Jew As A Word example essay topic

Michael PisukovEnglish 103-Cordell February 14, 1999 Language: Origins of Hate "The horrors of mass murder can be made bearable if the intended victim is made to appear an object that deserves extermination". As the main thesis of this essay clearly and straight-forwardly's edgiest, the author plans to probe the tools of mass destruction. More particularly, Friedmann hopes to explore the annihilation of his own people, the Jews. Opposed to popular belief, the gas chambers and concentration camps played a relatively minor role in mass destruction, the Nazis used "propagandists", they "resorted to terminology that had been utilized earlier to render Jews subhuman". More directly, the Nazis employed language. Through language they convinced themselves and each other that "Jews are a lower species of life" thereby justifying their demise.

Friedman argues that we as a society must be conscious of such verbal derangement and seize to advocate and support still remaining demeaning clich " es. It is easy to point the finger of blame at a particular group of people residing at a particular nation, but that would be grossly incorrect and pointless. The truth of the matter is, "the Nazis resorted to terminology that had been utilized much earlier to render Jews subhuman". Friedman brings up the name of Martin Luther, history's character that is usually viewed as a hero. The man who posted the 95 thesis on a church door and triggered the reformation of the corrupt institution of Christianity, is describing a race o people as "a plague and a pestilence". So the Nazis actions may have been to a higher degree, but were never original.

Interestingly enough, an uncanny parallel is drawn. Germans contracted bio-chemical plats specializing in insecticides to produce Zyklon B, a potent gas that was used to kill Jewish prisoners in high numbers. Zyklon B is essentially a potent can of "Raid". First they labeled these people "vermin,"lice" and "bacilli", and then appropriately "fumigated them dead". After all "is not extermination the deserved fate of all vermin?" Ironically, the Nazis discussed these gas chambers as showers, places that's edgiest cleanliness. Friedman goes on to e... plain that from ancient times, Jew as a word has meant "praised", and it is a name of the greatest of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Never mind the people themselves for a minute, the name itself has a rich history. Today however, the same word, consisting of the same letters comprised in the same order, had taken up a different, more degrading meanings, in our vocabulary. It is these meanings that still support the prejudice of the past. "Jew as a verb means to drive a hard bargain or "to overreach or cheat". Thus, the dictionaries that our children are learning and study from imply the notion that Jews are stingy, niggardly or that they are cheaters and manipulators. A number of American sayings have been assimilated with English speech around the prefix "Jew".

None of them imply anything positive:" Jew-food,"Jew's harp"", Jew's compliment". Imagine growing up in a society where "your very name is a negative term". Or growing up with your ancestor's rich and fluent language being used to more charismatically describe thief's, garbage, junk and feces. Imagine growing up in a world where adults, someone one has to look up to, listen to and take example of, humiliatingly smirk at your expense. "How was the Grand Canyon formed? A Jew lost a nickel in a crack".

Why would someone degrade an entire people for a cheap laugh? Or imagine relaxing in front of a television and witness yourself, your family and your entire line of ancestors be demolished by Archie Bunker. How positive your self-image wold possibly be? Friedman's message is loud and clear. We must in turn demolish the hidden meanings that 'Jew" came to be. To keep laughing to these humiliating jokes, to save breath by calling a liar and a backstabber a "Jew", is to continue the ancient tradition of anti-Semitism.

The only way to stop history from repeating itself and ensure the righteous path of social improvement is to drop these silly idioms. Silly in the best case, deadly in the worst case. As Friedman put it, "little jokes go on with their work. Like maggots and earthworms they grind the ground in the quiet, preparing the soil for another little seed of prejudice.".