Ukrainian Justice Ministry: allowed to call Jews 'Z'id'

There is nothing which forbids the use of the word "Z'id" to describe Jews. This was determined by the Ministry of Justice in Ukraine.

Representatives of the anti-Semitic party "Svoboda" in the Ukraine, tend to use the expression Z'id, which is a derogatory name for Jews in the country.

Site Editor of "Jewish Kiev", Eleanor Groissman, submitted a complaint regarding that to the Ministry of Justice in Ukraine and received a reply that the "test conducted in the Ukraine Constitution did not find a ban of the use of 'Z'id', 'Z'idovka' and 'Z'idi," it was written in the response. "However, the laws of Ukraine use the terms' Jew ',' Jews' and 'people of Jewish nationality'.

Svoboda made it clear that they will not stop using the term, arguing that it is natural to the Ukrainian language.

The word "Z'id" started out as a word to describe Jews in the the Old Russian language and other Slavic languages. But in the 18th century there was a change, and the word became a bad word.

Empress Catherine also responded to the request of Yehoshua Zeitlin, Rav and scholar, and in 1787 agreed to only use the word "yavrai" to describe Jews in the official documents of the Russian Empire.

In the Ukrainian language the word became an insult later, due to Russian influence in the country, in the fifties of the last century

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!