Is "Jew" a Slur?

[l33tminion]

A conversation I had with a friend on Twitter this morning:

@Sorcyress: I am kinda weirded out by the idea of "hug a jew day" (girls were discussing in high school class)...
@Sorcyress: ...but I don't really have the background to fight it. Maybe I'm just reacting to the phrasing "a jew", which is a slur? I don't know.
@Sorcyress: (Also

Comments

[lbmango]

Very interesting

[l33tminion]

I feel differently on the "Person who practices the Jewish faith", mainly because to me "Jewish" is primarily a cultural thing, and the religion is a closely-related, but different issue, so if you mention the religion explicitly that makes a difference.

That's relevant in some contexts, but tangential to the point I was making above.

Whereas you don't need to do the same for other religions, because they are primarily religions and cultures second.

Seems like you're jumping to conclusions here. All religions are cultural, and it's not so easy to pick the two apart. There are a lot of contradictions in the phrase "I'm just culturally Jewish" (or any other religious designator).

[lbmango]

I don't see a huge contradiction with "culturally Jewish"... and I guess that's the point I was trying to make. There are a lot of parts of "being Jewish" that have nothing to do with whether or not you believe in a deity, or what kind. My point is that in most religions, the part of the culture that is intwined with the religion is 1) minor and 2) hard to pick apart. In Judaism, it's much easier.

You don't find a whole lot of "agnostic Catholics". They call themselves "recovering Catholics" usually. Judaism is qualitatively different.

The only way that this is relevant is that to me "X is Jewish" is a different statement than "X practices the Jewish faith" (or "X practices Judaism") "X is a Jew" is the former, not the latter.

[l33tminion]

There are a lot of parts of "being Jewish" that have nothing to do with whether or not you believe in a deity, or what kind.

Sure, but a lot of those examples are pretty strange once you remove them from the historical context of Jewish religion.

My point is that in most religions, the part of the culture that is intwined with the religion is 1) minor and 2) hard to pick apart. In Judaism, it's much easier.

Care to support that statement?

You don't find a whole lot of "agnostic Catholics". They call themselves "recovering Catholics" usually.

Oh, you know a lot about the prevalence of agnosticism among Catholics? I wouldn't expect that to be an easy thing to determine.

[rafaela]

I've always, very vocally I might add, identified myself as a Jew. This refers not only to my ethnicity (well, half my ethnicity - my father was a convert), but to my religious practice and belief. I see no problem with the word. There's no shame in it. I don't see it as a reclaimed word. I never saw it as an insult in the first place.