Why do people object to saying the word "jew"?

“Jew” has been tainted by Un Pee See, rather like the way “Black” has.
Unlike “Christian,” “Jew” may also refer to an ethnicity.

Context is everything. Because racists have made a mess of the word, you must be careful of context, just as when using the N word.

It depends. I have no issue saying Jew if the person I’m referring to uses that to identify themselves.

Probably because two broad groups of people have come to believe it is a perjorative—those being people who interact with Jews/Jewish culture and harbor prejudice and people who have never or seldom interacted with Jews yet predominantly hold negative associations and beliefs about Jews/Jewish culture based on what they have heard or been brought up to believe (i.e. good old fashioned ignorance).

You know, the sound of the word, too, is perhaps a little too easy to inflect as a negative. Not that it can’t be spoken in adoration as well, but it can certainly be made to sound negative.

I’m a Jew and I’ve never had a problem saying or hearing it. “Jewboy” or “kike” would be another thing entirely. Where is this coming from?

If it is used as a verb, as in “The customer ‘jewed’ me down on the price of a toaster”, it is not going to go over well.

It all depends how its said. saying “kevin is a jew” is fine. saying “kevin is a jew!” with an angry or disgusted tone of voice is not ok. “oh so you are a jew?” is fine, “oh so you are a god damn jew” is not.

Its a strange one. its the only word that is both the good and bad version all in one.

I find that using the word “jewish” seems to cover all the bases and not offend anyone.

“Jew” can be, and is, used negatively even though it’s a clear and accurate descriptor. The fact that so many people use it to be hurtful (“Cheap Jew,” “Jewboy” etc.) makes me bristle when someone uses it at all unless I know without a doubt how the user intends it. It sounds so different to me to hear “She’s Jewish” versus “She’s a Jew.”

Maybe some are sensitive to the distinction between a noun and an adjective: placing a person in a class or a group with a label—“he or she is a <noun>”—versus using a descriptor that refers to a trait or characteristic, including a recognized affiliation or persuasion. One defines and the other describes.

@PhysicsGuy, I think you haven’t given yourself enough time to understand the culture of fluther. This is not an “anything goes” site.

I’m not offended by the word Jew, and I don’t know of anyone who is, when used in context. (On a side note, Holy Moderation Stick Batman!)

I haven’t encountered that.

[mod says] Hate speech and off-topic remarks removed.

I do not know many people who are open about being a Jew, but I go to a very PC campus (Gonzaga U) where people tend to be on the over side of sensitivity. The word Jew doesn’t come up very often at all, so I draw on mostly my experiences of going to religious services where the Bible is in constant use.

@augustlan, oh i know, I just haven’t seen so much in one thread, heh. Also, I was going to ask what rods and cones were but I used Bing to find out.

Although I have heard it used in a negative way, of course, I have never met anyone reluctant to use the word at all.

The word Jew does seem weighted with a lot of connotations and I feel it might be interpreted as being offensive. I would be more comfortable using Jewish.

Well if “jew” can be interpreted similarly to the n-word , wouldn’t saying judaist also solve the problem? I’m not going to be bending all my sentences for this.

People that object to using the word “Jew” are just unnecessarily afraid of what others may think of them. For some strange reason, some people have trouble using words that classify people by race/religion, that were created to do just that. There are many words that have been created to purely offend, but others were created only to classify. I see no problem with the word “Jew”. Just as I see no problem using black, white, or brown. Yet others seem to see such words as offensive. People really need to take a step back and analyze these words that they think are offensive and think about what they really are referring to. Jew is just short for Jewish.
Some of the responses are stating that Jew is unacceptable when used in a negative manner, but they seem to forget that any word used to classify someone could be used in a negative tone.

@Zyx It isn’t a derogative term unless it is used in a derogative way. It is usually capitalized however. I have never used or would use the term Judaist. Jew is a noun and Jewish is an adjective; both are acceptable.

@janbb I know that in last years Christmas episode of Community, Shirley kept saying “Oh, Annie, I didn’t know you were a… Jew…” to which Annie would reply “Say the whole word!” (which totally messed me up in terms of proper grammar and various forms of Jew… especially since “Jewish person” is not the whole word but the whole term, having two words in it). No idea if that’s why @Zyx brought it up, though.

The derogatory usage of “Jew” is, as far as I know, unique, that most other derogatory terms (for most other groups) are at the very least derivations of the root, i.e. “Negro” and “Fundamentalist” and indeed, might, as in the case of “raghead” instead refer to a common but ultimately unrelated attribute.
Very curious.

No one in my family does, but that might be because many of them are.

@Nullo Not for nothing, but you think ‘negro’ and ‘fundamentalist’ are equally offensive? Really?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir, I really don’t think that’s what he meant, just probably picked that word as an example I bet? Maybe?

Jew should never be used as a verb!
I am a Jew, that means I am Jewish.
If I am an academic scholar who studies the religion Judaism, then I may well be a Judaist as well.

It is typically more polite to ask someone if they are Jewish that to ask them if they are a Jew. I do not mind either as long as there is no nastiness in the tone of voice.

Damn good question… I am a bat mitzvah, raised Jewish and almost got slapped for calling dinner “jew food” two rosh hashanahs ago. I didn’t mean it in a rude way!

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I was referring to their corruption and abbreviation (respectively) without actually posting them, in order to illustrate my point: that with one notable exception (which I noted, that being the entire purpose of the post), derogatory terms rely on an alteration of a benign term.
I am not comparing degrees of unacceptability.

It pains me to see that you gloss over my diverse characteristics in order to lump me in with Everybody Who Thinks Differently. :|

Jew is fine – just use a capital J – like Christian, Muslim.

It’s who, and how it is said.

@Nullo Funny, I don’t think I do that at all. There are some things you think about differently than me but I don’t lump people into groups. Sorry.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir

Sorry but this needs saying. People divide people into groups and so do you. You may (try) not (to) discriminate. You can’t deny that everyone capable of social interaction treats different people differently based on assumptions. Don’t you consider people to be your friends? Don’t you adress strangers in a default language?

Since @Nullo didn’t in fact compare the offensiveness of the two terms his assumptions about your methods aren’t unreasonable. Why so actively politically correct?

@Zyx What @Nullo and I are discussing goes beyond this question and somewhat into our interactions which only he and I can really assess…so I don’t feel like talking about it any more with anyone other than @Nullo
People do divide people into groups but not all people divide people according to whether or not they agree with them, that’s crazy. And yes, @Nullo didn’t compare the offensiveness of the terms…I was asking if he considered them equally offensive which is a legitimate q, imo. And the whole PC thing – let’s not name everything we’d rather not discuss as ‘trying to be PC’, mmmkay? There is no definitive way to be PC and I find people that have nothing on me often use that term in my direction because they’d rather live and be offensive pricks (not talking about you or @Nullo )

I noticed the fact your question was equally valid as I was writing my response. When I say PC I mean to imply following the hivemind, because I think the anti-racism is getting old. And that may be offensive but you should see the stuff people throw my way for being the devil’s legal representative. I point my moral compass manually.

@Zyx Well, anti-racism to me is something meaningful and not a fashion statement, so to speak. I suppose we’ll disagree on that one. I don’t know what ‘being a devil’s legal rep’ means but having offensive shit thrown at you doesn’t mean any and all offensive shit is okay.

Didn’t mean to imply it was (”...all offensive shit is okay.”), or linger this long the issue. Being the devil’s legal representative means taking “the devil’s side” on issues. That is of course a hyperboly, but I do tend to disagree with the majority.

Even in Germany it’s no longer an issue. Why should it be one in America? German Jews use the term themselves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zentralrat_der_Juden_in_Deutschland

“The Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (“Central Council of Jews in Germany”) is a federation of German Jews organizing many Jewish organisations in Germany. It was founded on July 19, 1950 as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish community and increasing interest in Jewish affairs by the (West) German government. Originally based in the Rhenish areas (Düsseldorf and Bonn), it currently has its seat in Berlin. The Jewish community in Germany has around 100,000 registered members (although far more Jews live in the country without belonging to a synagogue). From its early years, the organization has received strong financial and moral support from the government.”

@mattbrowne Because we still have people using it derogatorily. Antisemitism is stronger here than you might think.

@Nullo – Antisemitism is terrible in Eastern Europe, especially Russia.

Once again, the term “Jew” on its own is not derogatory; if it is used in a derogatory context, then it is. As was pointed out, if you say someone “jewed someone down” than of course it is, otherwise it is just a noun, like Christian or Muslim.

What the Bubby said.

@janbb You know, I tried that with “Jedi,” and it doesn’t work.

@mattbrowne I don’t doubt it. But Germany is in Western Europe, and German culture is still haunted by the scars of World War II. The entire continent seems slightly obsessed; most of the war movies that I’ve seen were French, German, and Italian.

@janbb – This is a problem in German too, because historically, there are many noun-noun and verb-noun compounds containing the word Jew plus a horrible word. Teenagers learn about them at school in history classes and of course when watching documentaries and movies.

What this does to our brains is the following: There are dozens of really terrible, ugly, despicable terms, so even when we hear or read a positive contemporary expression like “Central Council of Jews in Germany” mentioned above, associations in our brains are being triggered automatically. I hate to use this ugly example, but our history is ugly and I think it proves the point, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judensau and there are many other totally despicable expressions. We encounter them in movies for example. Or history books.

But we do have a choice and therefore I refuse to avoid the word Jew, because I think it’s a wonderful word with a positive meaning and we can teach our brains other associations like

‘my friends in Israel who are Jews’

or ‘positive Jewish-Christian dialogue’

or ‘Daniel Barenboim’s orchestra of young Arab and Jewish musicians’

or ‘numerous Jewish geniuses like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Lise Meitner’

@Nullo – Yes, it might seem that we are haunted, but only learning from history without constraints allows us to shape a better future. What Germany has accomplished, Japan has just begun. And when you look at Russia or China or the Arab world they haven’t even actually begun. Everything is being glorified and the horror of the past simply doesn’t get mentioned.

America is very far when it comes to its history, but still lagging behind somewhat. Although there’s a Museum of the Holocaust in the US (which happened in Europe) there’s still no Museum of Slavery exposing the full magnitude of the crimes and ugliness of the past. A movie or series like ‘Roots’ is not enough. America can do better than that.

@mattbrowne I’ve heard there is a new African-American exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum that is wonderful; have not seen it yet. Also, when you go to Monticello now – Thomas Jefferson’s home – there are exhibits about the slaves and the slave quarters that weren’t there in the past. We are slowly reclaiming (acknowledging?) our past but it is a slow process.

@janbb – Well, I’ve also seen the slave quarters in Stone Mountain Park, GA for example. African-American exhibits can’t be compared to the concept of a true Slavery Museum in the way Holocaust Museums are designed, or the East Germany Ministry for State Security Museum exposing the sheer ugliness of the system including grisly photographs like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fechter#Background

What about the conditions on the slave ships for example?

@mattbrowne Not disagreeing at all. I think a Museum of American Slavery in Washington would be great and it may come.by the way, I was in Central Europe recently and went to Terezin in the Czech Republic. (Was in Passau, Germany and thought of you.)

@mattbrowne I was at Stone Mountain recently but I missed the slave quarters. There is a slavery museum in Liverpool but you are right there should be one in the United States, preferably in the Deep South. The Imperial War Museum in London has a Holocaust Exhibition running. Deeply unpleasant examples of “Man’s inhumanity to man”.