If you search the word “Jew” on Google right now, you might be surprised to find that the definition given is an ancient antisemitic stereotype.
The word “Jew,” according to this Google result with data derived from Oxford Languages, does not list someone as being a member of the Jewish people. Rather, it is listed as a verb marked offensive, defined as “to bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way.”
Looking further after clicking “translations and more definitions,” the Google result includes several conjugations of this verb, such as “jewed” and “jewing.” It further reveals that the origin of the verb “Jew” is from the 19th century in reference to how Jewish people work with moneylending and trading.
Only after that, however, is the noun “Jew” shown as an option by Google, which is far less offensive and far more accurate.
The reason for this change is unknown.
Several people and organizations spoke out on social media over the definition of Jew on Google as several people immediately rushed to the search engine to see this for themselves.
The NGO Stop Antisemitism referred to Google’s definition as a “grotesque antisemitic stereotype.”
Israeli Embassy in the US spokesperson Elad Strohmayer weighed in, stating his disbelief.
Some social media users claimed that using the lowercase “jew” instead of Jew is the reason for this, since Jew as a proper noun should be uppercase whereas “jew” in lowercase would have to refer to a verb.
However, upon investigation, this was found to not be the case, as the antisemitic verb of “jew” still was the first result when googling uppercase Jew.
