Sometimes, choosing the right word can be more difficult than one might think.
Most of the time, it comes fairly easily but there are instances that leave a writer or an editor uncomfortable.
Cultural sensitivity is not just a workshop. It’s a way of thinking. It’s a way of saving space for something that doesn’t belong to you.
As an editor serving a diverse community, I regularly encounter stories about cultures that don’t belong to me and I strive to include them without appropriating them. It’s a difficult and sometimes uncomfortable balance.
Recently, Back Roads Bill submitted an interesting column about a Jewish graveyard in Northern Ontario.
And there it is. ‘Should we be using the word Jew?’
Is Jewish better? What about Hebrew?
Why am I wondering about it?
I checked CP Caps and Spelling, our go-to oracle on correct word usage, and it says Jewish is correct in that context but I was still uncomfortable about it.
So I decided to consult Jeff Arbus, a member of the Congregation Beth Jacob, representing the Sault and area Jewish community.
He assured me that, as I suspected, tone, context and intent are everything.
“The general answer as to whether "Jew" or "Hebrew" or "Jewish person/people" is pejorative would be that it depends on the intent of the user, and the manner/context/tone of the usage of the term. That noted, let me add some more thoughts,” Arbus responded to my email.
“Had it been used, as a noun or adjective, it would be offensive if, say, the example was something like ‘the Jew doctor.’ To most people, the use of ‘Jew’ in that fashion would be offensive.
“In fact, had I seen in the article a reference to, say, the ‘Jew cemetery both you and Mr. Steer would have heard from me!
“Historically, ‘Jew’ and ‘Jews’ was used disparagingly to express Antisemitism, and especially this happened in 19th and 20th Century Europe, Russia, and in parts of western Nations like Canada and the U.S. Among the far-right, it continues to this day. So these became terms of vulgarity and violence and their use was considered offensive.
“But I did not see anything like that in the article. I did see ‘Jews’ used as a noun, even by Dr. Abramson who is quoted in the article and uses that term, as a noun, to describe a group of people.
“For example, I might say to someone that we have about 75 Jews in Sault Ste. Marie. That term might be offensive to some, but to many, it would be seen as more concise than saying ‘about 75 Jewish people,’ or ‘about 75 people of the Hebrew persuasion.’ Again, though, it depends on the context.
“There is an opinion I have encountered which says that to substitute something length like ‘there are several Jewish people in the audience tonight’ implies that being a ‘Jew’ or among a group of ‘Jews’ is itself a problem! In other words, where ‘Jew’ or ‘Jews’ - as nouns - may have fallen out of favour historically because of their use in an antisemitic context, in more recent times many Jewish people have reclaimed those words as nouns.
“As a verb, ‘Jew’ or ‘Jews’ is offensive. To ‘Jew someone down’ is an expression of extreme antisemitism, as it reflects that age-old antisemitic myth of Jewish stinginess.
“None of these terms are acceptable as verbs.
“As adjectives, much depend on context. A restaurant might serve ‘Jewish food’ and that might be perfectly acceptable terminology to some. Some would argue it is better than saying ‘Hebrew food.’
“In my working life, I was a college professor but if someone had called me a Jewish professor I would have asked them about the context...if it referred to my need for time to observe sacred religious days, that would be okay in some ways. If it referred to which office I should be allocated, that would be offensive.
“While a process of re-appropriation may be underway, if I were advising, I would say the safest position is to refer to ‘Jewish’, or ‘Jewish people’ rather than to ‘Jews.’”
The word ‘Jew’ can become pejorative in the mouths of hateful people but Jewish people are taking it back.
They aren’t quite there, yet, and I want to make that easier for them, not harder, so I decided to replace ‘Jew’ with ‘Jewish people’ in most cases in the column, as my friend suggested. Not the quotes, though. I’m not the person to correct a Jewish scholar on the use of the word Jew.
Still, I was uncomfortable with using the word Jew and it gnawed at the back of my mind. Why did this word leave me with a vague sense of unease?
And then I realized it.
After all the stories I’ve heard of the holocaust, I feel some guilt and discomfort when I use the word Jew.
The horrors and atrocities the Jewish people and others suffered during WWII are almost too painful to think about and I can’t separate the word Jew from my knowledge of what happened to so many of them during that time.
And, maybe that’s the point. At least partly the point.
We should be uncomfortable about such horrors. On the other hand, we should also look more deeply and openly at Jewish culture.
In doing so, we might find better ways to do things and the common ground we didn’t know we shared.