Re: Derogatory terms

[richard_wolpoe <richard_wolpoe...>]

A very fine updstanding Jew from Germany - who was also my fith grade 
English teacher - told me the term originates with the shorter jackets worn 
by German jews as opposed to the long "reckels" worn by Easter European 
Jews.  I have no doubt that ANY racial or ethnic nickname can have a 
perjorative overtone, but please understand that I meant it in a 
affectionate manner.

        most Jews of German extraction that I know do not find the term 
offensive.  That is NOT the case with most Italians I know with regard to 
the terms dago and or wop. (WOP I undertand is an acronym for withou 
papers.)


If any Jew of German extraction  is offended I apologize, because it was 
untintentional...

Rich Wolpoe 

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Derogatory terms 
Author:  <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org > at tcpgate
Date:    2/26/98 3:17 PM


In a message dated 2/26/98 1:15:38 pm, Wolf Krakowski wrote:

:To the list:
:The words "yekke" and "yekkishe" to denote "German" (n) and "German" (adj) 
are :derogatory.  Their equivalents would be "wop" or "dago" for "Italian", 
for   example.  If use :of the Yiddish is necessary or desirable,  the word 
"daytsh" would be appropriate. 

The origin of this word, I am told, is a Hebrew acronym: YKH (the letters yud- 
kuf-hey, which read as "yekke"), standing for "yehudi k'she havana" (=  dim- 
witted (lit. "hard-of-understanding") Jew).  The phrase per se has nothing to 
do with German Jews, yet they were branded as "yekkes" anyway.  In Israel, 
it's probably not as bad as "wop" or "dago," unless you call a German Jew a 
"yekke putz," which adds salt to the wound.  I'm sure that in the 50's, 
Israelis, upon hearing various calls of "yoo-hoo!" in the streets before 
dinnertime, knew that it was a German call and would remark to their friends, 
"ah, yekkes," without it always being derogatory.  Probably, it was an 
inevitability of a multicultural society, where each group distinguished 
itself from the other in different ways as a means of preserving their 
identity.  Unfortunately, the Germans got slapped with "yekke."

Calling a German Jew a "yekke" is probably like referring to a brute as a 
"yoven" (a Greek) in Yiddish, as in the Yiddish phrase "Alle yevonim hobn eyn 
punim" = All brutes have the same face (lit. "All Greeks [i.e. brutes] have 
one face").

-Barak