A Nose By Any Other Name
The Jewish Museum of Berlin opened a show last week titled "Typical! Cliches About Jews and Others" that addresses such questions as "Are blacks better athletes?" and "Do Jews have long noses?" The show also has on display: a Nazi-era manual that teaches you how to spot a Jew, several Austrian walking canes with handles depicting rhinoplasty-ready yids and a work by New York artist Dennis Kardon called "49 Jewish Noses" depicting, well, a bunch of noses complete with the names of their proprietors.
While we generally support playful inquiries into the nature of contemporary stereotypes and post-modern identities, we have to admit being a bit nervous about that playfulness extending to Berlin. I mean, the idea of a docent with a thick German accent lecturing to a crowd about Jewish physiology kind of could give you the creeps, no?
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submit a comment03.27.08 at 12:03 pm
a docent here may be well trained, and even be a survivor.
But how many people will walk through that exhibit Without a docent ?
What is to prevent this from potentially becoming a Holocaust minstrel show?
“give you the creeps,” yes…..