Web Exclusives | The Wondering Jew |
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Who was Emma Goldman? What's Up With Them Sidelocks? Cain's Coital Conundrum, Is there Really Such a Thing as a Jewish Nose?  It’s been a rough summer for our in-house crew of crotchety knowledge lovers. For those of you who don’t know, New Voices’ office is inhabited by the cranky phantoms of various storied Jewish sages—from Rashi to the Rambam—who help us put this section together. Being dead is no picnic of course. Top that off with a blackout that killed our air conditioning and left our sapient specters sweltering under their sticky beards , and it’s no wonder we had a bit of a wraith riot on our hands. Thankfully, we managed to calm them down with some nice boiled sweets and shiny new Talmuds. Back to the books they went. And not a moment too soon. Who was Emma Goldman? …A Jewish radical, workers’ champion, and the kind of free-loving girl you’d want to take home to Mother Russia. Born in 1869, Goldman grew up an impoverished subject of the Tsar in the city of Kovno. At age fifteen her father forbade her more school, sending her to work in a factory with the words: "All a Jewish daughter needs to know is how to prepare gefüllte fish, cut noodles fine, and give the man plenty of children." Seeking a freer life, Goldman immigrated to New York in 1885. The following May, four prominent anarchists were hanged for bombing Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Furious at what she considered a travesty of justice, the young immigrant soon became an adherent to anarchism. Goldman committed herself to achieving absolute freedom, arguing that all government relies on violence and is therefore immoral. In 1892, she plotted the assassination of a Carnegie Steel manager for brutally repressing striking workers. Her gunman’s bullet went wide of its mark, the poor shot receiving a 21-year prison sentence for his trouble. Goldman was excoriated by the media but never indicted. More demonizing followed in 1901, when Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley on what he claimed were Goldman’s orders. Though the accusation was false, Goldman was arrested. The press, ignoring her swift release, portrayed her as a monster of anarchist violence. Despite such criticism, Goldman remained a tireless "agitator" for reproductive freedom, workers’ and women’s rights, and free speech. She lectured to thousands around the country in English, German and Yiddish, and published her own magazine—Mother Earth. An early advocate of sexual liberation, she practiced it herself in a series of torrid love affairs. In 1917, Goldman started the No-Conscription League to oppose the draft. Arrested and deported to the Soviet Union by a young J. Edgar Hoover, she met Lenin face-to-face and tongue-lashed the Bolshevik leader for his regime’s repressive tactics. Over the next two decades, Goldman wandered Europe, aiding the Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War, and finally marrying an aged Welsh coal miner to secure British citizenship. Her exile from America ended only after her death in 1940, when her body was buried near the Haymarket Square anarchists who had inspired her so many years before. What’s Up With Them Sidelocks? You’ve seen them, you’ve wondered about them, the more sadistic among you may even have thought about giving them a good tug. But unless you were brought up in an Orthodox household, sidelocks probably remain something of a mystery. Leviticus 19:27 commands "You shall not round off the side-growth on your head, or destroy the side growth of your beard." The word in ancient Hebrew, peyot (or peyos in Yiddish), literally means "corner." In the Second Temple era (fifth century BCE to first century CE) this injunction was interpreted by certain rabbis to mean that it was forbidden for men to cut their beards or the hair beside their ears. Over the millennia, conflicts of exegesis have arisen over whether the Torah forbids the use simply of a straight razor, or of other cutting implements such as knives or scissors as well. Basic interpretations dictate that enough hair must be left to wrap around the finger. Thus, most Orthodox men wear their sidelocks two to three inches long and tuck them behind their ears. Yet this habit of tucking is anathema to a significant minority of Orthodox Jews, who insist the locks must be pushed forward of the ear so they can be seen. Others, like the Yemenites, do not cut theirs at all, growing twirling corkscrews of hair. And followers of the Chasidic sage Rabbi Nachman leave their sidelocks long so he can fulfill his promise to "pull them by the peyos out of hell" from his perch in paradise. In olden times, spinach water was used to give sidelocks a glossy sheen. But what is the fashion among discerning sidelock sporters today? Dreads? Blonde highlights? Send your photo entry for most happening sidelock style to New Voices. Winners will receive a free copy of "Barbershop" on DVD or video. Cain’s Coital Conundrum Adam "knew" Eve his wife, and Eve begat Cain and Abel. So far so good. Cain, after taking time out to slay his brother, "knew" his wife and begat Enoch. Gotcha. Wait a moment—how is it that Cain had anyone to get his "know" on with? How did he get a wife to do his begetting? Where was she begotten from? This is no frivolous matter. In the balance hangs our very right to make cruel fun of West Virginians. The experts are not encouraging. According to Rabbi Andrew Bachman of New York University’s Bronfman Center, most rabbinical interpretations assume sibling "interactivity." Yuck. "We can say this kind of thing happened at the dawn of human existence and was accepted," says Rabbi Bachman. "Laws of incest only came into being much later probably as a result of the revulsion that arose from watching incestuous relationships unfold." We’re a little revulsed ourselves. Perhaps a second opinion will brighten things up. "Basically," writes Ellen Robbins of Johns Hopkins University in an e-mail, "the answer [among biblical exegetes] was to attribute daughters to Eve," leaving us to do the perverted math. It seems the truth is inescapable: our genesis is a touch degenerate. Talk about your Mark of Cain. Would a little bit of immaculate conception have been too much to ask? Is There Really Such a Thing as a Jewish Nose? What's in a nose? Wait, stop. Put down that electric hair trimmer and step away from the mirror. That's not what we meant. For years, we just took it for granted that Jews were, shall we say, blessed in the beak department. But after some Eskimo-related mishaps, we got curious. And so, nostrils flared, we went looking for answers. Is there really such a thing as a "Jewish" nose? Our wise council drew a blank. So we asked John Relethford, professor of physical anthropology at SUNY-Oneonta. Nu? "No," says Relethford. Apparently, having a huge honker has nothing to do with being a Red Sea pedestrian. "Being Jewish is not a matter of biology. It’s a matter of culture," Relethford explains. Biology and culture do overlap somewhat since, to be considered a Jew, your mother generally needs to be Jewish. But that still leaves papa. Take the example of Prof. Relethford himself: "I’m Jewish, yet I have classic Northwestern European features," says our man in academe. Explanation? The good professor converted to Judaism when he married. So, is the super-sized Semitic snout just a myth? According to Relethford, "Nasal shape is very much influenced by what type of environment your ancestors found themselves in." And since Jewish genetic ancestry is mixed, you can’t blame the tribe for your prodigious proboscis. "If you look at any population of Jews," says Relethford, "you’re going to find Jews with large noses, Jews with small noses. It varies." Fair enough. But where did the stereotype of the hook-nosed Jew come from then? The culprit seems to be bad science. Nineteenth-century eugenicists ascribed "primitive" physiological characteristics to Jews, including what one enlightened scientist called "a large, massive, club-shaped, hook nose." Character could also be ostensibly inferred from nasal shape, a "Jewish nose" being the sign of "commercialism or desire for gain." The stigma of this supposedly Jewish feature led many Jews to undergo plastic surgery as a cure for their "nostrility." Indeed, the father of the modern nose job was Jewish surgeon Jacques Joseph of Berlin, who pioneered scarless rhinoplasty in the 1880’s. If, then, you’ve been judging strangers Jewish by the size of their schnozzes, and not by the contents of their kehilla, you should be feeling a big wave of guilt right about now. Gonna cry? Tear off a page of this extra absorbent New Voices. Good. Now blow.
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