2019-05-13 | JIMENA in the Press

There’s No One Way To Look Jewish

Refinery 29

Because we’re tired of hearing, “Funny, you don’t look Jewish.”LAUREN LE VINE. MAY 13, 2019,

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Why is May 2019 different from all other months? It’s Jewish American Heritage Month for one, a period that feels especially important to mark given the rising insecurity coursing through Jewish American life. Because visibility is more important than ever before, Refinery29 brings you our celebration of Jewish American culture. L’chaim!There is no template for a Jewish woman. Again: There is no template. We don’t all have frizzy hair and big noses that will, according to the trope of the Jewish American Princess, be “fixed” as a high school graduation gift. A Fran Fine-esque nasally voice does not emerge from all of our mouths. We are not all white. Our ancestors did not all speak Yiddish. Some Jews keep kosher (observing dietary rules set out in the Torah); some do not. Orthodox women maintain certain modesty rules regarding their clothing and wear sheitls (wigs) to cover their hair when in public. Ethiopian Jews celebrate sukkot — the festival of booths that marks the end of the harvest — differently than descendants of European and Spanish Jews.

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