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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

Google Friendship Redux

Wikipedia is now first when I Google 'jew' and Jewwatch second. Doing the search also brings up a featured article on the subject and an announcement from Google.
Here's the article on the issue:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/614911.cms

''SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc the leading Internet search engine, said Monday that it had no plans to alter its search results despite complaints that the first listing on a search for the word "Jew" directs people to an anti-Semitic Web site. ''
etc
Google's explanatory page is at

''If you recently used Google to search for the word "Jew," you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google. We'd like to explain why you're seeing these results when you conduct this search.
A site's ranking in Google's search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted. A search for "Jew" brings up one such unexpected result.
If you use Google to search for "Judaism," "Jewish" or "Jewish people," the results are informative and relevant. So why is a search for "Jew" different? One reason is that the word "Jew" is often used in an anti-Semitic context. Jewish organizations are more likely to use the word "Jewish" when talking about members of their faith. The word has become somewhat charged linguistically, as noted on websites devoted to Jewish topics such as these:
http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/vol01/vol01.174 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah081500.asp ''

etc

John Dean
Oxford
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Google's explanatory page is at [/nq] (snip) [nq:1]If you use Google to search for "Judaism," "Jewish" or "Jewish people," the results are informative and relevant. So why is a search for "Jew" different? [/nq] Hot ****!

  • [nq:1]Google's explanatory page is at [/nq] (snip) [nq:1]If you use Google to search for "Judaism," "Jewish" or "Jewish people," the results are informative and relevant.
  • So why is a search for "Jew" different?
  • [/nq] Hot ****!
  • I know they archive us, but do they read us too?
  • There are lots of anti-Semites out there.
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39 Answers
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[nq:1]Google's explanatory page is at [/nq]
(snip)
[nq:1]If you use Google to search for "Judaism," "Jewish" or "Jewish people," the results are informative and relevant. So why is a search for "Jew" different? One reason is that the word "Jew" is often used in an anti-Semitic context.[/nq]
Hot ****! I know they archive us, but do they read us too?

There are lots of anti-Semi
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In our last episode,
(Email Removed),
the lovely and talented Ross Howard
broadcast on alt.usage.english:
[nq:1]There are lots of anti-Semites out there. Millions, probably. In fact, I would expect any person performing the single-word search ... in only the bare, singular and as discussed often here extremely loaded word "Jew". Moi, AUE, 12 April.[/nq]
I believe this ha
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[nq:1]I believe this has changed in my lifetime. When I was young "Jew" was a perfectly good and acceptable word.[/nq]
It still is.
[nq:1]"Jewish" (referring to a person) was most often used by people who were a little nervous about Jews. Jews didn't mind being called Jews, and some were rather proud of it. WASPs weren't quite sure about "Jew."[/nq]
Jews don't mind being called Jews to
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Sometimes its well iffy as a noun, too e.g. "Jew-dominated think tank" or "Jew-loving politicians".

Ross Howard
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)
[nq:2]Jews don't mind being called Jews today, either. What we ... word as an adjective. "Jew doctor", "Jew lawyer", "Jew engineer".[/nq]
[nq:1]Sometimes its well iffy as a noun, too e.g. "Jew-dominated think tank" or "Jew-loving politicians".[/nq]
Then there's the offensive specifically-British legalistic usages, like "Jew diligence" and "in Jew course".
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[nq:1])[/nq]
[nq:2]Sometimes its well iffy as a noun, too e.g. "Jew-dominated think tank" or "Jew-loving politicians".[/nq]
[nq:1]Then there's the offensive specifically-British legalistic usages, like "Jew diligence" and "in Jew course".[/nq]
Even the oath is offensive: "Jew promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"

Ross Howard
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Evan Kirshenbaum:

Ross Howard:

Richard Fontana:
[nq:2]Then there's the offensive specifically-British legalistic usages, like "Jew diligence" and "in Jew course".[/nq]
Ross Howard:
[nq:1]Even the oath is offensive: "Jew promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"[/nq]
At one point in Howard Engel's 1980 mystery novel "The Suicide Murders
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Even lower on the acceptability scale is "jew" the verb, usually used to describe sharp negotiations, like the sort you'd expect when dealing with an Arab rug merchant. ... Whoops!

Liebs
Just kidding, folks
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[nq:1]Even lower on the acceptability scale is "jew" the verb, usually used to describe sharp negotiations, like the sort you'd expect when dealing with an Arab rug merchant. ... Whoops![/nq]
This seems to be mostly obsolete at least in the Midwest US I remember one time in high school I visited my grandmother in a retirement home in North Carolina, and one of the members there was telling me
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[nq:2]I believe this has changed in my lifetime. When I was young "Jew" was a perfectly good and acceptable word.[/nq]
[nq:1]It still is.[/nq]
It is for me, and the people I am on speaking terms with. However, I have met Jews, over the years, who are uncomfortable with the word and say (e.g.) "Jewish people" instead of "Jews".
The use of such circumlocutions by nonJews used to be, and

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