JLC chair: I’ve changed my mind on ‘Yid’
V JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, has said he has changed his mind on Tottenham Hotspur fans calling themselves “Yids” on the terraces, saying he opposes it because “anti-Jewish racism has moved from the margins”.
In an article in the Evening Standard, co-written with JC editor and fellow Spurs fan Stephen Pollard, Mr Goldstein notes the inclusion of “Yiddo” in the Oxford English Dictionary “provides an opportune moment for reflection.
“There are few older Jewish jokes than the notion that if you put two Jews together you get three opinions. That’s especially true for Spurs fans describing themselves as ‘Yiddos’,” they write.
“First, there are the many Jewish Spurs fans who use the word. But there are also others who recoil from it...
“Then, there is the third opinion — those Jews who aren’t Spurs fans. Overwhelmingly, they deplore the use of the word by their fellow Jews.
“Just as gay people reclaimed the word ‘queer’ from those who used it is an insult, so we and other Spurs fans adopted the word ‘yid’.”
They write that they would have welcomed the OED including the word in 2014, when three Tottenham Hotspur fans were charged with a crime on suspicions of using the word, though the case was dropped before it went to court.
“But society has changed,” the article says. “Anti-Jewish racism has moved from the margins into the mainstream and the battle against this hatred is now one of the defining issues of our time.
“In that context, it is no longer possible for Spurs fans to act as if we exist in a vacuum. Anti-racist campaigners say that by using the word, Spurs fans make it harder for those who seek to highlight and tackle anti-Jewish racism...
“Imagine if a group of one football club’s fans with a deep association with the black community used the N word as their chant.
“You cannot imagine it because it is inconceivable. By Spurs fans using the word ‘Yid’, we give the appearance of legitimising its use by others. This cannot be ignored.”
Referring to Spurs’ match against Chelsea on Saturday, Mr Goldstein and Mr Pollard praised the club for being “genuinely committed” to stomping out the “shameful history” of its fans’ antisemitic chanting in matches against Spurs.
“[Chelsea] has put huge amounts of energy and money into Holocaust and other forms of anti-racist education. But Spurs fans’ continued use of the word ‘yid’ undermines our cause,” they write.
“That is why we, two lifelong and committed Spurs fans, have changed our minds. We must stop using the word. We must take the blinkers off and recognise the impact our use has elsewhere. We say to our fellow fans: please, think about this.
“And please, stop.”
Society has changed. Antisemitism has moved from the margins’
By using ‘Yid’, we give the appearance of legitimising its use by others