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



O pinion
Trail of Misinformation Aims to Divide Supporters of Israel
and of Social Justice
BY LAURA FRANK
THE JEWISH communities’
participation in the racial
reckoning undertaken by
our nation over the past year
may be the most important
social justice work we’ve done
in the last half century. Since
the deaths of George Floyd
and Breonna Taylor, Jewish
communities, like so many
others, have worked to under-
stand the racism baked into
our society and pledged to use
our power to make our country
more equitable. We’ve joined
with other communities across
our region to demand justice
and opportunity for all and
have forged new friendships
and strengthened old alliances.

This past month, however,
we’ve watched many of these
relationships and partner-
ships deteriorate, or crumble
altogether. It has been upset-
ting and painful to see many of
our domestic allies and friends
openly embrace anti-Israel,
and increasingly anti-Jewish,
platforms on social media and
in public spaces. Watching
their hateful words spiral into
overt acts of violence and
targeted aggression against
Jewish Americans was an
entirely predictable and avoid-
able consequence.

I’ve been engaged in Jewish
advocacy long enough to know
that the anti-Zionist movement
never misses an opportunity to
use the conflict to attack Israel.

So, when Hamas began raining
rockets down on Israeli civilian
populations, it was foreseeable
that propaganda against Jews
would quickly follow.

Since Israel’s creation, its
enemies’ efforts have moved
from war and invasion to
delegitimization and boycotts.

For years, American Jews have
often faced “litmus tests,”
in which they must publicly
renounce Zionism in order
to participate in progressive
activities and movements such
as the Women’s March. But in
followers. It’s clear that it is
now incumbent upon Jewish
Americans, and our allies,
to confront and correct the
lies and falsehoods in order
to defuse this new spread of
antisemitism. One such piece of propa-
ganda, designed to draw
parallels to European colonizers
who sought to evict people of
color from their lands in Africa
and the Americas, is that
Israel is a settler colonial state
committing ethnic cleansing
against the Palestinians. Jews
originated in Israel, and have
remained there in some form
ever since. The Jews did not
return to their homeland to
colonize, but instead to save
themselves from aggressions
and evictions across Europe
Most distressing of all is that these reactions have been spurred on
due to a stunning failure of community activists and political leaders to
adequately equate their words with the actions of their followers. It’s
clear that it is now incumbent upon Jewish Americans, and our allies,
to confront and correct the lies and falsehoods.

the past few weeks, anti-Israel
misinformation and distortion
have escalated in the public
discourse and the media,
which has helped fuel an over
400% increase in antisemitic
activities. Most distressing of all is
that these reactions have been
spurred on due to a stunning
failure of community activ-
ists and political leaders to
adequately equate their words
with the actions of their
and the Middle East. In fact,
only 31% of Israeli citizens are
of European descent at all.

As to the establishment
of the state of Israel in 1948,
Israel was created pursuant to
the UN’s plan for a two-state
solution. While the Arab
residents who fled Israel
became refugees, the nearly
150,000 who remained became
Israeli citizens. Today, Arabs
comprise more than 22% of
Israel’s population and hold
Correction an example of their superior
power. But this argument fails
to address why those defense
systems are necessary. Israel,
more than any other country
in the world, has faced repeated
attacks from its neighbors
and terrorist organizations
that reside among them. Not
surprisingly, Israel has invested
heavily in defense systems and
security measures to protect
its citizens, as all sovereign
nations are entitled and have
an obligation to do.

Finally, another pervasive
argument is that Zionism is
racism. Zionism rests on the
belief that Jews, like any other
peoples, should be allowed to
self-govern within the land
in which they are indigenous.

But Zionism was never about
having an exclusively Jewish
state, in which persons who
pursued other faiths would
not be allowed to live, worship
freely or have equal rights. The
goal of those equating Zionism
and racism is not to improve
the situation of people of color
in the land of Israel, but rather
to deny the Jewish people their
right to self-determination and
their indisputable ties to that
land. This isn’t to say that all those
who participated in anti-Is-
rael demonstrations in recent
weeks are antisemitic. In fact,
it’s safe to assume that most
are not. But what is clear is that
bad faith actors, whose intent is
to annihilate the state of Israel,
are now seeking to build walls
between Jewish advocates for
Israel and their allies in the
fight for racial justice here in
the United States.

Jews have always been at the
forefront of the fight for human
rights and social justice. Israel
was built on these very princi-
ples. We must consistently
contest anti-Zionist misinfor-
mation, as we continue to fight
for an equal and just society for
all here in the United States. l
Laura Frank is the director of the
Jewish Community Relations
Council of the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia.

STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
In the article “Attorney, Israel Fundraiser Herbert Kolsby Dies at 94” in the May 20 issue,
Kolsby’s name was misspelled in the captions.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM high levels of employment in
the government and the IDF.

Israel has repeatedly sought
to negotiate an end to the
hostilities so that Jews and
Palestinians might live side-by-
side in peace. But Palestinian
leadership has rejected offers
of statehood at least seven
times since 1948. In the name
of peace-building, Israel has
handed the Sinai Peninsula
to Egypt and later the Gaza
Strip to the Palestinians, which
resulted in a brutal takeover
from Hamas. This resulted in
hundreds of deaths of both
Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

Another argument paints
the Palestinian people as the
oppressed and Israel as the
oppressor, pointing to Israel’s
powerful defense systems as
JEWISH EXPONENT
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
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published. JUNE 3, 2021
15