Question for Jewish people?

Question

A Jewish acquaintance took my spouse to task a bit for calling her a "Jew." She said that coming from a gentile, it "sounds terrible."

In general I don't like to use adjectives as nouns to label people: I tend to say "he is a Jewish man" instead of "he is a Jew," and "he is a gay man" instead of "he is gay," and "he is an African-American man" instead of "he is an African-American," etc.

That's just my thing and I don't try to foist it on other people. I don't mind being called "a gay man," but I myself don't like being called "a gay." It identifies my entire being with something that is ultimately only a small part of my identity.

But I was still caught off guard with my friend's sensitivity to the word "Jew." I didn't know it was in any way derogatory, and James definitely didn't mean it that way. Or is it derogatory? What do other Jewish people think?

Answer 1

The word "Jew" is by no means inherently derrogatory. It's people assuming that it means something bad that is derrogatory. I actually had a discussion on this topic with my Turkish professor a few years back. You see, in Turkish, the original word for Jew is a cognate with the word for Jew in Hebrew: "Yehudi" (meaning "of Judah"). But because of Turkish anti-Semitism, the word has come to take on a negative meaning to the Turks (this occurs in English, for example when someone uses "Jew" as a verb meaning to swindle someone, slightly less common today than "to gyp," which originated as a slur against the Romani, or Gypsies).

So, some "forward thinkers" among the minds behind Turkey's linguistic reforms (these occurred nearly a century ago under Ataturk's administration of the newly-formed Turkish Republic), whose primary aim was to purge the Turkish language of much of the foreign linguistic influence (e.g. loan words from Arabic and Persian), decided to come up with a new word for Jews. Now, in Turkey, Jews are known as "Musevi," the closest real translation I can think of being "Moseic" or "Mosean". The idea was, rather than keeping the word "Yehudi," which means a horrible person (so says my teacher, who couldn't understand why this fact would offend me), they start calling Jews "followers of the religion of Moses," which has a much nicer connotation, and a term that Turkish bigotry towards Jews hasn't had a chance to ruin yet. To this day, the politically correct word for Jew in Turkish is "Mosean," and to call someone a "Jew" is univerally recognized as a slur.

My argument was that the underlying problem was not the word "Yehudi" itself, which again, is OUR word for us, and simply means we come from the tribe of Judah. Rather, the problem is anti-Semitism. Coming up with a new word for Jew does nothing in the long term to combat this problem - rather, it reaffirms the Turkish understanding of "Jew" as meaning "evil". Inventing new words will not make the problem go away. But my Turkish professor's brain was so hard-wired to understand "Jew" = "bad," that he couldn't even grasp why a Musevi would find it offensive that his own name for himself is synonymous with "a terrible person" - it was just a fact, like the sky being blue.

Now, with that scenario in mind, let's look at the use of the word Jew in the English language. Unlike the Turkish cultural context where anti-Semitism is not seen as a problem - I'm not saying all Turks are anti-Semites; I myself lived in Turkey for a year and experienced very few problems - but it is true that you can pick up a copy of Mein Kampf in virtually every bookstore in Istanbul, where they are prominently displayed. When I inquired of a professor in Istanbul why Mein Kampf was the number one best seller in his country, he explained that it "wasn't racism - people are just curious about Jews on account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and want information". Suffice it to say that going to Hitler for information on Jews would be like relying on Abdullah Öcalan (founder of the PKK, a Kurdish anti-Turkish terrorist organization) for accurate information on Turks, which of course no Turk in his right mind would do. But I digress. So, like I was saying, any decent American rejects bigotry towards Jews as a group, and racism in general. Sadly, not all Americans are decent and civilized. As such, the use of the word "Jew," even as a noun, can be derrogatory. It really depends on the context and inflection in which it is uttered. When walking down the streets of Phoenix, I've had people pull up alongside me in their cars, shout "JEW!!!!" and peel out, honking their horns. Obviously, they understood the word to be derrogatory. But really, this would be like someone pulling alongside you, and, assuming you're a U.S. citizen, yelling "AMERICAN!!!" and taking off - no more or less insulting than that.

There are plenty of racial slurs one can use against Jews - the word "Jew" itself is a stupid choice, beause that's the word English-speaking Jews use for themselves. All someone is saying by calling someone a Jew and meaning it as an insult is "I am an idiot who can't think of any of the dozens of derrogatory synonyms for 'Jew'".

Just as a final note on political correctness and the use of "Jew" versus "Jewish person". I know people who go out of their way to say "Jewish person" or "Jewish man/woman" in place of "Jew," because they assume "Jew" will offend. Given your spouse's acquaintance's reaction however (which was pretty ignorant, assuming your spouse used the word in a non-provocative tone and context), perhaps these fears are better founded than I thought. That being said, I have never found the word "Jew" offensive (I take pride in my being one, so why should I be offended if it's not intended as an insult?), but on the contrary, I always found people's insistence on using "Jewish person" in its stead, implying that there is something wrong with just saying "Jew", to be kind of offensive - but not enough so to elicit a complaint. It's just kind of a pet peeve is all.

I can't presume to speak for all Jews, but frankly, I think any Jew who takes the word "Jew" by itself as an insult (when its not intended as such) has his or her head up their @$$. But again, that's just my opinion.

I hope you find this information helpful, and if you have any further questions vis-a-vis Jewish etiquette, feel free to contact me directly.

PS: OmenkiddO is mistaken. Jew stems from "Judah," in reference to the tribe of Judah, which was named for its patriarch, one of the sons of Israel - it's the tribe of Kings David and Solomon. Again, it comes from Judah the son of Israel, not the Judas who sold out Jesus. So saying "Jew" is offensive for that reason is like saying people think bad things about the heros of the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") are offensive. The Judah for whom we are named predates the infamous Judas by at least a thousand years. And since "Jewish" is just the adjective refering to Jews and their faith, it is no less offensive than "Jew," which, again, is not inherently offensive at all.

Answer 2

It can be very derogatory if said in a derogatory way, or used as an adjective in a certain way, and always if it's used as a verb. (example: He jew'd me down)

Most Jews I know don't have a problem with being called a Jew (myself included) as long as it's respectful. It's the word Jewess I don't like, because I've never seen that word used in a non-derogatory way, but that may just be me as I've never really talked about it with anyone else.

Maybe your spouse said it in a tone that the person thought was derogatory (not saying your spouse did, but maybe it came across that way) but then again there are a small number of people out there who are afraid of the word Jew as a noun altogether.

Short answer: for the most part, it doesn't bother us to be called Jews as long as it's respectful. There are some it will bother, though.

Peace

Answer 3

I have Jewish friends who call themselves "Jews" They say, "I'm a Jew". ... or "as a Jew, I feel that..."

I think that this is an area where political correctness, from which many noble and good things have come from, goes slightly awry. Its when a small number of people try to impose their view of what is proper etiquette on everyone else. And they themselves are probably not part of the minority groups about which they are making rules for.

To some ears the term "Jew" might sound derogatory because we have often heard it used in with an angry tone, or as part of some diatribe of racial insults or inaccuracies. But its still a word that many people are very comfortable using to describe themselves in within a certain context.

Answer 4

So, this would essentialy have to come to a vote - how many offended, how many not.

Billy Crystal had a line about this "There is just something about that word that feels ...off. Ju!" (he says with a sneer)
Hard to write - it was all about the voice and visual.

I'm personaly not offended (and I don't think Billy was either) but its true, there is this single sylable ugliness to it - it almost calls for a sneer.
Historicaly, "Jew" "Jude" "Zhid" are shortened translations of Judean - there is nothing derogatory or offensive in their origin. Unfortunately, many places we have lived have treated us so horribly that they used the word to offend - and it shortly became offensive.
In Russia Zhid became straight forward a curse - and they shifted as a society to Yevrei (Hebrew).
This is not at all the case in English.

I actualy dislike the idea of "he is a Jewish man" it reminds me of how the Russians keep unsuccessfuly PCing their way past anti-semitism and now use something like "citizen of Hebrew apearance"
For my money - I think moving from "He is a Jew" to "He is Jewish" is a good way to go.

As for Jewess - I agreee its icky - but it's just that it's outdated. I have seen it in very old writing by Jewish writers as well as gentiles. It went along with a language that was far more gender sensitive than ours is right now.

Answer 5

I think your Jewish mate was being silly!

The reasoning behind it is: in the past, the actual word 'Jew' was officially defined in most dictionaries in a most spiteful way. And historically, 'Jew' has been used in a perojative manner.

But these days, I don't think it matters one iota. I couldn't care less if someone refers to me as 'a Jew' or 'Jewish' - all I care about is the intention behind the words and so long as that is decent, what else matters?!

Please tell your other half not to be upset. I promise, he wasn't doing anything wrong. Unfortunately as Jews we understandably can be a bit..... sensitive at times. I'd say 98% of the time we are responding rationally to the anti semitism that alas still exists.

But your Jewish mate was part of that 2% that are being pedantic!

If it helps any, show your partner this response and tell him I am Jewish and believe me, I ALWAYS speak out against racism. Your other half didn't do anything wrong :)

Hope this helps a bit.

Shalom :)

EDIT TO 'OMEN'

- that is NOT where the word 'Jew' comes from. Get your facts right!

EDIT

- I rather like 'Jewess' actually.....! :)

Answer 6

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. They are offended by every thing and every body, and to some people, you can't even say "hi" without them getting their tights all up in a bunch.

I'm Jewish, so I can tell you this is so. (Or, I could say "I am a Jew, so I can ...")

This is the generation of offences. If you're not "politically correct", you can get a law suit in a moment! You can sue McDonalds for your own carelessness when you spill your coffee on your lap while driving! It's time we start thinking straight and using some common sense once again.

Answer 7

That's why God looks at people's hearts and intentions.. people can only know a person to an extent, and so people don't trust that a person means well. They can't look at another person's heart, even if they know someone well, they can only guess at what all the intentions of the person's heart is. That is why people just need to learn to think the best of others, and not just think the worst, because it usually is not the worst... in other words, give others the benefit of a doubt.

Answer 8

It has become polite to say "Jewish" as an adjective rather than "Jew" as a noun.

Why do you find it so baffling to be asked to accommodate such a negligible linguistic shift?

Answer 9

It's just taken on a bad connotation since WWII. Encourage her to use Jewish person instead or Jewish man/woman as you do.

Answer 10

Jew comes from the word Jude, which has a connotation of Judas being the betrayer of Christ.

On the other hand, Jewish does not have this meaning, but refers to the chosen people of God.