How did "Jew" become pejorative?
For some reason, the word Jew often carries a pejorative or offensive connotation, which the related adjective Jewish does not carry. This is most obvious when either word is used as an attributive:
- The story was all over the Jewish media. [Not offensive; a factual statement about a story that was reported in Jewish-oriented media sources.]
- The story was all over the Jew media. [Very offensive; "Jew media" is likely interpreted as a reference to the mainstream media, with the implication that they're controlled nefariously by the Jews.]
When used in a predicate, the same thing applies, though the differentiation is less sharp:
- Joel Spolsky is Jewish. [Not offensive]
- Joel Spolsky is a Jew. [Potentially offensive]
Note that any of the above could be offensive or derogatory in the right context, but the versions using "Jew" are much more likely to be interpreted that way.
The distinction seems to go away when we use either word for the subject of the sentence.
- Six Jewish children are in my classroom. [Not offensive]
- Six Jews are in my classroom. [Not offensive]
How did we get into this weird situation? Why is the word Jew much more likely to be taken as a pejorative than the word Jewish?
Solution 1:
Using Jew instead of Jewish as an adjective is usually done by people more interested in classifying than describing, which is why it is particularly pejorative.
The use of a noun to identify someone is often seen as pejorative anyway, because it doesn't capture the full complexity of a human being's behavior and traits. For instance:
- He's a cocaine addict.
- He's addicted to cocaine.
In the first, we see a person entirely limited by the identity statement. In the second, we merely see one of many traits.
- She's a thief.
- She stole a necklace.
This difference is used in various forms of therapy quite extensively, by getting people who identify with a particular stereotype to recognise it as (more easily changeable) behavior instead:
- I'm an idiot.
- Sometimes I find it hard to understand things.
Solution 2:
The word Jew got that way in roughly the same way every other derogatory word got that way. Lots of people said really nasty things about the people the word describes for a long time, and eventually the bad things got associated with the word itself.
There are those that think somehow derogatory (or "loaded") words themselves are the problem, and insist on people using a new word instead. That's good as a stop-gap, but can't be viewed as an entire solution. If you don't attack the underlying prejudices that got the negative ideas associated with the word in the first place, they will eventually just attach themselves to the new word too. What you end up left with is something like our 6 different increasingly obtuse words for "shellshocked".
It isn't the word's fault, its the people who use it. But either way, the word ends up poisoned.
Solution 3:
People who don't encounter anti-Semitism much are usually confused about the connotation of "Jew" as a pejorative term. I'm Jewish, and a Jew, so I often find myself in the unenviable position of explaining this.
The first thing I must point out is a distinction that people often make. To be Jewish means one is of the Jewish race (a descendant of the Hebrew people), or an adherent to the Jewish faith, or both. To be a Jew means to be of the Jewish race, or practice Judaism, or both. Some people consider themselves Jewish but not Jews, while others are Jews and not Jewish. Confusing, I know. Cecil Adams tries to explain it. A Buddhist Jew is called a Jew-Bu. Don't get me started.
"Joel Spolsky is a Jew" is not a derogatory statement. He is a Jew. So is Alan Dershowitz. Where things go south is when you say, "That Jew lawyer Alan Dershowitz is at it again." The anti-Semitism should be very apparent in that context. Or to continue with the Spolsky example, "I'm not surprised FogBugz is expensive. Joel Spolsky is a Jew."
The use of Jew as a verb is almost exclusively offensive, e.g., "He tried to jew me down on the price of that car." This usage comes from the stereotype of Jews as money-grubbing cheats.
To answer your question, "How did the word Jew become pejorative?", I must answer: it is not a pejorative term. Only the context in which it is used is pejorative. Contrast that with epithets like "kike."