Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2006 03:41 Post subject: What does a Jew look like?
Quote:
Thursday, December 22, 2005
The Atlanta Jewish Times Online
Jews of Many Colors
Thursday, December 22, 2005
What does a Jew look like?
When Jewish men don’t wear kippot and tzitzit and women aren’t in sheitels and long skirts, can you tell a Jew from a non-Jew just by looking at them?
At the Jewish Outreach Institute convention held in early December in Atlanta, Jewish professionals and leaders were able to select from a variety of learning workshops.
One such workshop was “Connecting to Our Diverse Populations.”
No, they were not discussing how to reach out to day school families and religious school families, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, or parents of young and old children.
The speakers addressed how to connect with populations that are underserved among unaffiliated Jews — intermarried couples, multicultural families, gay men and lesbians, teens and grandparents.
Jen Chau, a young woman with dark skin, hair and eyes, was the first speaker. Her father is Chinese. Her mother is an Ashkenazi Jew. And though Chau identified herself as a Jew from the time she was a child, it was an uphill battle to get people to treat her the same way.
She shared a dream she had at age 10. She looked Jewish, she had a Jewish name, and everyone knew and believed her.
But when she woke up, it wasn’t true. She still resembled her Chinese father, and her last name was still Chau.
At religious school and synagogue, her peers questioned whether she was Jewish.
“In that space I found it was not OK to look the way that I did,” Chau told the group.
Everything hit home the day of her bat mitzvah. Her father participated in her bat mitzvah practice, and the family was planning for him to be on the bimah when she was called to the Torah. But the night before the service, her family received a phone call: The synagogue made a decision that in order not to promote intermarriage, he couldn’t participate.
“That was a very clear message that I was not supposed to be here, that I was not supposed to be in the community,” said Chau, who spent most of her bat mitzvah day crying. “It really was a hurtful situation and one that made me pretty sure as a12-year-old that I didn’t want to be a part of this.”
While Chau continued to participate in Jewish activities with her family, she still found herself having to defend the fact that she was Jewish at her New York high school, where the A-crowd was called the “Jew Crew.”
She remembers one boy challenging her to sing Passover’s four questions to prove her identity, and even after her flawless execution, he said someone must have taught them to her.
“I was always in the situation of really wanting to defend myself,” Chau said.
By the time she went to college, Chau didn’t participate in Jewish life.
But she and a friend decided to venture to a “latke study break” one night.
When Chau walked in, someone approached her to welcome her. “Who are you here with?” the person asked.
The assumption that she couldn’t be there for herself turned Chau off right away. She never went back.
At 20, Chau returned to the rabbi at the synagogue of her bat mitzvah and broke down, telling him how hurtful the event was. He explained to her that his concern was for the continuity of the Jewish people and her hurt was just because of the faulty memories of a 12-year-old.
Chau was shocked. Here she was, pouring her heart out about how much she wanted to be accepted as a Jew, and he was talking about Jewish continuity. She thought there were people like her “who very much want to be a part of the Jewish community — I know from other people that I’ve met along the way,” she said. “They’ve been turned away time and time again because they don’t look the way they are supposed to look.”
After all her trying, Chau has decided not to be an active part of the Jewish community. She said she wanted to be a part of the community without having to be an activist.
“Unfortunately, all of the involvements I have had with the Jewish community have resulted in me leaving,” Chau told the group at the JOI convention. “I am an independent Jew who does things with my Jewish friends and my family who are meaningful to me.”
Chau has started a nonprofit organization for people of mixed heritage called Swirl (www.swirlinc.org). The organization serves mixed communities in New York, Boston and San Francisco.
If Chau never tries to affiliate with the Jewish community again, perhaps her story will make others more sensitive to the fact that just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a Jew by the color of her skin.
Joined: 30 Mar 2005 {Posts: 1057 } Location: New Jersey
Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2006 15:49 Post subject:
Quote:
What does a Jew look like?
When Jewish men don’t wear kippot and tzitzit and women aren’t in sheitels and long skirts, can you tell a Jew from a non-Jew just by looking at them?
I think the fact that Hitler forced Jews to wear the Star of David illustrates the fact that Jews can look like Europeans. Not all Jews look Semitic. Ethiopian Jews are African in appearance. Why not Asian? Since being Jewish is inherited matrilineally, this suggests that the patrilineal ancestry of Jews is diverse, despite the fact that Jews tend to marry Jews.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2006 21:26 Post subject: Half of them look like Spaniards.
William wrote:
Quote:
What does a Jew look like?
When Jewish men don’t wear kippot and tzitzit and women aren’t in sheitels and long skirts, can you tell a Jew from a non-Jew just by looking at them?
I think the fact that Hitler forced Jews to wear the Star of David illustrates the fact that Jews can look like Europeans. Not all Jews look Semitic. Ethiopian Jews are African in appearance. Why not Asian? Since being Jewish is inherited matrilineally, this suggests that the patrilineal ancestry of Jews is diverse, despite the fact that Jews tend to marry Jews.
Hi,
Half of the Jewish population looks like the common Spaniard. The Sephardite (Spanish) Jews are one of the most common branch of the Jewish people. They even speak an ancient variety of Spaniard called Ladino.
My mom, who is Catholic, visited the Holly Land years ago, and she was surprised how welcomed they were in Israel and how many of the spoke Spanish; at least with the tourists. Israel was like home.
Joined: 30 Mar 2005 {Posts: 1057 } Location: New Jersey
Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2006 21:44 Post subject:
Omar wrote:
They even speak an ancient variety of Spaniard called Ladino.
I had always believed Ladino was a blend of Old Spanish and Hebrew, kind of like how Yiddish is a blend of Middle German and (smaller amounts of) Hebrew, with some Polish and Russian mixed in.
Incidentally, did you know there is an unrelated language called "Ladin"? Actually, it is a dialect of the Rhaeto-Romansch language spoken in remote areas of Switzerland (as well as adjoining Italy and, formerly, Austria). It formed when the Romans brought Latin into the region, and it mixed with the original Rhaetian language. Only about 20,000-50,000 Swiss still speak this language.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 03 Jan 2006 22:09 Post subject: Ladino
William wrote:
I had always believed Ladino was a blend of Old Spanish and Hebrew, kind of like how Yiddish is a blend of Middle German and (smaller amounts of) Hebrew, with some Polish and Russian mixed in.
Incidentally, did you know there is an unrelated language called "Ladin"? Actually, it is a dialect of the Rhaeto-Romansch language spoken in remote areas of Switzerland (as well as adjoining Italy and, formerly, Austria). It formed when the Romans brought Latin into the region, and it mixed with the original Rhaetian language. Only about 20,000-50,000 Swiss still speak this language.
Hi,
As a Spanish speaker I can listen and read Ladino with easy. For me is a lot easier than understanding it rather than Italian or Portuguese. However, I can't write nor speak in that Language because I would need to learn the grammar.
Ladino is also written in Hebrew characters sometimes. Specially during the Middle Ages.
And Austria is a multicultural country located in the limits between the Latin and Germanic lands. So they speak French, Italian and German, at least. Nice example of multiculturalism and unity.
Posted: Wed 04 Jan 2006 00:56 Post subject: what are Jews?
What are Jews?
That is rather subjective as the article above indicated.
According to Orthodox Jewish (religious/ethnic based) law a Jewish person is desribed as someone born of a Jewish mother. Jewish identity by the letter of the of the law meant tracing Jewishishness through the maternal line.
Jen Chau would be considered Jewish according to that interpretation. However, since her dad wasn't "white" and maybe had not converted to Judaism, maybe wasn't even a Christian by religion the rabbi of the synagogue therefore percieved her as not "truly" Jewish. His own personal feelings led him to disapprove of mixed marriages of religious/and other "racial" reasons.
Initially, Judaism as a monotheistic religion originated in the Middle East. The first follower of Yaweh or Jehovah was Abraham from the land of Ur which was located in what is now modern day Iraq. Before Abraham found his one god (or his one god found him,) he was probably like many of the different Middle Eastern people in the area practicing polytheism-the worship of many Gods. So Abraham and his followers the "Chosen" of GOD eventually settled in the Promised Land. (Already inhabited by other folks, Philistines and other tribes.) Territorial disputes continuing to this day.
The Jewish people everyone seems to talk about the most, and know about the most are the Western Jews.
Descendants of the Jews who left Palestine ( as it was called by the Romans, since it was a Roman province/ territory at that time) after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This is the most well known Jewish Diaspora. Those Jews crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe and dispersed.
Jews still remained in the Middle East, there were Jews in what is now known as Yemen, there were Jews in Ethiopia. (The history of Ethiopian Jews is still disputed in some circles, however it seems during the time of King Solomon there must've been trade with the kingdom of Sheba (Sabah), a territory that encompassed parts of modern day Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen. Most Ethiopian Jews were air-lifted to Israel in the early 1980s.) Jews also migrated to North Africa.
Anyhow, it seems in much of European history Jews were quite influential in trade, the arts, sciences etc.,
(From my point of view Jewish-European relations seem symbiotic, they influence the society and culture they inhabit, and they are in turn influenced by that culture. Hence, the different types of Jewish people-Ashkenazim -Central/East European Jews, Sephardim-Spanish/Portuguese Jews, Beta-Israel-Ethiopian Jews etc.,
Of course the host country goes through periods of love-hate reactions to Jews residing in their society. In extreme cases viewing them as parasites in their midsts.
Anyhow, time passes the New World is opened up, and the U.S. comes into existence. During the late 19th and early 20th century immigrants from W. Europe and eventually E. and S. Europe arrive into the U.S.
To "native" Americans of mostly English, North-West European, Protestant descent the more swarthy, foreign looking E. and S. Europeans of Orthodox, and Catholic religions were strange. What did they make of the Jews from Central and Eastern Europe? (Those Jews may have been more clannish, a survival behavior that may have developed since they may have experienced harsher treatment such as pogroms, compared to Jews in France or Holland at the time.
Anyhow, it seems when they arrived here, they experienced discrimination as well.
Here is where it becomes complicated, in Europe to be a Jew had dual meanings. It meant a follower/practitioner of Judaism the religion, as well as a "race/ethnicity" that had its origins somewhere in the Middle East- Ur, Israel etc. People originally from the Middle East.
However, in the U.S.A. that all changed, to avoid discrimination on racial grounds, some Jews seperated the ethnic/racial identity from the religious one.
Instead of identifying as a racial/ethnic Jew they would say I'm French or Russian but my religion is Judaism. Some would go a step further (especially as generations assimilated into the U.S.) and stop practicing Judaism, those known as non-observant Jews.
After WWII and the establishment of Israel- the definition of who is Jewish became even more complicated. There is Jewish identity as a racial/ethnic one, and then there is Jewish identity as a religious one.
Traditionally, Jewish descent is traced through the mother. However, the Israeli government for immigration purposes, recognizes Jews as having either a Jewish mother or father, or both, or having at least one Jewish grandparent.
The Orthodox Jewish establishment does not agree with this definition of Jewishness.
Judaism as a religion has gone through many changes through the centuries in European countries and in the U.S. (Although, Judaism in Ethiopia remained unchanged since Jews settled there since the time of Solomon.)
There are sects/divisions in Judaism- Ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform etc.,
For example, the Orthodox Jewish establishment in Israel does not recognize marriages performed by Reform Jewish synanagogues in the U.S. If that couple married traveled to Israel the Israeli government would recognize the marriage as valid, but the Orthodox Judaic establishment would not.
According to the ultra-orthodox Jews and Orthodox Jews-a true Jewish person is one who practices Judaism according to how they interpret it. Any other way, such as the Reform Jews is not the "right", "correct" or "true" way and therefore those people aren't truly being Jewish. However, in a ethnic/lineage legalistic sense-according to the Isreali government those people are Jewish. Complicated right?
Now how do the non-European Jews fit into the scheme of things?
Initially, when the State of Israel was established on 1948, the people who took charge and organized were primarily Jews from Germany, England, Poland involved in the Zionist Movement who collectively decided they would not be weak and on the recieving end of dominant nations. At this time and into the early 1950s, Jews from North Africa and the Middle East also entered Israel and became citizens. The state of Israel could only develop if it had a sufficient population base. These non-Western Jews weren't exactly treated well. There were the well educated, afluent ones of course, but there were many who weren't and they spoke Arabic, and had Arabic/Middle Eastern customs, unlike those of the European Jews. (Yes, they shared the same religion. however, 500, 1,000 years living on different continents changed them culturally and even i physically. Here are the different Jewish people in the modern world today:
Modern Divisions of Judaism
The main divisions of Jews in modern times are Ashkenazim (Central and East European Jews) and Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews). Smaller groups include the mizrakhim (Oriental Jews from Asia from countries like Kurdistan and Persia), Gruzim (Georgian Jews from the Caucasus), Juhurim (Mountain Jews from Daghestan and Azerbaijan in the eastern Caucasus), Teimanim (Yemenite Jews from southern Arabia), Maghrebim (North African Jews), Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews, also known as Falashas), and Bene Israel (Indian Jews). Out of these communities, the largest are the Ashkenazim, whose ancestors lived in countries such as Germany, Russia, Poland. Source:
http://Wikipedia-Jew
There are some books written by Misrakhim and Maghrebim Jews (S.W. Asian Jews and North African Jews) who experienced discrimination from Ashkenazim Jews when they first immigrated to Israel. In school they didn't learn their history but the history of the Jewish experience in Europe. They were looked down on for being darker, not having the same customs, less education, being poor in some cases.) Imagine, how the Beta Israel and Bene Israel (Ethiopian and Indian Jews) may have initially been regarded.
Few people in the U.S. and in the West know much about the Other Jews except for the Ashkenazim ones.
I've known only three Jewish people in my life. In Catholic elementary school, there was this blond freckle faced Jewish girl named Sarah. She was best friends with this African-American girl named Bev. They were a grade above me. Anyhow, they were both into everything preppy, the speech, the clothes-argyle plaid knee high socks, penny loafers, plaid sweaters etc. My Asian Art professor at university was Jewish. She was a native New Yorker, and her people immigrated from Russia a couple generations back. She wasn't an observant Jew, since she loved to eat shrimp, prawns, ham, food Orthodox Jews wouldn't touch. She was always stylish, and wore Asian ethnic clothes-i.e. Batik print jackest. She always kew about the latest sales. Her specialty in Asian Art history was Indonesian Buddhist Art. Her sister lived in Israel, and was an Orthodox Jew. She wore long dresses and covered her hair. My professor was the complete opposite always trendy and stylish. Once she showed the class a painting of an Asian/Eurasian woman that lived somewhere along the Silk Road. She remarked that her great, great grandmother may have looked like her. The only other Jewish person I know is a friend from church. He converted to Catholicism some years back and is a very devout man. He is originally from Bagdad, Iraq and came to the states in the 1950s when alot of Jews were leaving Middle Eastern countries. He has the medium brown complexion of Ghandi and a very Middle Eastern nose. (I wouldn't call it a Jewish nose, since there are Arabs with that same type of nose.) His people he said, had been in Iraq, since the time of the Babylonian Captivity, 1,000 years more or less before Christ.
Its very strange, I percieve him as being more ethnically Jewish than the other two people I mentioned before. The other two I percieve as white Americans whose religion is Judaism, but are non practicing/nonobservant.
The friend from church is a very devout practicing Catholic. His sister is in Israel, I don't know if she is Orthodox or non-observant.
I remember reading a news column by an Asian American columnist who mentioned Jews as being "people of color". However, she retracted that when she recieved mail from people saying Jews were "white". I presume the only Jewish people, that most people in the U.S.know of are the European variety.
It seems in the U.S. Jewishness as an ethnicity doesn't exist. Alot of what people present as Jewish culture, entertainment and humor in the U.S. isn't representative of Jews around the world. For example, the popular show The Nanny, with Fran Dreischer drops alot of Jewish mother, women etc jokes. Some of the jokes may have derived from growing up Jewish in Brooklyn or Queens. However, those same jokes probably wouldn't be understood by the Teimanim (Yemenite Jews from Southern Arabia). Alot of nonobservant Jews who grew up in NYC in the 1940s,50s, 60s, and went to all Jewish summer resorts (early in the 20th century they weren't allowed into the WASP ones) in the Catskills, consider the activities and the learning of Yiddish as part of Jewish culture. However, Jews in the other parts of the world didn't learn Yiddish since that developed in Germany and was brought to the U.S. by immigrants from Germany.
So what is Jewishness? Is it the practice of the religion? Is it having origins in the distant past to Israel, or Ur, the Middle East?
I don't percieve my friend from Bagdad as being "white". Yes, he's ethnically Jewish, he speaks both Arabic and Hebrew. He grew up with Middle Eastern customs, but his outlook is very Western and the religion he practices is Roman Catholicism.
My name is Thea and this is my first post on this forum.
Thank you.
Posted: Mon 16 Jan 2006 07:09 Post subject: New Light on Origins of Ashkenazi in Europe
Quote:
January 14, 2006
New York Times
New Light on Origins of Ashkenazi in Europe
By NICHOLAS WADE
A new look at the DNA of the Ashkenazi Jewish population has thrown light on its still mysterious origins.
Until now, it had been widely assumed by geneticists that the Ashkenazi communities of Northern and Central Europe were founded by men who came from the Middle East, perhaps as traders, and by the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism.
But the new study, published online this week in The American Journal of Human Genetics, suggests that the men and their wives migrated to Europe together.
The researchers, Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Technion and Ramban Medical Center in Haifa, and colleagues elsewhere, report that just four women, who may have lived 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, are the ancestors of 40 percent of Ashkenazis alive today. The Technion team's analysis was based on mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element that is separate from the genes held in the cell's nucleus and that is inherited only through the female line. Because of mutations - the switch of one DNA unit for another - that build up on the mitochondrial DNA, people can be assigned to branches that are defined by which mutations they carry.
In the case of the Ashkenazi population, the researchers found that many branches coalesced to single trees, and so were able to identify the four female ancestors.
Looking at other populations, the Technion team found that some people in Egypt, Arabia and the Levant also carried the set of mutations that defines one of the four women. They argue that all four probably lived originally in the Middle East.
A study by Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona showed five years ago that the men in many Jewish communities around the world bore Y chromosomes that were Middle Eastern in origin. This finding is widely accepted by geneticists, but there is less consensus about the women's origins.
David Goldstein, now of Duke University, reported in 2002 that the mitochondrial DNA of women in Jewish communities around the world did not seem to be Middle Eastern, and indeed each community had its own genetic pattern. But in some cases the mitochondrial DNA was closely related to that of the host community.
Dr. Goldstein and his colleagues suggested that the genesis of each Jewish community, including the Ashkenazis, was that Jewish men had arrived from the Middle East, taken wives from the host population and converted them to Judaism, after which there was no further intermarriage with non-Jews.
The Technion team suggests a different origin for the Ashkenazi community: if the women too are Middle Eastern in origin, they would presumably have accompanied their husbands. At least the Ashkenazi Jewish community might have been formed by families migrating together.
Dr. Hammer said the new study "moves us forward in trying to understand Jewish population history." His own recent research, he said, suggests that the Ashkenazi population expanded through a series of bottlenecks - events that squeeze a population down to small numbers - perhaps as it migrated from the Middle East after the destruction of the Second Temple in A.D. 70 to Italy, reaching the Rhine Valley in the 10th century.
But Dr. Goldstein said the new report did not alter his previous conclusion. The mitochondrial DNA's of a small, isolated population tend to change rapidly as some lineages fall extinct and others become more common, a process known as genetic drift. In his view, the Technion team has confirmed that genetic drift has played a major role in shaping Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA. But the linkage with Middle Eastern populations is not statistically significant, he said.
Because of genetic drift, Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA's have developed their own pattern, which makes it very hard to tell their source. This differs from the patrilineal case, Dr. Goldstein said, where there is no question of a Middle Eastern origin.
Joined: 16 Jun 2005 {Posts: 110 } Location: chicago
Posted: Tue 17 Jan 2006 17:01 Post subject:
Jews are not a race of people . Jewish is a ethnic group/culture /religion.
being anti-semetic ? anti means against semetic is semi meaning half.
how is Jews semetic ?
First and foremost I believe a Jew(Jewess) is an ethnic/cultural/religous group. Ethnic being first. I believe a Jew(most recently common name) ethnically is the Hebrew people. Some look like they may come from different parts of Europe, some you couldn't tell, other could get mistaken for Italian, Arab, and then there are those how by certain ethnic characteristics: Nose, kinky curly hair, eye formation... look Jewish
Kenny G
Michale Bolton
Barbara Streisand
wrestler Bill Goldberg
There is a curly redhead Jewess comedian I can't recall her name... as soon as I do I'll post her pic, she looks Jewish
Last edited by gemini072 on Wed 11 Jun 2008 17:35; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 17 Jan 2006 20:28 Post subject: Semitic roots
gemini072 wrote:
First and foremost I believe a Jew(Jewess) is an ethnic/cultural/religous group. Ethnic being first. I believe a Jew(most recently common name) ethnically is the Hebrew people. Some look like they may come from different parts of Europe, some you couldn't tell, other could get mistaken for Italian, Arab, and then there are those how by certain ethnic characteristics: Nose, kinky curly hair, eye formation... look Jewish
Hi,
At least in Spain, historical Jews were identical to the rest of the population. In Spain the semitic roots were important so it was not possible to look a person a say: hey there is a Jew.
Nose, kinky curly hair, eye formation of the Jews are also quite common in Spanish and Hispanic Christian populations, myself included.
Spain is Jewish and Sepharites (Jewish Spaniards) are Spaniards. The only think that separated both peoples in the past was religious bigotry.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Wed 18 Jan 2006 21:07 Post subject: Ladino
Salsassin wrote:
Yeah, many of the characteristics vary by which population of jews you are talking of . I am of Sephardic ancestry myself
Hi,
Do you speak Ladino? That's interesting for myself. I have been looking for the Jewish roots of Spain and I am quite surprised. I even got the theory that Spanish literature was cultivated by Sephardite Jews before anybody else.
Posted: Fri 20 Jan 2006 06:14 Post subject: Re: Ladino
oevega wrote:
Salsassin wrote:
Yeah, many of the characteristics vary by which population of jews you are talking of . I am of Sephardic ancestry myself
Hi,
Do you speak Ladino? That's interesting for myself. I have been looking for the Jewish roots of Spain and I am quite surprised. I even got the theory that Spanish literature was cultivated by Sephardite Jews before anybody else.
Posted: Thu 02 Feb 2006 16:39 Post subject: Yemenite Jews
A Yemenite Jew of Jerusalem, draped in the ´talith´ (the customary prayer-shawl), announces the approach of the Sabbath on Friday by blowing a very long and curved ram´s-horn called a shophar.
Posted: Tue 10 Jun 2008 18:34 Post subject: Re: Yemenite Jews:Achinoam Nini
gemini072 wrote:
Achinoam Nini (Hebrew: אֲחִינוֹ֤עַם נִינִי Aẖinóʻam Nini), also known by her professional name Noa, is Israel's leading international concert and recording artist. Born in Tel Aviv in 1969 Noa lived in New York City from age 2 and attended SAR Academy primary school, and remained until her return to Israel alone at the age of 17. Her family is originally from Yemen. After serving the mandatory two years in the Israeli Army in a military entertainment unit, Noa studied music at the Rimon School where she met her long-time partner and collaborator Gil Dor.
As a duo, their music styles are pop, rock, blues, R&B, country, country western, folk, Yemenite & Italian folk. Noa has recorded numerous songs in Italian, French, Spanish, Galician, English, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Hindi, Yemenite Jewish and folk & Arabic pop songs as well as Jewish and Christian prayers translated into Hebrew and English.
Noa and Gil Dor have had various different ensembles since their early days as an acoustic duet but their most long lived musical relationship has been with the noted percussionist Zohar Fresco. The three have played hundreds of concerts together all over the world. Recently Noa has added the Solis String Quartet to concert performances and recordings. Since 2004, Noa has performed annual concerts in Israel and Italy with the Nini Band and the Solis Quartet. She is well known abroad, mainly in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.
Noa's music is most prominently influenced by the singer-songwriters of the 60s, such as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Barbra Streisand and Leonard Cohen. These musical and lyrical sensibilities, combined with Noa's Yemenite roots and Gil Dor's strong background in jazz, classical, country and rock, have created Noa and Gil Dor's unique sound, manifested in hundreds of songs written and performed together. Noa plays percussion, guitar and piano. She is married to Dr. Asher Barak, they have two children, Ayehli, Enea, and a dog, Tina. The family makes its home in Israel.
Last edited by gemini072 on Thu 18 Sep 2008 13:28; edited 1 time in total
For me, when someone is described as "looking Jewish", it means the curly hair, Middle-Eastern look. Particularly the nose. Adam Sandler, Woody Allen, Rhea Perlman. That is what I imagine when I think of the description 'Jewish-looking'.
Nice work cherry picking by choosing teimanim(yemenites) who are the darkest Mainstream Jews,and also have the Highest level of Arabian acnestry because of the large number of Converts in PreIslamic Arabia,
that being said you can still find Yemenis that look like any other Sephardic/Mizrahi Jew and even Ashkenazim
< Yemenite next to an ashkenaz
Why not choose Average Sephardim, In Israel when one thinks sephardi one immediatly thinks of Moroccans.
not I did not cherry pick, I could have chossen blue eyed morrocans like Gad Elameh or Shlomo ben izri, Or even better Blond Spanish-Morrocans from Ceuta or Melila but I didn't I chose the average.
If you scroll back from the beginning, you see that we have posted a wide range of Jewish/Hebrew people
I agree. The point of this thread was to show that Jews span the entire human spectrum in appearance. Jewcepticon is encouraged to post photos, but there is no need to accuse anyone of cherry-picking.
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< Yemenite next to an ashkenaz
