![\"Lemony](\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/18698407_10155386579048270_4312287790308902091_n-169x300.jpg\")
Oh, I’m sorry, my dears,” Uncle Monty said, wiping his eyes with his hands. \u201cYou must be very frightened. But the Incredibly Deadly Viper is one of the least dangerous and most friendly creatures in the animal kingdom. Sunny has nothing to worry about, and neither do you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klaus looked at his baby sister, who was still in his arms, as she playfully gave the Incredibly Deadly Viper a big hug around its thick body, and he realized Uncle Monty must be telling the truth. \u201cBut then why is it called the Incredibly Deadly Viper?\u201d<\/p>\n
Uncle Monty laughed again. \u201cIt\u2019s a misnomer,\u201d he said, using a word which here means \u201ca very wrong name.\u201d \u201cBecause I discovered it, I got to name it, remember? Don’t tell anyone about the Incredibly Deadly Viper, because I’m going to present it to the Herpetological Society and give them a good scare before explaining that the snake is completely harmless! \u2026 Won’t that be hysterical?\u201d<\/p>\n
The book doesn\u2019t mention it but, aside from being friendly and harmless, it appears that the Incredibly Deadly Viper is also a boa and not a viper at all, so that part of its name is a misnomer as well. But as Uncle Monty says, he discovered it, so he got to name it.<\/p>\n
So who named anti-Semitism?<\/p>\n
The term is credited to Wilhelm Marr, a German agitator, who coined the phrase in 1879 to refer to the anti-Jewish campaigns in Europe. (Actually, the term Marr coined was \u201cAntisemitismus<\/em>,\u201d because he spoke German.) This word was intended to replace the term \u201cJudenha\u00df<\/em>\u201d (\u201cJew-hatred\u201d \u2013 the letter \u00df, called an Eszett, is the functional equivalent of a double-S). This change in terminology was pretty much for marketing purposes. \u201cJew-hatred\u201d sounds vulgar and irrational, motivated by one\u2019s emotions. \u201cAnti-Semitism,\u201d however, sounds clean, rational and scientific.<\/p>\n Giving credit where due, a similar term, antisemitisch<\/em>, was coined in 1860 by Moritz Steinschneider, an Austrian Jewish academic. It should be noted that, unlike Marr, Steinschneider\u2019s motivation was not to promote anti-Semitism. Rather, he was complaining about the \u201cantisemitische Vorurteile<\/em>\u201d (antisemitic prejudices) of French academic Joseph Ernest Renan, who considered the \u201cSemitic races\u201d to be inferior to the \u201cAryan races.\u201d<\/p>\n While Renan certainly meant to include all Semitic peoples in his antisemitische Vorurteile<\/em>, popular usage in 19th<\/sup>-century Europe was to equate \u201cSemite\u201d with \u201cJew.\u201d Marr used Semitismus<\/em> and Judentum<\/em> interchangeably in his writings, hence his proposal of Antisemitismus<\/em> as a replacement for Judenha\u00df. <\/em>Marr also founded Die Antisemitenliga <\/em>(The League of Anti-Semites), whose stated purpose was to protect German culture from those pernicious Jews, and not from Arabs, Arameans, Ethiopians, or any other Semites.<\/p>\n So we know that the term anti-Semitism is a misnomer. We\u2019ve always known it. People have been complaining about this for as long as the term has existed. Both Jews and Nazis have complained about it! Dr. Leon Pinsker, founder of the early Zionist movement Chovevei Tzion<\/em>, used the term \u201cJudeophobia\u201d in his 1882 pamphlet \u201cAuto-Emancipation.\u201d German theologian Johannes Leipoldt preferred the term \u201canti-Judaism\u201d in his 1933 book Antisemitsmus in der alien Welt<\/em> (Anti-Semitism in the Old World). [It may be worth noting that Leipoldt was a member of The Institute for the Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Ecclesiastical Life. Isn\u2019t that nice?] Dutch historian Hendrik Bolkestein put \u201canti-Semitism\u201d in scare quotes his 1936 article Het \u201cantisemietisme\u201d in de oudheid<\/em> (\u201cAnti-Semitism\u201d in the ancient world), opining that \u201cJew-hatred\u201d was more accurate. And then there\u2019s The Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, an affiliate of Joseph Goebbels\u2019 Ministry of Propaganda. Founded in 1934, it changed its name to \u201cAnti-Semitic Action\u201d in 1939 and from there to \u201cAnti-Jewish Action\u201d in 1942. (I mean come on, when you get Goebbels and Pinsker on the same page\u2026.)<\/p>\n Because it\u2019s a misnomer, many authorities promote the use of \u201cantisemitism\u201d (unhyphenated, with a lower case S). The spelling \u201canti-Semitism\u201d suggests that Semitism is a thing and that some people oppose it. Writing \u201cantisemitism\u201d makes it clearer that it\u2019s a single concept, not a root with a prefix.<\/p>\n None of this even acknowledges the reality that the \u201cSemitic peoples\u201d are bound together by common linguistic<\/em> ancestors. They are not necessarily related racially or ethnically.<\/p>\n Lots of things in this world are misnomers but they still exist. Peanuts aren\u2019t nuts and strawberries aren\u2019t berries. Iceland is green and Greenland is icy. Panama hats come from Ecuador and white chocolate isn\u2019t chocolate. Not only do Native Americans not come from India, just try explaining \u201cthe French and Indian War\u201d to someone. And guinea pigs \u2013 which are not pigs \u2013 don\u2019t come from Guinea (which is in Africa), they come from the Andes (in South America).<\/p>\n Whether the term is accurate or not, anti-Semitism exists. If you don\u2019t like the word because it\u2019s inaccurate, feel free to go with anti-Judaism; Judeophobia or good, old-fashioned Jew-hatred. The only ones who would deny anti-Semitism exists because of a linguistic gaffe are Judenhasser <\/em>(Jew-haters). Which is ironic given that they\u2019re the ones who coined the word in the first place.<\/p>\n Rabbi Jack Abramowitz is Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union. He is the author of six books, including\u00a0The Tzniyus Book<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Taryag Companion<\/a>. His latest work,\u00a0The God Book<\/a>, is available from\u00a0OU Press<\/a>\u00a0as well as on\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s happened before and it will invariably happen again but that doesn\u2019t mean that it wasn\u2019t irksome. I was following a Twitter discussion about a certain anti-Semitic incident and it wasn\u2019t long before some wannabe linguist was holding court that anti-Semitism isn\u2019t a real thing. The basis for this assertion is the brilliant and unassailable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":60289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\n
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