Lawmaker Apologizes for Jewish Nose Remark
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PHOENIX — A state lawmaker has apologized for telling a colleague, “You can’t be Jewish. You don’t have a big hooked nose.”
Rep. Barbara Blewster made the comment last week to Rep. Barbara Leff as Republican leaders were asking them to stay at the Capitol into the evening during negotiations over the state budget. Leff and other Jewish lawmakers left to attend traditional Passover dinners.
Leff said she told Blewster: “Not all of us have hooked noses, oh prejudiced one.” Leff said Blewster later apologized.
Blewster said she was “flabbergasted that my enjoyable, private conversations with my friends in the Legislature are getting in the newspaper. I have no prejudice at all. I admire the Jews.”
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