Each time I hear “Jew” used with contempt, it stings as though I’m hearing it for the first time. “Jew” is almost as personal to me as is my own name. It’s part of my identity. Use “Jew” as a defamatory word, and I feel like I’m under attack.
At its very beginnings, the word “Jew” was just a noun. It came from the Hebrew word Yehudi, which is derived from the name Judah, one of the patriarch Jacob’s sons. The word Judaism stems directly from Judah-ism, the religion of the Yehudim.
But for almost as long as there has been Judaism, there have been stereotypes about Jews. By the time the Christian heroes of Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” referred to Shylock repeatedly as “the Jew,” there was no question that the word was a slur, not just a noun noting Shylock’s religion.
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