Honest question: why are commenters here saying “Hebrew” refers to an ethnicity rather than the language?
To my ears it sounds like an archaic or incorrect way to refer to a Jewish person or people, sort of like referring to Muslims as Arabs. But if I’m mistaken, or this is a new self-descriptor, I’d like to know.
I think the majority of commenters here don’t actually know that Hebrew is the official language of Israel and assume it is a reference to the Jewish people themselves. Others seem to be claiming that since OP chose to use a language instead of a location like in the original episode (Skinner claims it’s a regional dialect, and when pressed on what dialect, he says, “upstate New York.”), he’s somehow being antisemitic because he’s equating it to, “all Jews,” instead of, “Isralis.” That’s of course nonsense; Israel is the only country to have Hebrew as an official language, and the vast majority of the world’s Hebrew speakers live in Israel. In fact, Hebrew was basically a dead language until the Zionist movement revived it in the late 19th century. The vast majority of Jewish people outside of Israel would only speak Hebrew as part of prayers, much like Catholics would use Latin (at least until they ended Latin Mass in the 60s). The idea of, “Hebrew expression,” being coded towards the larger Jewish population instead the one country in the world where this language is regularly spoken is just silly.
Honest question: why are commenters here saying “Hebrew” refers to an ethnicity rather than the language?
To my ears it sounds like an archaic or incorrect way to refer to a Jewish person or people, sort of like referring to Muslims as Arabs. But if I’m mistaken, or this is a new self-descriptor, I’d like to know.
I think the majority of commenters here don’t actually know that Hebrew is the official language of Israel and assume it is a reference to the Jewish people themselves. Others seem to be claiming that since OP chose to use a language instead of a location like in the original episode (Skinner claims it’s a regional dialect, and when pressed on what dialect, he says, “upstate New York.”), he’s somehow being antisemitic because he’s equating it to, “all Jews,” instead of, “Isralis.” That’s of course nonsense; Israel is the only country to have Hebrew as an official language, and the vast majority of the world’s Hebrew speakers live in Israel. In fact, Hebrew was basically a dead language until the Zionist movement revived it in the late 19th century. The vast majority of Jewish people outside of Israel would only speak Hebrew as part of prayers, much like Catholics would use Latin (at least until they ended Latin Mass in the 60s). The idea of, “Hebrew expression,” being coded towards the larger Jewish population instead the one country in the world where this language is regularly spoken is just silly.