Goy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Modern usage

As noted, in the above-quoted Rabbinical literature the meaning of the word "goy" shifted the Biblical meaning of "a people" which could be applied to the Hebrews/Jews as to others into meaning "a people other than the Jews". In later generations, a further shift left the word as meaning an individual person who belongs to such a non-Jewish people.

In modern Hebrew and Yiddish the word goy is the standard term for a gentile.

In English, the use of the word goy can be controversial. Like other common (and otherwise innocent) terms, it may be assigned pejoratively to non-Jews.^[4]^[5]^[6] To avoid any perceived offensive connotations, writers may use the English terms "Gentile" or "non-Jew".

In Yiddish, it is the only proper term for Gentile and many bilingual English and Yiddish speakers use it dispassionately [1]or even deliberately. [2]

A stereotype of a goy, as expressed in Jewish humor, bears derogatory elements, e.g., as Hillel Halkin writes: "A stereotypical goy acts blindly; a stereotypical Jew thinks before acting," ^[7] when commenting on a skit of Jack Benny: when a mugger comes upon him: "your money or your life", and prods him with the gun, he protests "I’m thinking it over!"

The term shabbos goy refers to a non-Jew who performs duties that Jewish law forbids a Jew from performing on the Sabbath; typically, lighting a fire to warm a house.

In Israel, secularists rarely use the term, preferring to either refer to foreign countries and nations by their specific names or use such terms as "Ha-Olam Ha-Lo Yehudi" (העולם הלא-יהודי), "The Non-Jewish World".