O pinion
One-and-a-Half Minutes
BY KEREN ROSENFELD
NINETY SECONDS is my
new measure of time. I have
a lot to accomplish in those
precious seconds these days.

At night, within 90 seconds I
have to put on shoes; grab my
sleeping 4-year-old and a few
pillows; take her to the stair-
well outside our apartment
hoping she stays asleep so I can
lay her down then run back to
grab my 2-year-old; not forget
a house key; and then wait.

I wait patiently, still. Calm
to keep my baby girl calm.

Calm while the siren wails and
the inevitable BOOM crashes
overhead, shaking the doors,
but never shaking my core.

I remain still. I wait for the
sirens to stop. Sometimes they
do. Sometimes they continue,
preceding another series of
BOOMS. During the day, I also
grab an iPad so the kids can
focus on something else.

This part isn’t so bad. A 90%
Iron Dome success rate means
that not having a safe room or
bomb shelter in my building
leaves us fairly safe. You just pray
you aren’t at the wrong place in
the 10% margin of error. Like
that guy three miles away ...

The hard parts are the
moments before. And the
moments after. I didn’t grow up
with the gas masks and bomb
shelters like my husband. This
is his normal, not mine. He is a
sea of calm in this mayhem. But
his sea was swept off to protect
others when he was called up
for Air Force Reserve duty. So I
must be the calm. Alone.

The before parts include
running logistics. Making
sure my phone is charged
and nearby. Deciding how far
we can wander from home.

Determining if there is a
shelter near the playground, or
the grocery store. Which child
should I grab first? Should I
carry them both? Can I risk
grabbing a shower while alone
with the girls? What if while
giving them a bath a siren goes
off? Are 90 seconds enough to
rise, throw on towels, grab the
girls and sit in the hall? Will I
have time to put a diaper on the
baby? Remember to stay calm,
or at least appear calm.

They’re young, so they don’t
ask questions. They seem fine. I
hope they’re fine.

The after parts include not
being able to fall asleep. Sleep.

I can’t remember real sleep
anymore. Being woken up
three or four times a night by
sirens, and then a few more
times by phantom sirens.

Motorcycles sound like sirens
sometimes. Ambulance sirens
make my heart beat faster. I am
constantly looking for sturdy
walls that face north, away from
where the rockets come from. I
never let my girls wander more
than four feet away in case I
need to grab them and run. The
after parts suck.

I’ve always been indepen-
dent. I traveled the world
alone. But being alone with
two little girls is different. After
two nights alone, we moved
in with friends. I can admit it
when I am in over my head.

The kids thought it was camp.

The adults made plans: One
mom grabs the two older kids,
then the others grab the babies
and head for the stairs. We stay
until I miss home.

The sirens have stopped, but
I still hear them sometimes.

I still keep my showers short
and leave the window open, so
I can hear a siren just in case.

But the knot in my stomach
hasn’t gone away. My husband
is still away. I try not to think
about it too much. I have other
things to focus on. I’ve gotten
used to balancing work and
entertaining the kids thanks to
COVID. I still don’t sleep well.

I’m lucky. Thirty minutes
south they have 15 seconds. l
Keren Rosenfeld lives in Tel
Aviv with her husband and two
daughters. The Danger of That #nosejob Trend on TikTok
BY JOANNA MANN
DON’T GET ME WRONG, I
love my “Jewish nose.”
But when more and more
#nosejob and #nosejobcheck
videos started popping up
on my TikTok For You Page,
it brought back those old
unwanted feelings of hating
my appearance I worked so
hard to overcome. I wasn’t even
interacting with the videos, yet
for some reason I couldn’t get
them off my feed.

On TikTok, the #nosejob
hashtag has nearly 2.5 billion
views, and #nosejobcheck has
over a billion as well.

The videos are all pretty
much the same: The first half
consists of people showing their
side profile in several pictures
(truly a nightmare for those
of us with nose insecurities!),
a horrifying photo of their
post-op bloody and bruised
face, and then — finally — the
new and improved nose, which
is usually tiny, upturned and
bump-free. Watching them makes me
think about all of the young
teenage girls on the app who
are no doubt seeing the same
videos I am. If I had seen
these “transformations” at 15,
it would have destroyed my
already fragile self-esteem.

I can’t help but wonder how
many young teenagers today
— including Jewish girls —
are taking in these videos in
harmful ways.

First, let’s just take a minute
to talk about the antisemitic
history of the stereotypical
“Jewish nose.” There is actually
no proof that Jews tend to have
larger noses, or any physical
stereotype dates back to the
1930s, when it was used in Nazi
propaganda to stir disgust and
hatred of Jewish communities.

I remember learning in Hebrew
school about Nazi propagan-
dist Julius Streicher and what
he wrote in a children’s book
during World War II.

a nose is a hook nose or an
eagle nose. It is not at all like a
Jewish nose.”
While there is no proof
that Jews inherently have big
noses, this feature does in fact
run in many Jewish families,
including mine. Whenever
people see a photo of my family,
The large, hooked nose stereotype dates back to the 1930s, when it
was used in Nazi propaganda to stir disgust and hatred of Jewish
communities. characteristics that group us
together, for that matter. There
are Jews of every size, shape
and color, and the diversity
of the Jewish experience is
something to be celebrated.

But ...

The large, hooked nose
“One can most easily tell
a Jew by his nose,” he wrote.

“The Jewish nose is bent at its
point. It looks like the number
six. We call it the ‘Jewish six.’
Many Gentiles also have bent
noses. But their noses bend
upwards, not downwards. Such
the first thing they do is laugh
and point out that my older
sister and I most definitely
inherited my dad’s “Jew nose.”
And while we wear this
feature as a badge of honor
today, for me it hasn’t always
been that way. As a teenager
See Mann, Page 23
14 JUNE 3, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM