clean face. Jews, unlike most Russians, often have birthmarks in their nose, mouth, and chin. Moles are a sign of aging and degradation of the body. The later they form on the human body, the stronger the body. In Jews, birthmarks, as a rule, are formed in childhood.
We continue to call the characteristic features of the Israelis - very naked with a gum smile. This is very rarely observed in Slavic-Russians. Jews often have a rather rare and asymmetric dentition, in contrast to the Slavs, who have dense lower and upper teeth.
Burr as a speech impediment is often considered an indirect sign. In principle, it is peculiar to some Jews. But only to the minority. Most Israelis pronounce the letter "r" very clearly. And they even teach this to Russians. But burry is a rare sign, because many of the Jews who had such a defect worked hard with a speech therapist. And any Russian child can have such a pronunciation from birth.
