Zhydovka

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Zhydovka (Russian: жидовка, Ukrainian: жидівка, Polish: żydówka, Czech: židovka) is a term used for a Jewish woman. The term is used to refer to women who are of Jewish heritage.[1][2] In Russia, it is considered pejorative and the word is used as an "anti-Semitic pejorative"[3] by Russian-speaking people across the old Soviet Union[nb 1].[4] In other Slavic languages, such as Polish, Ukrainian,[5] Czech, and Slovak, the terms zhyd (Jewish man) and zhydovka (Jewish woman) are not pejorative. The word zhyd was banned illegal to use by the Soviet authorities in the 1930's, also in the languages of the Soviet Union in which it had no negative connotations.[5]

Use in Soviet times

Nikita Khrushchev commented on this in his memoirs: "I remember that once we invited Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles...to a meeting at the Lvov [Lviv] opera house. It struck me as very strange to hear the Jewish speakers at the meeting refer to themselves as "yids." "We yids hereby declare ourselves in favour of such-and-such." Out in the lobby after the meeting I stopped some of these men and demanded, "How dare you use the word "yid?" Don't you know it's a very offensive term, an insult to the Jewish nation?" "Here in the Western Ukraine it's just the opposite," they explained. "We call ourselves yids...Apparently what they said was true. If you go back to Ukrainian literature...you'll see that "yid" isn't used derisively or insultingly."[6]

Current use

In December 2012, Ukrainian politician Ihor Miroshnychenko of the Svoboda party wrote on Facebook that Hollywood actress Mila Kunis is a "zhydovka".[1] Ukrainian Jews protested the use of term.[3] The Ukrainian government defended the term, stating that the word "zhyd" (Ukrainian: жид) appears in the Ukrainian dictionary as a term for a Jew and is not offensive.[1][3] In a letter of protest directed to (then) Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov the term Zhydovka was described by Rabbi Marvin Hier as an "insidious slur invoked by the Nazis and their collaborators as they rounded up the Jews to murder them at Babi Yar and in the death camps."[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ including Uzbekistan[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Mila Kunis Targeted By Anti-Semitic Ukrainian". TMZ. Retrieved 21 December 2012. 
  2. ↑ LaZebnik, Edith (1979). Such a Life. G. K. Hall. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-8161-6662-6. Retrieved 21 December 2012. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Ukrainian government: Anti-Semitic pejorative used against Mila Kunis is legal". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 20 December 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2012. 
  4. ↑ Gelblum-Bross, Roma (1992). To Samarkand and Back. Roma Bross Reg'd. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-9695913-0-6. Retrieved 21 December 2012. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule by Karel C. Berkhoff, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008, ISBN 0674027183 (page 60)
  6. ↑ Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (New York, Bantam Books, 1971), page 145.

External links

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