Remove 'offensive' anti-Semitic descriptions from Spanish lexicon and call on Jewish activists

The official Spanish lexicon defines the word judío (Jew) as a mean person or moneylender. Photo: Bet_Noire/iStockphoto

Spain's language authority is under pressure from Jewish groups to remove anti-Semitic terms from its vocabulary, including one article that describes a Jew as «a greedy person or moneylender.»

More than 20 Jewish groups, mostly from Spanish-speaking countries, have sent a letter to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) urging them to change entries they believe are «outdated» and «offensive».

And also B as a definition of judío (Jew) as a mean person or moneylender, the letter also mentions one word for judiada, which, according to the official RAE Spanish Dictionary, is «a dirty trick or act that harms someone.»

There are four other uses of the word judío of an indisputable nature, referring to persons of the Jewish faith or natives of Judea.

The fifth entry is flagged as derogatory, and the definition of Judiad as a dastardly trick also comes with a warning that the word was originally used «with anti-Semitic intent.»

The letter, supported by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, states that such definitions stem from a tradition of antisemitism in Spain that led to the expulsion or forced conversion of the country's entire Jewish population in 1492 under the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.

“Terminology of rejection, envy and hatred”

“The definitions of the words judío and judiada in no way reflect the true meaning of these terms,” the letter says.

“These descriptions are the product of medieval and Renaissance terminology of rejection, envy and hatred directed at the jobs had the highest incomes – which was one of the factors that led to their expulsion from Spain by the Catholic Monarchs.”

In 2015, the Spanish government called the expulsion and persecution of Jewish communities a “historic injustice” and launched a scheme to provide citizenship to the descendants of those who were forced to leave their homeland.

By the end of the application period in October 2019, 132,226 people claiming to be of Sephardi origin had applied for Spanish citizenship.

Also in 2015, the RAE changed the dictionary entry for the word «gitano» («Gypsy»), adding a health warning that using the term in the sense of «scammer» was offensive and discriminatory.