Jews  

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  1. An adherent of Judaism.
  2. A person who claims a cultural or ancestral connection to the Jewish people (see secular Jew).
    Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs
    dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
    the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
    to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
    warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
    as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
    If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
    do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice (Act III, scene I)

Contents

Usage notes

  • The Jewish community overall has a common religion, culture, identity, and ethnicity, but individual Jews do not necessarily share all of these; therefore, a person might be a Jew by one standpoint but not by another.
  • Additionally, there are some religious groups that identify themselves as part of Judaism, but that other Jewish groups might not; hence, use of the term Jew often depends on the speaker's opinions.
  • The noun Jew is not offensive, and the overwhelming majority of English-speaking Jews use the noun Jew to identify themselves.
  • That said, it has become offensive for historical reasons to use the word Jew attributively, in modifying another noun (as in "Jew lawyer"); the adjective Jewish is preferred for this purpose.
  • Additionally, the derived verbs jew and jew down are considered offensive, as they reflect stereotypes considered offensive.

Synonyms

Negative use

The word Jew has been used often enough in a disparaging manner by anti-Semites that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was frequently avoided altogether, and the term Hebrew was substituted instead (e.g. Young Men's Hebrew Association). Even today some people are wary of its use, and prefer to use "Jewish". Indeed, when used as an adjective (e.g. "Jew lawyer") or verb (e.g. "to Jew someone"), the term Jew is purely pejorative. However, when used as a noun, "Jew" is preferred, as other circumlocutions (e.g. "Jewish person") give the impression that the term "Jew" is offensive in all contexts.

In much the same manner, Yid (ייִד) — Yiddish for "Jew", and a benign term when taken without context — was once used as an insult, but now is often used by Jews in praise, to describe an upstanding religiously observant Jew (e.g., "He's such a Yid, giving up his time like that") or to distinguish upstanding religiously observant Jews from non-observant, with the implication that the latter would be better people if they were stricter in their observance (e.g., "Yidn [ייִדן – plural for Yid] wouldn't do such a thing").

In the past, the term "Jewess" was sometimes used for Jewish women. This word, like "Negress" is now at best an archaism, and is generally taken as an insult. However, some modern Jewish women have reclaimed the term Jewess and use it proudly.

See also

More complete guides to topics related to the Jews is available from the guide at the top or bottom of this page. Some topics of interest include:




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Jews" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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