A Jewish Sports Illustrated Cover Girl? Oy Vey!

Jewish girls worldwide, it's time to break out the Manishevitz and raise a Kiddush cup: Israel-born supermodel Bar Rafaeli is the cover model for the new 2009 Sports Illustrated.

For a community of women not typically known for or represented in the media as glamazonian, stunningly beautiful or even thin, this is progress. (As a 5'11" woman with blonde highlights who constantly hears "That's funny, you don't look Jewish!" -- generally, but sadly, uttered as a compliment -- I'm sure to catch flack for this. But nonetheless, my name is Leslie Goldman.)

I've written about Jewish girls and eating disorders for Huff Po before. Among the many reasons I listed to back up my assertion that to be Jewish is to have an eating disorder -- food used as love; undeniable cultural pressure to succeed; an emphasis on perfectionism; mothers constantly on the Grapefruit Diet or Weight Watchers or uching in the bedroom mirror; a complete and total lack of personal boundaries in our families -- I included the societal struggle to conform. As I blogged,

There's a reason Victoria's Secret is epitomized by long/lean-limbed Eastern Europeans and bedroom-eyed Frenchwomen; there's not much of a demand to see Mayim Bialik in a thong bikini. While Jewish fashion designers -- Calvin Klein, Zac Posen, Ralph Lauren (née Lipshitz), Anne Klein (née Hannah Golofski) -- rule the runways, try Googling "Famous Jewish models," and you practically hear e-crickets chirping. Shalom Harlow and Bar Rafaeli are pretty much it.

Since then, I've learned of the stunning Esti Mamo, a model of Ethiopian Jewish descent and a member of the Beta Israel community. Another sign of progress: In 2008, Heeb Magazine published its first-ever Jewish swimsuit issue, titled "The Ladies of '69" -- as in the Hebrew year of 5769 on the Hebrew calendar.

Please note, all my talk of "progress" is as sarcasm-soaked as a greasy potato latke. I don't truly believe that having a 0.15% dressed woman yanking her bikini bottoms down past her hipbones on the cover of a sports magazine is actual evolution, even if she does eat matzoh balls and can spin a dreidel. In fact, some could argue that it puts even more pressure on young Jewish women who look at Bar on the cover and think, "Oh, great. Yet another impossible-to-attain image for me to live up to: A tall, skinny, big-boobed Jewish girl dating Leonardo DiCaprio."

But for just a brief, shining moment, one of our sisters is front and center in a mainstream publication, one not called Jewlicious or Heeb. She's not completely covered up in a "modestkini"-type bathing suit. She's not making a total fool of herself, stumbling around in a red bra and beehive or pushing Jewish mysticism or killing the (US) national anthem with a cackling voice and a loogie. Bar is a 5'9" beacon of hope for petite, brunette, Hebrew-schooled girls everywhere. We should send her a pair of these and call it a Boker Tov.

Comments

[mikeyman]

Gee, thanks, Leslie. You and this other writer here (http://www.wowowow.com/post/bar-refaeli-isports-llustrated-model-leonardo-dicaprio-jewish-sheila-weller-205832?promo=news) have done a great service by pointing out that yes, Bar Refaeli is Jewish and hot, but only as long as we're all clear that most Jewish women aren't.

Well, guess what, most German women don't look like Heidi Klum, and most WASPs don't look like Brad Pitt. Famous people are better looking than non-famous people. That applies to all groups, though you seem to think it only applies to Jews.

"Progress" will come only when Jewish writers stop writing about how unattractive Jews supposedly are. You hear "you don't look Jewish" all the time? You think that Jewish women are a "community of women not typically known for or represented in the media as glamazonian"? Stop writing articles like this one, and maybe in 10 years all of that won't be the case.

Sentences like "there's not much of a demand to see Mayim Bialik in a thong bikini" epitomize the approach here - using an obscure TV actress from 20 years ago to supposedly prove some point makes about as much as sense as writing "there's not much demand to see Rosie O'Donnell in a thong bikini" to prove that most Irish women usually aren't considered attractive. If you wrote "Natalie Portman" or "Alicia Silverstone" or "Sarah Michelle Gellar" instead of Bialik, the sentence doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

[ccoppe]

I am so totally confused by the entire tenor of this article.

Israeli women are more physically attractive (fashion wise) on average than American Jewish women (by your standard) because over the generations there has been more intermarriage between ashkenazi and sephardi jews. That equals gene pool diversity.

Maybe American Jews should consider not marrying people who look so incredibly similar to themselves. Then their children would gradually become more varied in appearance.

[BlackJAC]

Wouldn't Israeli actress Noa Tishby provide more hope for the aforementioned brunette Hebrew-schooled girls? Or Lisa Edelstein?

[SavageDem]

This is a silly article. Judaism is a religion, not an ethnicity. This is like saying, "Sweet, we finally have a Hindu sister on the cover!", or, "Thank goodness we Wiccans are finally represented!"

[Kelly Lincoln]

If Judaism is not an ethinicity, why do you use a term relating to "Judea"? "Jew" is a Roman occupation pejorative.It's similiar to the pejoratives currently in use relating to someone's place of origin, i.e. like referring to someone of Polish descent as a P*****k, or Ireland as a "M**k.

If it wasn't an ethinicity, why has there been such a drive to wipe our existence from the planet?

"Judaism" is the religion of the Jews who resided in the Land of Judea. Until then, there was no name placed on our religious beliefs.

as a coda to this mini rant, you see, to be unhappy to see your little stereotype of the "Long Island Jewish Princess" destroyed.

[SavageDem]

I have no quarrel with the assertion that Judaism came out of Judea, but the faith has outgrown that - just as not all Christians are caucasian. Sure, many people - I *not* being one of them, but the author seemingly - stereotype "Jewish" characteristics, but those characteristics - or ethnic "markers" - are shared by many in the part of the world from which the Jewish faith originated. I doubt that the faith of many Jews or Palestinians in the Middle East can be divined by observation of their bodies alone. Just like the strife between Bosnians/Serbs, or Hutus/Tutsis is really class or social in nature - as the ethnic background in each case is virtually indistinguishable - so also is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Judaism in the world today is comprised of multiple ethnic groups.

I'm not sure if your coda was directed at me, but I have no Jewish stereotype. I grew up in the Midwest in areas mostly bereft of those practicing Judaism, and never understood anti-Semitism, the "Jewish princess" stereotype, or any of the other negative facets attributed to Jews. It's always been just another religion to me.

[protagonia]

Men watch sports, regardless of their faith. Why not cover everyone?