Nose Is a Nose Is a Nose?

“In the midst of an explosion in cosmetic surgery, the number of nose jobs has dropped significantly,” The New York Times reported in January. The 8% decline between 1992 and 1996, experts say, is due largely to a new Jewish comfort with—even affection for—the classic Jewish nose.

“The heyday for nose jobs,” the Times reports, “was in the 60’s and early 70’s,” when Jewish parents who had witnessed the Holocaust wanted to protect their children from persecution. “To them, that meant fitting inconspicuously to the Protestant mainstream.”

“Every girl on Long Island had a Diamond nose,” said—who else?—rhinoplasty expert Howard Diamond. Said another veteran operator, “Everybody wanted to look like a shiksa.” These days, some women are actually asking to have the bumps restored to their “little ski-jump” noses, now that ethnic is beautiful.