Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

224 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 1:209
the use of labeling someone as “Jew” as a means of exclusion has striking
connotations to the history of demonizing Jews and to the exclusion of Jews
as the enemy from within. The following statement is an example of exclusionary
function of labeling someone “Jew.”
“You Jew” [means] that you are something worse, that you are not up to
our level so to say.
(Fatin, Berlin, P6: 124-125)
Labeling someone as “Jew” makes him or her a Jew—as conceptualized by
those who use the term—even if it is only temporarily: The antisemites
define who is a Jew. It also shows how illusionary and lunatic Jewishness is
in the mind of antisemites.
2. There is a correlation between the pejorative use of “Jew” and antisemitic
stereotypes: All but two interviewees who use “Jew” as an insult also
showed antisemitic attitudes in other forms, such as the conviction that “the
Jews” are rich and particularly influential in business or the media.
3. The interviewees themselves do not consistently make a distinction
between a pejorative use of the words for “Jew” and concrete Jews. In fact,
interviewees relate the pejorative use of the words for “Jew” directly to
antisemitic attitudes. This attitude can be observed in the interviewee’s
description below of the word’s pejorative usage and his immediate association
with the perception of Jews by others:
If you say, “dirty Jew” [sale Juif], I know many people who are, erm. . .
who don’t like the Jews [Juifs].
(Samed, Paris P38: 313)
But antisemitic attitudes can also be related to their own pejorative usage of
the words for “Jew.” One interviewee, for example, explained an
antisemitic proverb and stated that it is an allusion to Jews, portraying stereotypes
he actually believes in:
Eating Jewish [manger en juif], that’s hiding for eating . . . That’s an
expression that the Jew [Juif] doesn’t want to share . . . the misers. Often
the miser, it’s a Jew [Juif], “Ah you are a Jew [Juif], share it!,” you see?
. . . . There are often little connotations to Jews [Juifs] like that.
Q: And do you think that there is something true to it, in that?
Sure. . . I don’t know.
(Sabri, Paris, P57: 549-559)
Even if interviewees often do not have concrete Jews in mind when using
the word “Jew,” concrete Jews are always connoted in the use of the words
for “Jew.” Participants demonstrate this by expressing negative stereotypes