Kike

Usage

In a travel report from 1937 for the German-Jewish publication Der Morgen, Joachim Prinz, writing of the situation of Jewish immigrants in the United States, allegedly mentioned the word as being used by Jews to denigrate other Ashkenazi Jews:

Es ist nicht erhebend zu sehen, wie verworren die Vorstellungen sind, wie wenig die Einwanderer gelernt haben, wie glücklich sie teilweise sind, dem Judenschicksal entsprungen zu sein, und wie überheblich sie oft sind. Es macht traurig, daß sie in manchen Kreisen sehr unbeliebt sind, und man wundert sich über die Dummheit derer, die die Ostjuden (von denen sie ja doch gestützt werden!) verächtlich „Kikes‟ nennen ...

It is not uplifting to see how confused the perceptions are, how little the immigrants have learnt, how happy some of them are to have escaped [or: arisen from] the destiny [or: fate] of the Jews, and how haughty many of them are. It is saddening that they are very unpopular in many circles, and bewildering is the stupidity of those who contemptuously call the Eastern Jews (who support them after all!) "kikes" ...}}

The slur has been spotted at several protests, with a Jewish woman being called that at a Biden fundraiser in 2024. A similar incident happened at California's Occidental College and Pomona College, against which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed Title VI complaints on behalf of the harassed Jewish students.

References

Sources

References

1. "Welcome to the new OED Online : Oxford English Dictionary". Dictionary.oed.com.
2. Leo Rosten: ''The Joys of Yiddish'', cited in [https://web.archive.org/web/20080602102925/http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/kike.htm Kim Pearson's ''Rhetoric of Race''] by Eric Wolarsky. [[The College of New Jersey]].
3. (5 November 2015). "Words of a Feather - an Etymological Explanation of Astonishing Word Pairs". Metro.
4. Encyclopedia of Swearing: Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English Speaking World / Geoffrey Hughes. Armonk, N.Y. : M. E. Sharpe, c2006.
5. New Dictionary of American Slang/ edited by Robert L. Chapman. New York: Harper & Crow. c1986.
6. Prinz, Joachim. (June 1937). "Amerika – hast Du es besser?".
7. (29 March 2024). "'F***king murderous kike': Pro-Palestinian protesters accost Biden fundraiser attendees on NYC streets". [[The Times of Israel]].
8. (7 September 2024). "Campuses are banning discrimination against Zionists. That's good news for the pro-Palestinian camp".
9. (9 April 2023). "Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964".
10. "ADL Report on Nationwide Campus Turmoil: May 10, 2024". San Diego Jewish World.
11. "Federal investigation into antisemitism at UC Berkeley launches after campus incidents".