100 Jewish noses, including mine

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward's free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.

I have never been good at resisting advertising, but one day last July, I came across a poster aimed at me like a heat-seeking missile: “Are you Jewish? Do you have a nose?”

Check and check.

The flyer went on:  “Looking for noses for the 100 Jewish Noses Project, a series of 100 Jewish nose paintings.”

Strange forces were afoot on Franklin Avenue. I had seen a lot of papers taped to poles in my time, but never one that had seen me so clearly. The page was dominated by a painting of a nose, a handsome Romanesque specimen with an oily sheen. Below, the mystery artist invited me to “Submit your nose here” via a tinyurl link. I didn’t need to be asked twice.

After I filled out a Google Form that asked some basic questions (name, genre of Jewish heritage, availability to come to Brooklyn for reference photos) and a few more nasally-reflective inquiries relating to my nose-job status and my general relationship with my nose, I found myself in artist Goldie Gross’ Crown Heights apartment, preparing to do some modeling for the first time in my life. Gross was reserved but generous with her laughter. Her loose black dress, mane of golden-brown crinkly curls and red nail polish lended her a certain Jew-ne-sais-quoi.

“I don’t think there is such a thing as a Jewish nose,” said Gross once we had sat down on her couch to talk, “and so I wanted to do a series that captures the full range, the diversity of the Jewish nose across one hundred paintings.”