Lea Michele Is Proud of Her ‘Jewish Nose’
August 17, 2010 in Celebrity Quotes, Lea Michele by Versus
Lea Michele, who recently lost quite a bit of weight, brings the quote of the day:
“I come from a big Italian family and the pressure is not really anything I’ve been raised to feel.”
“I’ve always been proud of my body, my Jewish nose and all of that. Hollywood’s Hollywood, but that’s not going to change.”
… says Michele in US Weekly.
)
Fair play to her.
Most actresses are told to get nose jobs to further their careers.
I thought Jewish ppl were the only ones who could get away with saying that?!!
is she Jewish?? I have to say as a Jew and the granddaughter of holocaust survivors, I am highly offended when I hear non-Jews say stuff like that. Aside from some of the obvious ways of identifying Jews, the Nazis used to identify people with big noses and large foreheads as Jews, and for many years (until today) that stereotype has stuck, and most people who don’t understand the root of this stereotype don’t realize how hurtful it is.
Her father is sephardi.
it’s called use to the tools at your finger tips…. it’s about the second sentence on her wiki page that she’s half Italian, Half Jewish/Spanish. I can’t say as to whether or not it’s hurtful to you, but from what I can tell she’s pretty proud of her heritage.
Removed by admin* There is no doubt that what Hitler did is a travesty, but have you people ever realized that ethnic cleansing has taken one form or another for centuries. Ever heard of Bosnia-Herzgovina? what about the Kurds? Look what goes on in DAR-FUR? Get the point? removed by admin*
UHM…If you’re not Jewish you can’t have a Jewish nose, douchebag. Maybe I find this highly offensive because I’m Jewish but if a white celeb with a broad nose was quoted saying they had an “African American” nose the NAACP would be up their ass.
I know thats what im saying! Im AA, and i know some Jewish person will find this offensive! I thought you could only be Jewish to have or even say you have a Jewish nose!
According to wiki: ‘her father is of Spanish-Sephardic Jewish ancestry’.
ohh, now that makes some sense!
she is actually Jewish. there was also another part of the quote in which she said :
“I have a very specific look. I’m Jewish. I’m Italian.”
also, i don’t understand why that’s a big deal. if someone said i had an african-american/jewish/slavic or whatever nose i wouldn’t get offended, and can’t understand why anybody would..
I’m jewish and her comment does not offend me one bit.
you must be one of the very few people that doesn’t take every single thing to heart
it’s offensive because Hitler ordered the SS to look for people with large noses and mark them as Jewish so that they could be sent to their death in concentration camps. You don’t have to be Jewish to see why it is offensive if you understand the history behind it.
she is saying she LIKES her nose. just because someone has taken a characteristic of your people and made it negative doesn’t mean you should deny its existence. reclaim it with pride. just like she has.
i agree with amazon. it would be like saying that an african-american should get offended that his skin is black…which is completely stupid, different facial features/skin color/big-small noses is what makes us different and interesting
you shoud be proud of whatever you’ve got
WE also don’t have to be jewish taht you jumped the gun and made assumptions (much like a large mose indicates a Jewish person). personally i love Jewish noses and have always thoguht it referred to a shape rather than a size. Granted I also love large noses.
and then i gotta a little crazy with the shift key, no meaning behind the all caps “we”
Phhhhffffffftt!!!it’s really odd to see Jews are suddenly turning into unbeliavably sensible when it comes to their history..I can understand the pain but it is relly making me sick how they can still tell they hate the mass destructions yet they are committing a gross one out there in Palestia..This has nothing to do with Lea’s comment but after reading your comments I was totally shocked by the hypocrisy!It’s so scik what Nazis did,it’s really petrifying even to imagine.But it’s sad that jews are showing off the same cruelty which they say that hurts..And I really know what Israeli Jews think about Palestinian,they are gonna kill jews if jews don’t kill..And yeah I am sure 5yo kid can kill them so wildly..lmao..Btw,I am not referring to you guys when talking about Jews,I don’t know what you think anout what’s going on,maybe you are comfortable maybe you hate but this is what I think and I know most of Jews think they have right to do this.
well,no offend but these comments reminded me of a south park episode which when a south-parker used the word “faggot”it was being beeped except Mr.Garrison:D
Actually it’s really weird because people mentioned the name of every nation to describe big noses jews,turks,armenians..I have Italian-Turkish-Armenian-Circassian-andgodknowswhatmore bloods in me and it is not really disturbing me when a person uses the term Turkish-nose(which comes from the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet)..But to be frank,I don’t really know what usually Jews’ noses look like but her nose is definitely of an Italian..
And re her comment,I agree..Flaws make people unique but they are really hard to deal with..
he has a Roman nose not a Jewish nose, a roman nose is bulbous, but not necessarily convex, someone with a large nose is often mistaken for having a Jew nose. The size of the nose does not matter, but rather the shape. In this case a hooked tip.
Uhmmm, I always understood Roman nose to mean the kind of nose that has no dip after the forehead. The forehead and the nose are on the same plane.
If you look at most roman busts, they usually have that feature.
yes, that is truth, her nose is definitely not Jew because is not hooked
I have what’s referred to as a Roman nose. It’s average size and doesn’t have a hooked tip (which is often referred to as a ‘Jewish nose’) but the only thing is that I have a slight bump on the bridge, then it goes straight again
I used to hate it but now I’m fine with it because I’ve seen how celebrities have altered their noses and it’s just completely thrown off the dimensions of their face and makes them look weird.
i LOVE her nose! i believe it makes her unique….she doesn’t look like every other actress out there and that’s a good thing
Her nose may have not changed but her body has!
I’m glad though that she kept her nose!
my only comment about her nose is that due to the weight loss it’s not longer proportional to the rest of her face. I do love her face and the fact that she doesn’t have “standard” features (whatever those may be)
she’s awesome, looks good and can sing. nothing to change.
Really, does anyone notice her nose at all? Does anyone care about its size or shape?
The fact that she’s talking about it and saying how proud she is of it blablablah, actually makes her seem more insecure.
Seriously it’s just a nose. It’s neither disproportionately big nor ugly nor anything. So get over it Lea.
Actually on Glee several remarks were made regarding her nose. Someone even explicitly said she (-her character; same nose obviously) “needs a nose job”.
true, and lots of guys I know call her ulgy
I’ve definitely noticed her nose. It does make me feel better about my own big nose. Most women in Hollywood get nose jobs so it’s refreshing for sure. Nose is a funny word lol
yeah ur right i never noticed her nose before until the media and her kept talking about it…sho why dont they shut up shes hot and it snot big so get over it they just wanna feed intto the Jewish stereotype
I’m Jewish and I don’t have a nose like that. Her comment is highly offensive. You don’t have to be Jewish to have a big nose you stupid b****.
I know everyone is focused on her “Jewish nose” comment, but how about the hypocrisy about “always been proud of my body” when that is obviously not the case (hello, weight-loss!).
As for her nose, I have noticed it is big and her newly gaunt face is not helping at all.
A lot of people describe themselves as having Greek noses, Roman noses, Italian noses without having to actually COME from those places.
It would be a little weird if she had no Jewish heritage and said what she said, but she DOES have jewish heritage.
And Jews as a people are semitic and all originally came from the Arab peninsula- where PEOPLE HAVE BIG NOSES. Of course not every Jew does, but not every Asian girl is flat chested. I have heard my Chinese friend say, though, that she has ‘Asian booty’, i.e NO booty. That isn’t offensive! And i don’t understand what having a holocaust survivor great grandma has to do with it!
agreed!
nicely stated.
The world has gone PC mad.
I am sure Lea didn’t mean any offense. She is Jewish.
Also my friend (Who is Jewish herself) said the same sort of thing to me about Gaga. She said Gaga is very Jewish looking like herself.
no kidding! everything is so over the top PC it’s ridiculous
Gag is too fugly to be jewish.
i agree, it’s CRAZY! and im living in sweden, the most extreme PC-country in the world.
we are so afraid to be seen as rascists that schools have stopped singing the national anthem at graduations and if you’re caught wearing a shirt with our flag or other swedish symbols you’re seen as a rascist.
swedish is notable for the adjective “lagom”, being the only word in the world that is absolutely politically correct. it can be roughly translated to the middle ground between mediocre and good, just about perfect if you don’t want actual perfection, neither good nor bad, the quantum average that’s always approaching above average but never quite there, so-so but pretty good, almost three-quarters awesome. hahah
it’s only OK to be patriotic if our national team in hockey, football etc is playing. sick huh?
Oh she will eventually succumb to the pressures of hollywood and get a nose job. but she’ll say it was purely for medical reasons, like a deviated septum.
she probably wouldn’t be able to sing then, i.e. Barbara Streisand
Thinking about i think people are mixing up Roman noses as having Jewish noses. Not all Jewish people have big noses.
Good for her! SHE IS GORGEOUS!
If she wouldn’t be Jewish she would never ever describe her nose as Jewish-looking because otherwise she would be denoted as antisemitic and her hollywood career would be over.
OMG WHO CARES???? She didn’t mean it like that. You people are going on about Jewish noses and Roman noses and blah blah blah. She meant the comment in total innocence. If a white girl had a big butt, it would be the same thing as saying “I’m proud of my black girl butt”. Because its a stereotype that black girls have a big butt, and I wouldn’t be offended(I’m black). Its the same thing, big noses are a Jewish stereotype, its not that damn serious. LOL @ Ip23 for saying the world has gone PC mad, I laughed so hard when I read that.
I’m proud she hasn’t gotten a nose job like everyone else, and I hope she never does. She looks great and beautiful her natural self.
EXACTLY. And very well said.
I think this is actually a bit different because of World war 2
German nazi’s tried to recognize jews by their nose and dark hair and dark eyes. That’s a stereotype that sticks. But I don’t think she thought about it anyway, and I agree we shouldn’t make a big deal about it. IMO just a pretty girl with a pretty nose.
Whether or not she’s Jewish (she’s half Jewish and if your mom isn’t the Jewish parent you ain’t Jewish, sorry Lea)
JUDAISM IS NOT A NATIONALITY OR A RACE.
People can’t have a Christan eyes, Hindu hands, Muslim feet, Catholic thighs, Buddhist boobs so…
a “JEWISH” nose doesn’t exist.
Oh c’mon, are you that daft?
Jewish is universally understood as 2 things:
- the religion
- the ethnic group
Haha. Totally accurate.
What the heck does the sex of a parent have to do with whether or not a person is a certain race?
[...] Forum var randomnumber=Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999); document.write(""); Skinny vs Curvy > Beauty & Body Image > Gabourey Sidibe: ‘You should love yourself, no matter how you look’ « Lea Michele Is Proud of Her ‘Jewish Nose’ [...]
I honestly thought she was Latina when I first saw her, than I googled her and found out she wasn’t.
Actually, that´s not entirely true. Jews not only share the same religion but also show genetic similarities that make them into a distinct group (Ashkenazim and Sephardim included). See new research on that, if you please: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html
Jews do not share religion. There are plenty of jews who became christians. That does not mean they stop being ethnically jewish. Just stop being religiously jewish.
Also plenty of atheists and agnosts too.
Point taken. I was just replying to a previous comment saying you can´t be ethnically jewish.
So she’s Jewish and Italian? Thought so.
and Spanish too!! very Americna of her isn’t it?
…..And she has every right to be proud of her Jewish nose! The traditional beauty standard in the west is to have a short, narrow nose (me and my sister both have little noses, and we like them, but that isn’t to say there is anything wrong with a nose like Lea’s!).
There’s no such thing as an “ideal” way for any bodily or facial feature to be like, and there shouldn’t be. Firstly because different ethnicities tend to look different, and to try make an ideal would be saying that one race was more beautiful than another. Secondly, all people have to look different, and the more diverse the better, because if everyone looked the same, if everyone looked the supposed idea of “beauty”, we would all be inbred and have genetic diseases!
It’s great that Lea is happy with her nose, because there’s no such thing as a “perfect” nose, and a large “Jewish” nose can be just as beautiful as a tiny little nose like my own! It’s all personal taste.
Come on. Don’t pretend to be modest.
You know (whether it is true or not that you do have one) that IN GENERAL and OBJECTIVELY small noses are cutter than big noses. In any case, a nose need to be just nice and harmonic, not necessarily tiny, to be likeable noses. May be yours is too tiny, which is never good either.
some people aren’t attracted to “cute.” Personally (and I won’t be modest Mary) I love my nose, it’s a great shape, however it’s not small, it’s not button and it looks fabulous on me!
She says that now… In a few years she will have a nose job. Like Ashley Tisdale.
Lea is so gorgeous! I personally think she looks great now, but I also thought she looked great before. She would probably look slightly healthier if she gained back five to ten pounds, but she’s beautiful either way. And she IS Jewish. She’s from Italian and Jewish descent, she said so in her June (I think June?) Women’s Health interview.
Get over yourselves people. I’m a Jew and Slavic (on both sides of the family), and somehow I was able to read her quote just fine, even though, had I been alive during the Holocaust, I would have been a prime target for both things I am. I’ve said I had a Jewish nose, it’s fine. Just like being black was once portrayed as a horrible thing in America, but now people are (correctly) proud to be black. Having a Jewish nose during the Holocaust was portrayed as a terrible thing, now it should be just a facial feature, or even something to be proud of.
My nose looks very similar to hers, but it comes from my dad’s side, which is Irish/Scottish/English.
Me too. My nose is very similar to hers and I’ve had some rude comments about it. I’ve even been told that I need a nose job. Why would I do that? My son looks like me and it’s a dominant trait in my family. Its what makes us unique. Not everyone is destined to have a tiny button nose.
She looks beautiful and non-cookie-cutter. The typical little nose-job noses always look little-girl to me. She has a beautiful adult looking face.
I bet that actress from Dirty Dancing wishes she could un-do her nose job.
I have a ‘bigger’ Indian nose
and I hate it. it’s the only part of my body I would change if I had the opportunity. I wish I could have the same outlook Lea but I can’t. It’s awful but whenever I look at her face I can only think about how much ‘prettier’ she would be if it was smaller, then I think the same about myself. Not trying to drag on the pity party but that’s honestly how I feel and I have tried everything to change it but I don’t know how else to make myself feel better about it than to get surgery.
I feel the same way. Because of my nose insecurity, it’s all I see when I look at her. If I were to wake up rich one day, one of the first things I would do (besides buying a house and car) is get a nose job. I bet you’ve thought the same thing as well and hopefully one day we’ll accept ourselves as we are.
Um, to the people that say she’s not Jewish, she is. She’s said it before. And Michele is actually her middle name. Lea Michele Sarfati.
I think she’s quite pretty, tbh. I don’t get the hate surrounding her looks.
she’s just not proud of her jewish last name
It’s sooo annoying to enter a post about a quote and you people take the words completely out of subject, the girl is talking about how proud she is of having unique features that are not the norm in Hollywood and she feels good about it and suddenly half of the comments refer to her as a racist? are you serious?
Whatever, keep living your life offended by anything that is being said because you have MAJOR insecurities, regarding to Lea I think she is gorgeous and I love her at this and any size, and her voice: WOW!
Oh and you made me forget what I really wanted to say! How big does cory monteith look next to Lea???? Dammmmmmnnn either he Is HUGE or she is really tiny!! (or both XD)
Cory is about 6′ 3″, next to him everyone looks tiny.
I’m arab and I always thought she had an Arab look to her, olive skin tone, dark hair and a long nose – arabs/Jews/Greeks/Italians (basically all the mid-east Mediterranean peoples and even some eastern european) have longer noses – not necessarily BIG, but long, kinda like a triangle.
I think they look really good on most guys (see Goran Vicjnic, Richard Armitage) but on girls its a harder sell…but I think Lea is a cute girl, gorgeous hair and eyes for sure.
i agree that most mediterranean people have similar features…lea looks a lot like mmy mum and she is croatian
*Goran Visnjic
I know, that she’s partly jewish, but she doesn’t have typical “jewish” nose. Jewish noses are hooked, her nose looks italian or sth.
She doesn’t have big nose, she is exaggerating…;)
She should see my nose, when I was teenager, children used to call me “arab”
I like how she says that she’s proud of her unique features and that she likes beeing diferent but yet goes on to lose waaaay too much weight and ends up looking like every other lollipop head celeb…pffff!!! proud indeed…
I have noticed she has a bigger nose and thought to myself about how she would look so much better with a smaller nose. However I have a complex with my nose (crooked with a bump) so I’m more sensitive to those things. My nose doesn’t hook down or anything it actually points up a little at the end. May be if I liked my nose I would like hers.
PS: I’m mostly Italian and Polish ancestry. No Jewish lineage here. Know a lot of people with noses like her and none of them are Jewish.
I definitely agree with Chrissy, people are so ready to react until they do a little research first. She’s obviously not stupid, she wouldn’t say anything like that for no reason.
There is no point getting defensive over something that happened so long ago…yes, it happened, it was terrible, many awful things happen in this world. For someone to still be offended by it I don’t personally understand, I wouldn’t like to live my life dwelling on the past!
First, I think she’s beautiful.
Jews come from all over the world. Her Jewish side is from Spain, and mixed with her Italian heritage, she looks very Mediterranean. My whole family is Jewish, but I am very mixed: German, Polish, Ukrainian, Libyan, Italian, Russian…. Even though I have North African and Italian family, my nose is small and upturned. Yet, I also have dark features and most people ask if I’m Italian. I have family members with caramel skin and large noses, freckles/button noses/red hair, and blue eyes/blond hair….and they’re all Jewish!
I was brought up to celebrate my heritage, and I think that Lea’s comment is actually a sign of her pride, as well. Regardless of what she or we call her nose, I like to hear a girl say she won’t rid her face of her ethnicity.
She has a hooked nose – that is the typical Jewish nose. The size has nothing to do with it but it definitely does identify her as a Jewess.
How many Jewish people have you even seen??? How many have you met who are from other countries??? I grew up with many Jewish people (mostly of European descent) in America, and have spent a lot of time in Israel. Some Jewish folks have the hook, but it is not typical. The hook does not identify anything and can be found on myriad people who are not Jewish. There are Arabic Muslims and Christians who have a hooked nose, Indian/Pakistani Hindus and Muslims who have a hooked nose, etc. The only reason you say the hook is “Jewish” is because you are relying on centuries of physical stereotypes created in Europe. Way to go on sounding like some Eugenics creep. There is actually a huge amount of variation in people’s phenotypes even when they share many genes.
Btw, I am all Jewish and have a small, unhooked nose. Am I not Jewish???? Many, many members of my family also do not have a hook. Are we not “typical???”
she’s is jewish so she can say she has a jewish nose!!! God bless u lea michele. Us jews have to stick together!!
i hate everyone who thinks her comments are offensive. I hate the person that brought up the holocaust, seriously dude it was a serious horrible event stop using it over arbitrary things.
I think her nose looks great, but the show biz world will not. In order for her to remain a viable actress when Glee is done, she’ll probably have to have a nose job. It’s unfortunate but the path she chose to take. Halle Berry would have never made it as far as she did if she’d retained her black nose, sad but true.
you all, lea michele is jewish, she has a right to say that, and it shouldn’t be offensive. shes actually saying shes proud of her heritage, she isn;t hating on it
So, yet another article with the words “Lea Michele” and “Jewish” in the title. The point is driven home once again: out of all the Jewish and part Jewish actresses out there, she’s the one whose Jewishness we need to know and remember about, since she’s ugly as hell. Great. Point taken.
Will I ever see the words “Logan Lerman” and “Jewish” in the same title, in as high a frequency? Of course not. Logan Lerman is about a 100 times better looking than Lea Michele, and he’s also 100% Jewish, which Lea Michele is not even close to being (since her mother is not Jewish).
[...] Lea loves talking about her… nose. She did so here and here! [...]
You jews find offense in everything said about you. Get a life. If you don’t like what she said, then go read somewhere else. You all have big, hooked noses; except for the ones who get surgery or have babies with beautiful aryan or latin people.
Lea Michele stated on national television that she was raised Catholic, and that her Jewish father “gladly” attends church with her and her mother.
The book is closed.
Now, let’s pretend the last two and a half years never happened, and you guys in the mainstream media can start writing about people with two Jewish parents being Jewish, like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Logan Lerman, Mila Kunis, and Anton Yelchin.
Starts at the 9:40 mark – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyfCHFy8r-k