Why risk offending people when you don’t intend to? Jewish people, Catholic people, gay people, Mexican people, autistic people… It’s not that complicated.
As you see, I was agreeing with Terr’s criticism of the phrase, “California is home to 1.2 million Jewish,” in which “Jewish” is a noun. It’s just ungrammatical.
I’m a Jew and you can call me a Jew.
The proper response to that is, “I forgive you, for you know not what you do.”
Funny thing about that – some of the online word games I like to play have recently removed the word “Jew” from their allowed word lists.
I mean, it doesn’t sit well with everyone, but it is still a word, isn’t it?
I agree with the OP. “Jews” isn’t any more offensive than “Christians” or “Muslims.” All three can be said with a sneering tone, to convey contempt or hate, but by themselves they are simply descriptors. Avoiding this simple term may be well intentioned, but it’s silly and leads to a lot of awkward phrasing.
When I read the OP, I thought it was silly. Of course I am a Jew (although more in Jonathan Miller’s sense). Then I remembered how offended when my 30 year old niece (whose father is Italian) said to me as I was paying in a restaurant, “Uncle Hari, tip like an Italian, not like a Jew.” Her mother was offended when I repeated this to her. So I guess it all depends on the context and how it is said.
Again, would the “Uncle Hari, tip like an Italian, not like a Jewish person” have been better?
It’s the sentiment that can be offensive, not the word.
I agree that you don’t have to. But you could, too. I’d let that pet peeve go, life is short.
Because apparently caring what other people think will make hair grow on your palms, and the habit must not be indulged in and must be discouraged in others.
No, it’s not. Not as long as you haven’t shut yourself off from the world, you’ll know what words are currently in use. Maybe during transition you might be off, but when it’s something that people have been apparently talking about for decades, you don’t really have an excuse. Especially when you are writing for public consumption and have time to think about how not to offend.
The thing is, maybe most Jewish people won’t be offended. But if there are enough that are, I don’t see the point in fighting back. If you’re Jewish and want to reclaim the word, more power to you. But I am not going to be comfortable using it until it’s like “black” or “American Indian,” where the person is looked at like a freak for getting upset.
It’s like freaking nails on a blackboard.
“Jew” is not a slur. I am sure that 99.9% of Jews in the world will not be offended at a sentence that read “The thing is, maybe most Jews won’t be offended.”
The Scrabble dictionary (print) has been expurgated through the years. You have to hold on to the first edition so you can use words like twat, jew, mick…I cringe when I do it, but a good play is a good play.
“I’m a non-practicing Jew.”
“Well, I’m a non-practicing virgin!”
But “shiksappeal” is still OK, right?
Not with that meaning. I remember a TV program about Itzhak Perlman, the great violinist. Perlman said of his own playing something like “I like to Jew it up a little”, meaning added drama or emotion. Of course, since he’s Jewish, it’s okay.
To be clear, the word jew or jews is not in and of itself a slur. BUT it is more frequently used in the context of slur and hence becomes more fraught because of its use. See below for the number of hits that Google returns for search terms, jews tops the list even though the actual population is orders of magnitude.
damn jews 6,620,000
damn christians 5,790,000
damn muslims 984,000
damn atheists 802,000
damn mormons 351,000
damn buddhists 210,000
fucking jews 2,600,000
fucking christians 1,590,000
I’ve been called a “fucking stupid Hispanic whore”. The whore part was untrue, the stupid part I hope it was, the fucking wasn’t happening at the moment, and Hispanic is true.
I think you have to let that go. ‘Jewish people’ is not offensive. If it’s being done to avoid the word ‘Jews’ then it’s stupid, but you can’t know that’s the reason it’s done, and it’s lower on the priority list of problems than the people who use ‘Fucking Jews’.
You must Jews. But Jews wisely.
In the post to which I was replying, it was definitely done to avoid the word “Jews”, and yes, it was stupid.
Conceding that Terr cannot read minds, what other reason might there be? Considering that nobody uses “Catholic people,” “Buddhist people,” etc. Who decided Jews were the chosen “people”?
Because they heard/saw other people say/write it. I’ve heard the other forms of other religions, and nationalities also. ‘Muslim people’ has been said many times, I don’t know why, it’s most often just ‘Muslims’, but plenty often ‘Fucking Muslims’. Swedes have been called ‘Swedish people’, and they are.
It’s also an actual useful phrase, ‘The Jewish People’ does not have the same connotation as ‘The Jews’ and is appropriately used to speak of the entire ethnicity. If the words ‘Jewish People’ are used there appropriately they will likely migrate into other uses where it is still grammatical and correct even if it’s not the ideal form.