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The ‘Y’ Debate

12 min read
by Editor
Well, firstly, I suppose that I should present the credentials that make me qualified to pass judgement on the subject of whether or not it is permissible for Spurs fans to use the word “Yid” in reference to themselves or Spurs players. I am Jewish, not only through birth, but through practise as well and, […]

Well, firstly, I suppose that I should present the credentials that make me qualified to pass judgement on the subject of whether or not it is permissible for Spurs fans to use the word “Yid” in reference to themselves or Spurs players. I am Jewish, not only through birth, but through practise as well and, in addition, I have been a Spurs fan for over 40 years. (I am old enough to have lived through a Tottenham championship year; albeit I was only 3 months old when Danny Blanchflower was awarded the trophy.) I left England over 30 years ago to live in Israel, yet Spurs have been the one constant in my life. I have always managed to keep up with the goings on at White Hart Lane. For years this wasn’t so easy but the onset of the Internet and of satellite TV has meant that I rarely miss a game during the season and I get together with other long-suffering ex-pat fans to watch almost every week.

I have brought up two sons to suffer alongside me and I am proud of the fact that despite the fact that the past decade and a half have been rather barren for the mighty THFC, they resisted the temptation to support other more successful teams as Israeli kids are wont to do and that my youngest son who is now almost 16 has even influenced some of his mates to follow the Tottenham. My proudest moment was when I was able to take them to see Spurs when they came to Israel to play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the UEFA Cup a few years back. (I also have 2 girls, but I couldn’t persuade them to like football.) My American-born wife has learnt to be patient with my obsession. As she has put it on a number of occasions, if supporting Spurs is my worst vice, then she has got herself a pretty good deal.

[linequote]As the kid fell, he exclaimed “You Jew!” I must have been fairly naïve at the time, and anyway the word “Jew” had not been preceded by an adjective such as “bloody” or “effing”, so it did not strike me that he was insulting me.[/linequote]

I recall that my first encounter with anti-Semitism on a personal level came when I was about 9 or 10 years old. As one does at that age, I was playing in a pick-up football game in the local park with kids whom I didn’t know. I have to admit that I loved playing the game but being a bit of a chubby kid at the time (my mum assured me it was “puppy fat”), what I lacked in footballing prowess, I more than made up for in clumsy enthusiasm. And eventually I hacked another player down in a move that would have made Terry “the Meathook” Naylor proud.

As the kid fell, he exclaimed “You Jew!” I must have been fairly naïve at the time, and anyway the word “Jew” had not been preceded by an adjective such as “bloody” or “effing”, so it did not strike me that he was insulting me. My response was to turn around pleasantly and say simply “Oh, how did you know?” I was quite astonished as there were no outward signs of my Mosaic ancestry. This seemed to take the kid by surprise. “Oh are you?” he said quite embarrassed, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” It was if he had called me a bastard and I had turned round and admitted to my parents’ having borne me out of wedlock. I thought little of it and carried on charging around the pitch trying to make as much of a nuisance of myself as possible, which was my main football strategy at the time.

It was only later that it dawned on me that he was using the word, “Jew” as an insult. I knew all about anti-Semitism; my mother had been through the Holocaust before finding refuge in England after the war and my father and his family had managed to leave Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. However, this was the first time I had heard the word that I had been brought up to be proud of used in a pejorative sense. The kid I had fouled probably had no idea what it meant, and as at that time we did not live in a neighbourhood where there was a large Jewish community, chances are that I was the first Red-Sea Pedestrian that he had met in his life. The boy had most probably picked it up from the Alf Garnetts who were bringing him up.

The word “Yid” I would hear used as an insult against me several years later when I was about 14. I went to a large Jewish school which was then situated in Camden Town, quite a rough area at the time in which very few Jews lived. To make life hard for my friends and me, and easy for the local yobbos, our uniforms were bright blue with a luminous yellow badge whilst all the other schools in the neighbourhood wore black blazers. We were spotted from a mile off making our way down to the station in our attempt to make it to the safety of North-West London and every week there incidents in which pupils from my school were insulted or attacked.

I knew the word as the Yiddish for Jew. I had a good working knowledge of the language as my Rumanian born grandmother would speak to me in Yiddish although I would reply in English. I was old enough to realise instantly that I was being insulted, but again I was a bit puzzled as to what could be so derogatory about a word which described a member of the faith that I was quite prepared to admit adhering to.

Perhaps because I didn’t get much of a chance to go to games during the hooligan-ridden ’70’s, I wasn’t aware of Spurs’ supposed Jewish connections. I knew lots of Jewish people that supported them, but then again, most of the people that I knew were Jewish and I assumed that they were Spurs fans because they came from North London, and anyway I knew as many fans of the Team Whose Name Must Never Be Uttered and even a couple of Chelsea supporters who were Jewish.

[linequote]What also became apparent at the same time was the fact that instead of lashing out against the accusation of their being “Jewish”, Spurs fans had reacted quite unexpectedly by embracing it.[/linequote]

I had to rely not only on highlights on the “Big Match” and “Match of the Day” for my football fix, but on the weekly reports of my mate, Brian who was a regular at Spurs matches. In this way I lived vicariously the life of a proper Spurs fan as he would regale me at school on Monday mornings with blow-by-blow (often literally) accounts of the goings-on on the terraces which were far more entertaining than what was happening on the pitch at the time. These were Spurs’ wilderness years during which they went down to the second division after having flirted with relegation for a number of seasons. The truth is that I can’t remember any tales about Spurs fans being singled out because of the team’s supposed “Jewish connections”. Perhaps it got lost in the general wave of hooliganism that was rampant at the time. Even so, today this seems strange to me as Brian himself was Jewish.

I only became aware of the anti-Semitic jibes against Spurs fans in the early 1980’s, after I had already moved to Israel. English football has always been popular here and the reports of rival fans making hissing sounds and singing songs about Auschwitz aroused much interest in the Israeli media for obvious reasons. What also became apparent at the same time was the fact that instead of lashing out against the accusation of their being “Jewish”, Spurs fans had reacted quite unexpectedly by embracing it.

The term, “Yid”, so long used in a derogatory way, suddenly became the name used by Spurs fans to denote not only themselves but the Spurs players as well. There were more Israeli flags being waved at White Hart Lane than at games of the Israeli national side (the Jewish state had been considerate enough, on its achieving independence in 1948, to choose blue and white for the colours of its flag.) My chest would well up with pride whenever I was asked by Israelis which team I supported. “Ah, the Jewish team,” they would say when I told them. All of sudden, the two main components of my own identity, which for so long had been kept separate, had been fused together. I was Jewish ergo I was a Spurs fan (or was it the other way round?)

[linequote]In spite of all this, I can fully understand the objections of the English Jewish community to the use of the words, “Yid” and “Yiddo.”[/linequote]

I wasn’t even bothered when I heard the word “Yiddo” used against me in Israel. It was in 1984 in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, where the national stadium is situated. England had come out to play a friendly against the Israeli national side. My mates and I had brought Israeli flags to cheer on the local team and we got into a mock terrace battle with a couple of half-pissed non-Jewish England fans before the game (it was the 80’s after all and we probably regarded it as mandatory and anyway we had also had our own fill of the Demon Drink as well.) Eventually, we settled down and began chatting to the two blokes who, it turned out were working as volunteers on a kibbutz. We were having a friendly conversation when suddenly one of them noticed my Spurs scarf which I was wearing. “Oy,” he said, “You’re a Yid,” and began singing a song about my being “a poor little Yiddo.” I was a bit perplexed as it was fairly obvious that I was Jewish, yet it was only the sight of my scarf that had caused him to start singing. His mate looked a trifle embarrassed and nudged him to get him to stop. The guy suddenly realised what he was doing, stopped and apologised. I told him not to worry about it. It was apparent that the jibe was directed against me as I was a Tottenham fan which, as he supported a rival team, he was entitled to do, rather than because I was Jewish, something that would have been unacceptable.

In spite of all this, I can fully understand the objections of the English Jewish community to the use of the words, “Yid” and “Yiddo.” I wonder if I were still living in England, whether this would bother me as much. However, it must be pointed out that even if all Spurs fans were to cease using the names to describe themselves, it is impossible to imagine that rival fans would stop using them as terms of abuse. What Spurs supporters have done in effect is to take the sting out these words. How can they be used as anti-Semitic jibes when tens of thousands of Gentiles are employing them regularly as the supreme accolade used to describe not only a loyal fan, but also a favourite player who has proved himself to the crowd? If anything, Spurs fans should be commended for deflecting the derogatory meaning of the words.

And before anyone brings up the example of the nefarious “N-word”, I feel that there is no basis here for comparison as for African-Americans, this term symbolizes the worst periods of their history. Many names have been invented to denote Jews, some of which are merely corruptions of the word “Jew”, as the ineffable “N-word” is merely a corruption of the word, “Negro.” But I don’t think that one particular word can be singled out as the most offensive. In fact, I would hazard a guess that “Zhid” and “Jude”, respectively the Russian and German words for Jew, evoke many more bitter memories than the word “Yid” does.

David Baddiel’s efforts to eradicate the use of the “Y-word” (as he calls it) by Spurs fans are both laughable and hypocritical. Baddiel has made a whole career out of the fact that he is Jewish. I don’t think that I have seen one appearance of his in which he does not mention his ethnicity at least once. In addition, for years, he has perpetuated the myth that Spurs are a Jewish club. Just check out this clip on his “Fantasy Football” show from the mid-90’s.

More recently, he wrote and produced a mildly amusing comedy film called “The Infidel” in which he presents Jews in a stereotypical way (stemming from his own ignorance about Judaism.) The rather implausible plot involves a Muslim man who discovers he is Jewish. The point is that Baddiel makes the protagonist a Spurs fan, and the opening scene features the main character wearing a 1980’s Spurs shirt. Perhaps Baddiel was trying to suggest that even before the hero discovers his Jewish roots he was in possession of basic Jewish genetic traits, such as supporting Tottenham.

As long as someone as well-known as Baddiel and others continue to portray Spurs as a “Jewish” club, then the anti-Semitic insults hurled at its supporters will continue. The best thing to do in this case is precisely what Spurs fans have been doing for the past 30 years or so i.e. to turn the insult into a term of endearment. This renders harmless the shouts of “Yids!” by rival fans. Of course, it doesn’t deal with the more caustic chants referring to the Holocaust which emanate from the sick and pig-ignorant supporters who also sing songs about the tragedies at Munich and Hillsboro against Manchester United and Liverpool fans respectively.

Unfortunately, abusive chanting will always be part and parcel of football matches. One cannot expect every member of a crowd that can number between 30-50,000 to be on his or her best behaviour during a tense game and adhere strictly to the rules of political correctness. The only way to deal with it has to be to punish clubs whose fans are particularly abusive (this actually has been done in Israel where teams have had points deducted for racist chanting from their fans.) Spurs fans referring to themselves as “Yiddos” cannot be regarded in this category, even though it does make many members of the English Jewish community uncomfortable.

David Graniewitz lives in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife, four kids and a cat named Luka. He is a member of the South Jerusalem THFC Fan Club, group of 5-6 middle-aged, over-qualified and underpaid Spurs fans who have been regularly getting together with their kids to watch Spurs games for the past ten years and who are deluded enough to think that they can influence the outcome of games by standing up, sitting down, changing places on the sofa or just concentrating really hard – even when they are watching a recorded match.

You can contact him on Twitter @Davidgranny although in his own words, he “hardly uses it”.

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

Editor

David Graniewitz lives in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife, four kids and a cat named Luka. He is a member of the South Jerusalem THFC Fan Club, group of 5-6 middle-aged, over-qualified and underpaid Spurs fans who have been regularly getting together with their kids to watch Spurs games for the past ten years and who are deluded enough to think that they can influence the outcome of games by standing up, sitting down, changing places on the sofa or just concentrating really hard – even when they are watching a recorded match. You can contact him on Twitter @Davidgranny although in his own words, he "hardly uses it".

36 Comments

  1. davspurs
    23/05/2012 @ 7:53 pm

    I have supported Spurs for 50 years this April gone and iam a Catholic sadly not a practising one because of science and common sense over my 60 years i learned a lot of things don’t had up especially the big Animals that roamed the earth 60 million years before we arrived. We should be known has the Cockerels but sadly things stick and we may as well leave things how they are

    • andy
      23/05/2012 @ 8:02 pm

      Dav – even science today is looking closer at Intelligent Design rather than the Big Bang Theory stuff I presume you’ve been learning from. Anyway you have more faith than you realise, you have been a Spurs fan for over 50 years………
      I can just imagine the stick we would have got if our nickname was “the Cockerals”. Come On You C_cks just doesn’t have the same ring.

  2. andy
    23/05/2012 @ 7:55 pm

    Yiddo! Yiddo! Great article, why aren’t the Baddiels (i beleive there are 2 brothers) going after Chelsea and West Ham and the rest as their fans are the ones who use the “Y” word in the most derrogatory and vile way. COYS….may we could change it to Come On Yiddo Spurs just to really get their goat.

    • mkyid
      27/05/2012 @ 12:02 am

      Because the are both Chelsea fans.

      I know, you couldn’t make it up!

  3. spur1950
    23/05/2012 @ 7:56 pm

    a brilliant piece please send this to the politicly correct brigade at THFC security as they do not understand
    football and OUR history as a club, and i have quite a few Tottenham friends who are Jewish and supported spurs back in the 70s and it hurt/wound me up big time not just in London all over the country but they still went come rain or shine , i have a lot of respect for people like that who met it full on !
    Now people are being pulled up for SINGING ,it has gone way over the top
    Funny dont her baddiel complaining about terry or his supporters!

  4. el
    23/05/2012 @ 8:01 pm

    I have made similar arguments on Spurs blogs over the years. Yid – short for Yiddish, Brit – short for British, Paki – short for Pakistani, Aussi – short for Australian, Eyetie – short for Italian, etc. These are all just shortened descriptions of non racist terms which have been used by racists. Why should racists have the power to make that etymological change? Spurs fans had the right idea and it worked perfectly to disempower a bunch of idiots. Good article.

  5. ParkLane
    23/05/2012 @ 8:32 pm

    What Baddiel said was you can’t sanction fans of other clubs for using the word in an insulting manner if Spurs fans openly call themselves Yids. He explained he has absolutely no problem with us calling ourselves Yids as we adopted it to diffuse the insults, and we don’t use it to insult others. But the second a fan is held up for using the word insultingly he’ll just say, that Spurs fans sing it throughout a game. And Badiel’s a comedian, it was just a sketch. I’ve heard him say Spurs are not the Jewish club and that Arsenal and Chelsea also have many Jewish fans. I also agree though that you’ll never stop rival fans using the term. Especially West Ham, sadly back among us next season.

    • David Graniewitz
      23/05/2012 @ 9:44 pm

      ParkLane, it seems that we are in a bit of a Catch 22 situation then. If Spurs fans stop singing “Yid Army”, that doesn’t mean that rival fans will stop calling them “Yids”. And if they don’t then rival fans will use that as a justification to continue.

      • ParkLane
        23/05/2012 @ 10:25 pm

        I know. But perhaps Badiel believes you can stop others using it. I, as you, do not. But did you know that he started thinking the word should be eradicating because someone shouted it at him at Chelsea. Fully knowing who he is. I can understand why he’s trying at least.

  6. Tay
    23/05/2012 @ 8:57 pm

    Stupid article. How is Tottenham a jewish club just because rival fans call us names?
    Ridiculous. If they call us idiots would you accept being an idiot??

    Its not a jewish club and never will be. Fact. People can say whatever they want.
    Arsenal have more jewish fans and Chelsea too, so what the fcuk are u talking about??

    The ‘Y’ word should be banned. Period. I dont give a fcuk about your background.
    I dont wana be associated to religion or a group of people. THIS IS SPORT.

    SO TAKE UR RELIGION ELSEWHERE.

    Regards

    • David Graniewitz
      23/05/2012 @ 9:28 pm

      Tay, I never wrote that Spurs ARE a Jewish club. For many reasons, geographical and historical, others have concocted the myth that it is. I suppose that I would rather that this hadn’t happened. But it has. All I was trying to point out was that there is something commendable in the way that Spurs fans have handled the jibe.I was writing from the point of view of someone who is Jewish who sees it as a way of dealing with a form of anti-Semitism.
      I fully agree that sport is sport and religion is religion and never the twain should meet.

    • Yidinoz
      13/09/2013 @ 8:58 am

      Take your religion elsewhere?
      Riiight…cos every home game I see Jewish people preaching to others and trying to convert them.
      And yes, I suspect if other fans had called Spurs fans idiots then we may well be singing “Idiot Army” instead.
      You really miss the whole point.

  7. koko61
    23/05/2012 @ 9:05 pm

    I am a Greek Cypriot fan, who has addopted Yiddo with pride. But I do not see it as a Jewish thing, but against the racist’s out their in order to protect the name of all Ethnic football fans.. I have been supporting Spurs since I was 9, and living within walking distance to WHL, I have been a regular right upto now. I have seen racism even amongst our own fans up in the Shelf side doing the Nazi Salute. This was during the late 70’s early 80’s, and seeing THFC clamp down on these few idiots. The weird thing for me, is that I know more Jewish Arse anal fans than Spurs fans, and even they call me a yiddo and I am Greek Cypriot.
    The one thing I want to say as an Ethnic, I would like people to see Spurs as a club for all and not a Jewish club. even though the vast majority of Spurs fans are English and Britsh , the last 20 years or so I have seen that people think we are a Jewish club, which is way of the mark.

  8. delstar
    23/05/2012 @ 9:16 pm

    fantastic article. thank you. I am not Jewish but am a lifelong yid and proud of it. COYS!

  9. Ian
    23/05/2012 @ 9:22 pm

    i can see a book coming on – good article

  10. Yid
    23/05/2012 @ 9:52 pm

    JFS used to give as good as they got, and by the way, JFS, which stood for ‘Jews free school’ was not the only school under attack – all schools were!! Schools in those days, in London at least, used to muster attacks on neighbouring schools! I think Maddness may have mentioned this tradition in Baggie trousers, might be wrong!!

    Yid Army!!!!!!!

    • David Graniewitz
      24/05/2012 @ 11:39 am

      Which decade are you talking about? I was at JFS in the ’70’s and I have no recollection of any of the pupils at the school fighting back let alone starting punch-ups with other schools. My traumatic memories stem not only from the fact that we were picked on incessantly but from the fact that we thought of ourselves as too weedy to do anything about it. 40 years on I would love to be able to tell some heroic tales of taking part in mass inter-school bundles, but all I can remember is trying to leave the Camden Town danger zone every day as quickly as possible.

  11. parklanephil
    23/05/2012 @ 10:03 pm

    Perfect!

  12. hyndzee
    23/05/2012 @ 10:17 pm

    Good article mate.

    I think what a lot of people miss is that if it had been Irish, or Muslim, or black Tottenham fans that were specifically abused, then the response would have been the same in an attempt to stand up for all fellow fans. I read about a black fan in the 80’s that found the Yid term refreshing because opposition fans would target us all as Yids and minorities, regardless of race, religion or background.

  13. bigleswade
    23/05/2012 @ 10:31 pm

    There’s at least a debate whether the use of ‘yid’ is offensive or not. If I was jewish I would consider that Spurs fans had adopted the word for positive reasons, even if I did not agree with it being used or believe that everyone understood it.

    It’s another thing entirely to hear songs about Auschwitz, gas chamber hissing and nazi salutes in the name of abuse towards Spurs fans (2 of the 3 I witnessed at Wembley the other week). That is offensive to anyone, jewish or not. The use of the word yid has helped stop some of the larger scale/open abuse but so has the transformation to all seater/CCTV controlled/’supporter average age 40 something’ stadiums in the UK over the past 20 years.

    If I was a jewish fan I would feel more welcome at a British football ground in 2012 than I would have been 20-30 years ago.

  14. Spurious Purpose
    23/05/2012 @ 10:59 pm

    Baddiel hasn’t denied that Spurs are thought of as a Jewish club. (They’ve had Jewish directors and fans as long as I can remember. So have Arsenal. Not so Chelsea) He just thinks that even though Spurs fans use the word ‘yid’ in an inclusive and complementary way it enables racist cunts of other clubs to use it in a derogatory way. It’s a valid opinion and not one that you can all dismiss just because he’s a Chelsea supporter. Nowhere in the above youtube clip does anyone use the word ‘yid’.

    I am Jewish and a Spurs supporter. ‘Yid’ is an offensive word. If you call me a yid I’m going to get angry. If you mention Auchwitz then I’m liable to get punchy. But otherwise if we’re talking football and Spurs then I’m more than happy to be described as one. Yid in this case means being a supporter of the greatest football team in the world. It means I am more than happy to stand with fellow Spurs supporters whether they’re black, white, brown yellow. Jewish Christian, Muslim, Atheist. English, Cypriot, Turkish, Somali, Nigerian or whatever else anyone is who makes up the population of North London or wherever else Spurs supporters are found. It means I’m not a racist and not a cunt. Why wouldn’t I be proud to be a yid?

    I, like most people here think that Baddiel is wrong. He’s wrong because when Spurs fans refer to themselves as yids they change an insult into a badge of pride and honour. In doing so they reduce anti-semitism not enable it.

    • David Graniewitz
      24/05/2012 @ 11:40 am

      Well said mate. My feelings entirely.

    • Yidinoz
      13/09/2013 @ 8:50 am

      Baddiels opinion ISN’T valid.
      If you take his thought processes to their only conclusion, then what he’s saying is that Jews should hide and stay out of sight, because by shouting Yid they are actively encouraging people to abuse them.
      Does he seriously think if gays stopped calling themselves gay that they’d stop getting abuse? Does he think they should hide to avoid “antagonising people”? His views are archaic and don’t deserve the time of day.
      Minorities, of what ever creed, don’t deserve abuse, and the more non members of that creed stand with them the more tolerant society becomes.

      Baddiels issues are with Chelsea fans and he should be looking inward, not outward.
      I am Jewish, I’m not remotely religious but I am a YID – and standing next to a black, christian, asian or whatever background they may have and hearing them shout YID ARMY in unison is bloody marvellous.
      COYS

  15. yididiah
    24/05/2012 @ 7:04 am

    Absolutely great read. It really comes down to two views and that is whether you see it as a response or as the cause of anti semitic abuse. And in that regard i’m on the same wavelength as Spurious.

    Although not Jewish myself (my real name is Jed, which comes from the name Yididiah a very happy coincidence) i would proudly call myself a Yid in terms of being spurs, to having an affinity with all spurs fans through that. To me it feels that the word losses it’s bite very quickly, like ignoring an angry child or pretending their attempts to annoy you are actually enjoyable, when you take it as a term of endearment.

    That being said it would only take one jewish fan at a game telling me they found it offensive for me to stop… but then again it would take only a single racist scumbag for me to chant it back again with pride.

  16. Gary
    24/05/2012 @ 9:22 am

    In the second world war, the nazi forces that had occupied Denmark, made the local Jews wear yellow stars on their clothing . In solidarity, the non- Jewish Danish population also wore yellow stars. I see a parallel act in the way the spurs supporters have adopted the term Yids and highly commend them for this. Oh and BTW great article David.

  17. Alexandre
    24/05/2012 @ 1:53 pm

    Great article. Really nice to read. Though I am not Jew, being actually Christian, one of my best friends, currently living in Australia is Jew and we had never had any trouble because of this. I´ll never understand why there are people who have. Anyway, my 2 cents of thinking here is that a similar case happened in Brazil where football was brought by a boy who studied in Britain and brought back to Brazil two balls, a book of rules and a couple of boots if my memory serves me well. One of the several clubs established in the early 1900´s in Brazil was called Palestra Italia (as the name suggests, it was founded by italians immigrants who came to Brazil to work for the rampant coffee industry). When Italy joined Germany in World War II, every descendant of italians had lots of trouble in Brazil just because their roots were italian. Properties were taken by goverment for instance. This club, based in São Paulo, had to change its name to Palmeiras (and so did another one in Minas Gerais, new name is Cruzeiro). Even decades after the end of WW II, Palmeiras supporters had to live with the pejorative nickname of “Pigs” due to Italy alliance with Germany. I remember being called a “Pig” in the 70´s was reason enough to start a fight in the streets. However, in late 80´s the club supporters responded their detractors in a smarter way by adopting the nick “Pig” as something to be proud of. They even designed a new mascot for the club to embrace this new “philosophy”: a nice little pig wearing the team colours (green and white). The change was really strong as the club replaced a long time favourite mascot, a green parrot. Nowadays, being called a “Pig” is no longer an insult but a sign of collective identity.

  18. torontospur
    25/05/2012 @ 6:13 am

    Hello David, growing up in Tottenham and taking 2 bus rides to reach my destination(JFS) was at times challenging, esp when the bus started to go past Finsbury Park! My rader was turned up full bore waiting for the” Black Jackets” to board. However i soon learnt that backing down was not an option. In fact one conductor reported my friend & I, who borded at Stamford Hill to our Deputy Head. saying at the time”im going to report you little yids to your school.” This after one of the morons from Holloway threw my mates cap off the bus shouting anti semetic obseneties. we stood our ground and threw a few lefts! so this was like a double whammy for us!! But no way being staunch Park Lane attendees could we let these kids get away with this……. two of the three had red & white scarves on!!!!

    Fortunatly for us it got reffered to a fine fellow known as Mr.Ball….who with a bit of a wink told us to keep our heads down.

    So i applaud the Yid Army chant and to this day. It still makes me proud when i hear it blasting through the TV. it takes all the power away from the other anti semetic thicko’s.

    I NEVER take to the keyboard in this manner but you struck several chords in me…Thank you &COYS.

    • David Graniewitz
      25/05/2012 @ 2:14 pm

      Hi torontospur
      When were you at JFS? Thanks for the story. You have done my dented pride a bit of good.

  19. armchairgeezer
    25/05/2012 @ 10:14 am

    This past season I have seen two stories running on BBC America that has me concerned. A 21-year-old student just completing 56 days in jail for a racist tweet about Muamba, and a man being confronted by a BBC reporter over racist comments he made on a Muslim Facebook page, and not fazed one bit over the possibility that he may face a nine week jail sentence. Was the tweet horrendous? yes, does Liam need an ass kicking? yes, but where does this go from here. In ten, fifteen years what other words will be found on the verboten list. Now you have individuals pushing to have YID placed on that list, and what will you get for that, 30 days? As an American I have come to value free speech, and spent a number of years protecting it along with the other constitutional rights. Yet even here I have seen an attempt to control what is said. Fortunately our Supreme Court struck down those attempts. Most may not know about the Westboro Baptists Church based out of Topeka Kansas. I living in Kansas, at times feel they are the relatives we never speak of. They are a very vile group that protest on the streets regularly against gays and lesbians, and lately at funerals of American soldiers that have died. As much as there is a temptation to just go yard stomp the shit out of these people, this group and others, like; the New Black Panthers, or Neo Nazis have a right to say what is on their minds. Because if we start controlling what they say now, then down the road we will find what we thought was acceptable language all of of a sudden become illegal, just because the ones in control of the government deemed it so. If you think I am full of shit on this then maybe you should have paid more attention in History class because it is there, and if there isn’t any resistance to even protect the bad, one day soon even the good will suffer.
    Charles Cherry
    Armchairgeezer

  20. Torontospur
    25/05/2012 @ 5:12 pm

    Hello David,
    i Attended JFS up untill 1969….left at 15 to go into the print.
    fond memories Weitzman House….your writing is excellent…keep spreading the the word my son.
    COYS.

  21. WhiteHartLes
    26/05/2012 @ 9:38 pm

    Just had this article forwarded by my son and have to say that my mind is finally made up on the ‘Yiddo’ debate. Being the only jewish kid in my south London school at first I didn’t even realise I was having a rough time. Other kids knew I was jewish as my folks ran the only sweets & ciggy shop south of the river that was closed on saturdays & open on sundays. Locally the shop was known as jewboys or yiddos and I was often referred to same in the singular. Once I understood the abuse it was like ‘a boy named Sue’ started to stand up for myself. Win or lose it does earn respect you know! Yid or Yiddo was still like a red rag to me until the WHL terrace faithful re- branded themselves. Inwardly I was proud to be a Spur and wow I just happened to be a yid too. But even though I grasped the game somehow I was still unsure if this deflection of abuse worked. My first recllection of Spurs being called Yids was from an episode of Til Death Do Us Part when Alf’s beloved Hammers were due to play The Yids and I’m sure that was when the title stuck. Ironic that Alf was played by Warren Mitchell a real jewish Spur! My dad & grandad were Spurs and always said the jewish following was on account of the Bearman family owning the club. I also remember being told that the jewish Arse support was borne from the jewish exodus of Spurs fans objecting to the staging at WHL of the England vs Germany game in the late 30’s (Nazi salutes and all!) I’m getting on now with a grandson soon to be coming to the Lane with me. Yid Yiddo Jewboys what’s in a name? Can call me…call us what they like. i’m finally convinced it doesn’t bother me anymore. Well done for opening the subject David – COYS

  22. Essexian76
    27/05/2012 @ 10:46 am

    Congratulations for writing what was really good read. As a native of Stamford Hill, my background is Catholic Irish- Protestant French. So, being called a murdering Irish Diddicoy whatever or Froggie cheese-snail eating whatever, is nothing new. but to be called and calling myself a Yid, was and is still, an honourable insult. On a side note, when Spurs played Villa in ’71, many local lads ‘borrowed’ JFS scarves, as it was the first time Tottenham wore yellow, but not me, ‘onest Guv

    • David Graniewitz
      28/05/2012 @ 9:30 am

      Had I known at the time, I would have gladly have given you mine.

  23. William Pairman
    12/09/2013 @ 5:20 pm

    Excellent, well written article David.
    Context is everything. Every single word is offensive depending on how you use it. Saying John! to someone you know across the street with a smile and a friendly wave is a helluva lot different to agressively sneering John! John! John! John! John! John! two inches away from John’s face. This was the key to the Suarez case – the “Negro is a common friendly term in Uruguay” defense was perfectly true, but repeat that in a snide way again and again in El Negro’s face (as the record shows, twenty odd times wasn’t it?) and its a whole different bowl of frijoles. I doubt Dirty Luis is a racist in anything like the way that John Terry is, I don’t doubt he’s a **** of a man for a second.
    Same with the “Yid” issue. How Baddiel, Peter Herbert, the media in general can’t distinguish between a ferral racist spiting out the word Yid in a stream of racist abuse and a group of people of all colours and creeds bouncing up and down joyfully celebrating our teams successes (such as they are) baffles me.
    Similarly it baffles me how Baddiel remained perfectly silent during his *cough* “successful” years when he was apparently cool with entire stands zieg heiling as “the only white team in London” and so forth but now his career’s gone south he realises the error of his ways and is now a fearless defender of the Jewish people. No comment whatsoever from him or Herbert about the decades of hissing, Auschwitz songs etc etc

  24. Yidinoz
    13/09/2013 @ 8:37 am

    The word is yid, not “the ‘Y’ word”. By referring to it as “the ‘Y’ word” you are legitimising it as a “bad” word.
    The more people shuffle around the word the more stigmatised it becomes.
    Of course, we could all start sing “Y Army”…
    I look forward to the first arrest of someone shouting “yid”, especially if he happened to be Jewish.
    Interesting court case.

  25. Tony Cave
    16/09/2013 @ 5:45 pm

    Very well argued article.
    I have been a Spurs fan since the mid 1970s when I lived near Stamford Hill station and like you I can remember the lean years of relegation and the glories of 2 FA Cups.
    Now living in Camden opposite the site of your old school which is now a very expensive housing development

Would you like to write for The Fighting Cock?