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comment by mivasairski

Wow, interesting question. For sure. And, actually, it is one that I have thought about, albeit decades ago, not recently.

There ARE negative connotations to the word "Jew". There are echoes and ghosts of lingering anti-semitism. Some elements in the larger society attaches negative judgment to being a Jew, which for them is the "other". That has had terrible consequences, as you must know. And, honestly, I don't think that is entirely over yet.

Nonetheless, I am a Jew. If anyone has a problem with that, it's their problem -- not mine. If some parts of society put some negativity onto that identity, me using some other form of labeling is certainly not going to solve that problem. One way to counter that negativity is to apologetically claim the identity.

When I grew up -- and even today -- there were organizations called things like the Young Mens Hebrew Association and the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, instead of the Young Mens Jewish Association and the Baltimore Jewish Congregation. I think that choice of public naming was a defensive measure by Jews who found themselves needing to negotiate life in a society dominated by a culture which imposed negative judgments on Jews. Possibly they thought that Hebrew had fewer negative connotations than "Jewish".

Anyway, Fan, that's a good question. Thank you. I hope my reply offers you some understanding of my own personal perspective.





user-inactivated  ·  2600 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thank you for elaborating. As a person in no association with the Jewish life, I have barely any idea what it's like to be a Jew, especially given that most of my context comes from people on less that favourable terms with the "lil' Jews" (that's the best I can translate the dimunitive Russian term "еврейчик", used often by my mother).

While I did get a glimpse of your perspective, I am, nonetheless, hungry to know more. I'm interested in what it's like to be a person of the community as oppressed, subtly but strongly, as Jewish. I hope it's okay if I ask further questions like this in the future.

mivasairski  ·  2599 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's great, Fanfic. I love questions. I have many myself. I would thoroughly enjoy being honored by you sharing your questions with me.