A Double Standard on “Jewish Noses”

A new host of “Jeopardy,” Mike Richards, has been pressured into resigning because he made an inappropriate joke about “Jewish noses” seven years ago. In a time when offensive jokes or comments made even decades ago can cause someone to lose their job, it shouldn’t be surprising that a comment with blatant antisemitic overtones caused such an uproar.

But the question is why there isn’t a similar outcry over an Oregon university president and the Washington, D.C. historian who have made similar remarks. If jokes that call attention to noses in a way that belittles Jews are wrong for Richards, then they should be wrong for everyone else too.

Richards was the newly-crowned host of “Jeopardy” for just a few days when it was revealed that in a podcast seven years ago, he made a comment about a woman’s nose, and then added, “Ixnay on the ose-nay—she’s not an ew-Jay.”

Richards also made offensive comments about women and Haitians, but according to the Washington Post, it was when the Anti-Defamation League publicly called for an investigation—because of the “Jewish noses” remark—that Richards realized he had no choice but to step down.

That’s good news. Too often in recent years, individuals who have publicly made antisemitic remarks have not suffered any consequences.

But there should not be a double standard when it comes to people who make insulting remarks about “Jewish noses.”

But there should not be a double standard when it comes to people who make insulting remarks about “Jewish noses.” It shouldn’t be that some people get away with it, while others are forced to resign.

Dr. Miles K. Davis, for example, is the president of Linfield University in Oregon. An English professor at the university, Dr. Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, has filed a lawsuit because Davis fired him after Pollack-Pelzner complained about antisemitic remarks that Davis made to him.

When Pollack-Pelzner first complained, Davis denied he made the remarks—but then he admitted in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education that he had indeed “made a comment about the size of Jewish noses.”

Then there’s the case of Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, a staff historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She tweeted in 2019: “At a talk today, asked about my personal background. I confessed that I’m not Jewish, but with a Hebrew first name, German last name, and my nose and hair, I ‘pass.’”

Does anybody really think that such remarks are funny? How would we respond to such jokes about other ethnic groups’ alleged physical features? 

The truth is that while it is generally accepted as inappropriate to make derogatory comments about the physical features of a racial or ethnic group, when it comes to jokes about Jewish features there is often a double standard.

It’s troubling that there was such an outcry about Richards’ comments, while nobody seems concerned about Davis or Erbelding. Is it because Richards is well-known, and Davis and Erbelding are not? Notoriety shouldn’t be the criteria for how we respond to bigotry.

In fact, one could argue that the Erbelding case is even more severe because the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is funded by the federal government. In other words, American taxpayers are paying the salary of a historian who makes “jokes” about “Jewish noses.” Whatever Erbelding’s intentions, casual comments like this are an embarrassment to the museum and undermine the good work that it does.

Nobody should underestimate the danger of the “Jewish nose” stereotype. The idea that there is a distinctive “Jewish nose” is one of the oldest anti-Jewish myths around. Jew-haters came up with this idea in the 12th century CE as a way to single out Jews for contempt.

In Nazi Germany, government propagandists often invoked the “Jewish nose” stereotype. A notorious 1940 Nazi film called “The Eternal Jew,” for example, claimed to expose the “real” Jew, focusing repeatedly on “Jewish faces,” zooming in on their noses to make Jews seem repulsive.

Similar images appeared frequently in the Hitler regime’s news media, cultural publications and children’s books. “Der Giftpilz,” an anti-Jewish children’s book published by Julius Streicher (who was also the publisher of the Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer), featured a section called “How To Tell A Jew.” It depicted a seventh grade boys’ class in which “Karl Schulz, a small lad in the front row,” stepped up to the chalkboard and proclaimed: “One can most easily tell a Jew by his nose. The Jewish nose is bent at its point. It looks like the number six. We call it the ‘Jewish six.’”

Perpetuating stereotypes such as the “Jewish nose” is not just offensive. It’s also dangerous. Prof. Jonathan Kaplan of the University of Technology-Sydney has pointed out that the perpetrator of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, Robert Bowers, invoked classic anti-Jewish stereotypes in his online ravings. “How we speak about and depict others in the media and social discourse perpetuates long-held stereotypes and ultimately emboldens hate-filled individuals,” Kaplan wrote.

Those who spread anti-Jewish slurs need to realize that there will be consequences for their offensive actions. Mike Richards of “Jeopardy” now realizes it. But our outrage has to be consistent, and must apply to everyone who perpetuates such ugly stereotypes, not just celebrities.

Moshe Phillips is a commentator on Jewish affairs whose writings appear regularly in the American and Israeli press. He is based in Philadelphia.