Jews Censor Dictionary
Source: Moment Magazine | August, 2001
Family Dictionary Eradicates Verb ‘Jew’
By Susannah Levine, MOMENT Editorial Assistant
At 156 years old, the verb “jew” is one of the oldest slanders in the book. Now, after protests from a national Jewish leader, the editors of the world’s largest-selling English language dictionary are taking the anti-Semitic slur out.
The Chicago-based World Book Publishing Company-publishers of the World Book Dictionary, a CD-ROM dictionary, and other learning resources-recently deleted the word “jew” as a transitive verb from all its publications.
“This was a definition left over from the 60s, which we overlooked,” said Michael Ross, World Book’s publisher. “It’s a slangy term, and it doesn’t add anything to the body of human knowledge.” Perhaps the most high profile use of the slur came six years back, when pop icon Michael Jackson sang “They Don’t Care About Us” (HIStory) featuring the lyric, “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me.” That line outraged many prominent Jews, and raised awareness of the slander to a new level.
The decision to remove the word came after Murray Friedman, the American Jewish Committee’s Mid-Atlantic director, addressed a letter to World Book: “Your World Book CD-ROM dictionary defines the word ‘jew’ in an entirely inappropriate and offensive manner,” Friedman wrote. He objected to World Book’s listing for “jew” (phonetically spelled “jü”), which states: “(Slang) to bargain with overkeenly; beat (down) in price (used in an unfriendly way).”
Friedman urged World Book to label the verb “deeply offensive.” “We would have been happy with that as an amendment,” Friedman told MOMENT. “But they went beyond us and struck it down.”
Many modern English dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Random House Webster’s Dictionary, have retained “jew” in their listings, but note that it is offensive. The OED, which traces the origin of every word it lists, notes that the first published use of “jew” as a verb was in 1845, in Richard Barham’s Ingoldsby Legends: “Is it that way you’d Jew one?”
Ross says that while the OED strives to be comprehensive—including any and all English words—the World Book Dictionary, which has been in print for 83 years and is sold in 44 countries, has “more of a family audience that reflects contemporary language usage.”
Ken Jacobson, the assistant national director of the Anti-Defamation League, agreed that usage of “jew” is much less common in contemporary English than it was a generation ago.
He believes that to a large extent, changing the language is the key to changing attitudes and combating stereotypes. And that, he says, will lead to less anti-Semitic violence. “The process of educating people is not over,” he said, adding that “the real point” is to “create a climate where people are sensitive.”
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