Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2009] “JEW” AS A SLUR 219
tity: “For example, we are both Muslims; if I say to him, ‘Jew,’ then I’m
not a Muslim any more” (Salih, Berlin, P23: 135). Two friends explained
that there are different levels of seriousness between different insults, placing
“you Jew” somewhere between “you victim” and “fuck your mother”:
Ramzi: Well, that’s among friends, For example I say, “You victim, you
Jew, how are you doing?” And like, “Hey, fuck your mother”—that’s all
for example like among friends. Like a little bit of fun.
Ahmed: Well now, not “Fuck your mother!”, no . . . it doesn’t matter how
long you know him. If somebody says to me “I fuck your mother!”, I’ll
beat him up, I’m honest. Because that has something to do with my
honor.
Q: (laughs) If somebody says, “You Jew,” is that still ok?
Ahmed: No. . . . there are certain limits. . . . All my friends they know the
limits, they know it.
(Ramzi and Ahmed, Berlin, P33: 531-536)
Another way of trivializing the use of “Jew” as an insult is to compare it
with other ethnic insults in a way that wrongly suggests that it is a kind of
nasty but fair game in which everybody uses each others’ ethnic identity as
an insult:
If you’re quarreling with the guy, I mean, he says to me “sale Arabe”
[“dirty Arab”], I say to him, “sale Feuj” [“dirty Jew”].
(Masmud, Paris, P48: 398)
This kind of comparison misses the point that “Jew” is the term that is
applied to individuals of any ethnic identity. The discrepancy is even more
obvious in Sharif’s equivocal comparison:
That’s rather for fun if someone is called “Jew” or whatever. But naturally,
that’s an insult for an Arab. Just the same as it is an insult for a Jew
if he is called “Arab,” that’s just the same.
(Sharif, Berlin, P16: 169)
3. Substitutions for Other Words of the Term “Jew”
Last but not least, open antisemitism in the language is trivialized by
the substitution of negative attributes for the term “Jew,” which is discussed
in more detail further below to show which kind of attributes are replaced.
However, here is an apt example that summarizes this phenomenon. Sharif
explained that instead of a longer expression, or a “paraphrase,” it is easier
and shorter to use the term “Jew”: