Jewess

Jew. "I am not a Jew in the synagogue and a feminist in the world. I am a Jewish feminist and a feminist Jew in every moment of my life" (Judith Plaskow, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College). And from Vicki Baum: "To be a Jew is a destiny." Some people feel "Jewess" is "nicer"; if you know someone who prefers being so named, do comply. But feminine word endings are unnecessarily sex-specific, belittling, and show again that the male is the norm and the female is a subset, a deviation, a secondary classification. The recommended guideline is to use the base word for both sexes (thus, "poet" instead of "poetess," "executor" instead of "executrix"). Online dictionaries generally classify "Jewess" as offensive. A reader wrote The Economist : "The commentator in this piece uses the extremely offensive term 'Jewess' to refer to Jews who are women. Shame on him, and shame on The Economist for not catching it." A similar attempt at "politeness" occurs when people circumlocute "Jew" to arrive at "Jewish person." One might as well say "of the Jewish persuasion." Ira Spiro wrote to the Los Angeles Times : "Unique among actual names of a people or religious group, 'Jew' makes people uncomfortable and sounds contemptuous. I'm a Jew. I'm proud to be called a Jew, not a Jewish person, but a Jew. I'm insulted that 'Jew' is insulting.... let's call a Jew a Jew." See also feminine word endings.