# Jewish dopers: "A Jew" vs "Jewish"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-dopers-a-jew-vs-jewish/521219>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 14, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-dopers-a-jew-vs-jewish/521219 "2009-12-14T15:43:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-dopers-a-jew-vs-jewish/521219/101 "2009-12-30T16:48:12Z")

</div>

The _American Heritage Dictionary_ (4th ed., 2000) has a helpful Usage Note:

> [@](#):
>
> It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the word _Jew_, in phrases such as _Jew lawyer_ or _Jew ethics_, is both vulgar and highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of _Jew_ as a noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as _There are several Jews on the council_, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution like _Jewish people_ or _persons of Jewish background_ may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply that _Jew_ has a negative connotation when used as a noun.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-dopers-a-jew-vs-jewish/521219/102 "2009-12-30T17:21:17Z")

</div>

I was once harangued at length by a surgeon (in the course and scope of my employment, not during a doctor visit or anything), who told me he would stick his “badass Jew lawyer brother” on me.

His brother is both Jewish and a lawyer, and was once disbarred in Florida. I wasn’t sure what he meant to accomplish by mentioning that he was Jewish.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-dopers-a-jew-vs-jewish/521219.md?page=5)