“Jew!”:

Regarding Eugene’s question as to why some consider it impolite to called Jews “Jews” instead of “Jewish people,” I can contribute a little history. By the 19th century, the word “Jew” was thought by enlightened folks to have derogatory connotations. The leadership of the Reform movement led an effort to abandon the word “Jew” in favor of “Hebrews” or “Israelites,” I assume because they thought those words had positive Biblical vibes. Indeed, the confederation of American Reform synagogues is still known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. If I’m not mistaken, the leading American Jewish periodical before the wave of (decidedly non-Reform) Eastern European migration in the late 19th century was “The American Israelite.” And if you read 19th century publications, friends of the Jews would often refer to them as “Israelites,” “Hebrews,” “Members of the Mosaic Faith,” and other euphemisms that avoid the nasty-sounding word “Jew.”

Neither Hebrew nor Israelite ever caught on, but discomfort with the word “Jew” remains. And indeed, anti-Semitic discourse seems to always use the word “Jew,” not “Jewish people,” as in “dirty Jew!”; or “the Jews control (the media, Hollywood, the Bush Administration’s foreign policy);” or “Jews or so clannish.” Indeed, I’m told that before I arrived at GMU Law School, one professor–who left before I started at GMU–angrily referred to one of my colleagues as “you little Jew.” He disingenuously defended himself from charges of anti-Semitism by noting that my colleague is both diminunitive and Jewish.

Update:Several readers have informed me that UAHC recently changed it’s name to Union for Reform Judaism, thus finally formally acknowledging the death of the original dream of uniting all American congregations under one umbrella.