FWIW, I'm a Jew and I use the word Jew. I also use the word Jewish.
If I remembered, I would try to remember to call Whatdidyousay! Jewish and not a Jew simply because I try to avoid calling people whatever they don't want to be called.
But I don't agree with you, Whatdidyousay. Also, I kind of resent it when people give credence in any way shape or form that "Jew" is a bad word. It's not.
I participated in a discussion about this at another forum and some interesting observations came up:
* Most other names for other religions are multisyllable
* Most bad words are one syllable
* There have been serious problems between Jewish people and other religions and governments, mostly because it hasn't been healthy to be a minority in most places in the past -- and Jewish people have been minorities in many places yet chosen not to assimilate. The propaganda has left lingering effects for some people.
* Many names for other religions are both nouns and adjectives, e.g.:
** Christian
** Muslim
** Hindu
* Jewish/Jew is unique in that there is a distinctive adjective and distinctive noun form of the word. In the English language I think people usually use an adjective to go along with a pronoun as in:
I'm Jewish.
She's Jewish.
When they do that with other religions it's not as clear if they are using the noun or adjective. For example:
He's Christian.
He's a Christian.
My guess is that in the first sentence Christian is being used as an adjective and in the second sentence as a noun. I believe that most people would opt to say (if it came up), "He's Christian" and "She's Jewish" using the adjective form in both cases but its not as clear that this is what is being done with the words Christian, Muslim and Hindu.
So, that may partially explain why sometimes some people get confused -- but so what -- Jew is still a fine word and I'm proud to claim it.
Why not get a button that says that?
