Forgive me for rehashing old news. I need to get this off my chest. When Society of Black Lawyers chairman Peter Herbert called for an end to the use of the word “Yid” by Tottenham supporters, Spurs supporters’ reactions ranged from mild annoyance to outrage. Herbert’s claims particularly frustrated me. This isn’t merely an academic […]
Let’s Talk About Yids
Forgive me for rehashing old news. I need to get this off my chest. When Society of Black Lawyers chairman Peter Herbert called for an end to the use of the word “Yid” by Tottenham supporters, Spurs supporters’ reactions ranged from mild annoyance to outrage. Herbert’s claims particularly frustrated me. This isn’t merely an academic question: for me, being a Yid is intensely personal, and at the root of why I’m Tottenham till I die.
I’m American, and I didn’t discover my passion for football until a few years ago. The beautiful game won me over, and I began looking for an English club to support. I knew I wasn’t interested in any of the traditional powerhouse clubs, as I’ve never had much use for frontrunners. But I did want to support a club I could see with some regularity on American TV, and that I could easily follow from thousands of miles away.
[linequote]You see, I’m of Jewish ancestry, and Spurs’ fans devotion to reclaiming a word used to promote bigotry and make it a point of pride won my support at once.[/linequote]
After some searching, I found myself increasingly drawn to Spurs. There were a number of reasons: they were a storied club, with a proud tradition. They played a swashbuckling, attacking style of football. They were named after a famed Shakespeare character and skeptic (“But will they come when you do call for them?”). But what truly won me over, initially and irreversibly, was the Yid Army.
You see, I’m of Jewish ancestry, and Spurs’ fans devotion to reclaiming a word used to promote bigotry and make it a point of pride won my support at once. That gentile fans would stand against anti-Semitism was lovely, as meaningful to me as learning about ‘61, a Micky Hazard tale or a Gareth Bale assault down the flanks.
Indeed, it meant more to me than any of that (though possibly not more than a victory over Arsenal). Understand that in America, European football has an ugly reputation for racism and bigotry. I’m not saying this is an earned reputation, mind you (Lazio chants aside), but every American who pays even a bit of attention to football has heard horror stories. While I’m not saying most or even many Europeans are bigots (and America has more than our share), it was reassuring to find unambiguous evidence of a club’s supporters standing up against such ugliness. In the Yid Army, I found a direct refutation of the ugliest aspects of humanity. Tottenham’s support had reclaimed the word and made it their own.
And that’s what Yid means to me, whenever I hear or see it in the context of Spurs. It isn’t just a name, and it certainly isn’t hate speech. It’s a show of unity and solidarity. It’s a community standing up for its own. It’s what first made me love Tottenham.
[linequote]It isn’t just a name, and it certainly isn’t hate speech. It’s a show of unity and solidarity.[/linequote]
So forgive me if I’m not interested in having someone try to take that away from me. I take such efforts personally, and I can only say: We’re Tottenham Hotspur. We’ll sing what we want.
[author name=”Izzy Wasserstein” avatar=”https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z-9ToGYuxu4/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAM4/iWV3KHu9RDE/s250-c-k/photo.jpg” twitter=”wasserst” tag=”IzzyWasserstein[/linequote]
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.
28 Comments
Would you like to write for The Fighting Cock?
23/01/2013 @ 10:41 am
Great piece Izzy
23/01/2013 @ 10:58 am
WE Sing What WE Want!
TTID!
23/01/2013 @ 11:00 am
…good piece and well argued, Spurs been in my family for generations, we’ve even supplied players and you’re right about the irony in the use of the word ‘Yid’ by our supporters. But I’m not comfortable with the Israeli flag, its a nasty, thuggish little country, and I always thought Judaism was about a religion, not a country.
23/01/2013 @ 7:03 pm
I happen to live in that “nasty thuggish little country”. I could take your pig-ignorance to pieces here rather easily, but I use this site to discuss Spurs-related issues not to discuss the Middle East with bigots like you.
24/01/2013 @ 10:01 am
…I don’t care where you live, I’ve been there, and West Bank, and all over Mideast, and I stand by what I say. Bigot? Hahahaha, pots & kettles spring to mind.
24/01/2013 @ 1:00 pm
your a knob, u zionist racist. U live on occupied land and are child-murderers. You should be ashamed
23/01/2013 @ 11:20 am
Nice, I have seen various pieces written in Jewish community blogs decrying the right of Spurs supporters to use the word Yid and cannot understand it. They say it is an ugly word, to me it is simply a shortened version of Yiddish, and there is nothing wrong with that. That said it is fairly comical to imagine a whole bunch of fans learning a new language.
I have always likened it to the near end scene in Spartacus( the old film version) where the Romans ask ‘Who is Spartacus’ and one by one all of his friends and contemporaries shout ‘I am Spartacus’ to be beside him to the very end. How can any group be against that kind of solidarity and anti bigotism? In the 30s-40s when anti-Semitism was at its height Arsenal and Spurs all had a fairly substantial Jewish fan base, It was Spurs that refused to join the bigotism that surrounded them with numbers, humour and unity. I refuse to dishonour a history like that.
23/01/2013 @ 11:49 am
…agreed Colin, I’m with you on that….in fact the 1 really good Israeli friend I have doesn’t get the irony at all….all I’m saying is that we shouldn’t confuse the religion with the politics of the country, which personally I find deeply unpleasant, and don’t understand with their history how they can be doing what they doing to the Palestinians – who are also humans.
23/01/2013 @ 11:39 am
Kudos Izzy. Yid Army! COYS!
23/01/2013 @ 1:01 pm
Great article matey!!
I dont have any Jewish family at all but have been a Yid since i knew what footy was (bout 1986)
For me its about solidarity. Ive spoken to people who have attended games for many years and a great many Jewish fans (especially the older ones) were completley overwhelmed by the feeling of belonging. Espiecially just after WW2. The sense of support and being part of somthing trancended a lot and i believe this is one of the reasons weve ALWAYS had such great support at spurs. I do not agree with nor defend a state of Israel AT ALL but will always be a YID!!!
COYS
23/01/2013 @ 1:26 pm
I came from morocco been in england for 40 years always yid till I die people telling me how can
moroccan support spurs been a muslim
23/01/2013 @ 1:50 pm
Yid and Proud
23/01/2013 @ 2:21 pm
That last poster has a very appropriate name……
[Admin – I deleted his comment.]
23/01/2013 @ 2:27 pm
Who cares what you think yankee.
IM A SPURS FAN FIRST AND FOREMOST. I dont care about ur religion.
This is SPORT dont bring that shit into this u MUG
23/01/2013 @ 2:45 pm
You’ll notice I didn’t say one word about my religion.
23/01/2013 @ 3:02 pm
u was born a jew, not a tottenham fan. I bet u didnt even know what tottenham is or where the fuck in the world it is until last year
23/01/2013 @ 2:42 pm
WHY ARE U PRATS SO INTERESTED IN A SPURS SITE WOULD NEVER CONTAMINATE MYSELF BY GOING ON ANOTHER SITE SO POLITLY F**K OFF DICK U PRIZE xxxx ,GO AND GET A LIFE ON ANOTHER SITE, GO TO THE SITES ARSE/CHAVS/SPAMMERS THEY MUST HAVE LOADS LIKE U VERY LITTLE BRAIN AND VERY VERY LITTLE IN INTELLECT HAVIN TO WRITE THAT
23/01/2013 @ 2:48 pm
Stop this nonsense about Yids and Yid army.
At the heart of this chant whatever & however you try to justify it there is anti semitism and also anti Israeli sentiment.Of course everyone is entitled to their personal view but you only have to read the above comments to see my point.
How would the Spurs negro/Asian supporters react if the new chant was for
“Nigger Army or Wog Army or Paki army etc etc ”
Racism or aniti religious chanting is nasty and potentially dangerous-look at history.Most supporters havent a clue what they are chanting for.As a true Spurs fan for over 50 yeaqrs GET REAL-this chant wasn’t used 20 or more years ago…yeh yeh chant what you want
23/01/2013 @ 2:58 pm
COMPLETELY AGREE. WELL DONE
25/01/2013 @ 12:01 pm
so racism is in a word then? No matter if the intention is one of multiculturalism and solidarity? Very infantilised version of what racism is but ok, each to their own. Everyone has the right to not sing it if they feel uncomfortable, but for me it is a statement of pride at the tradition tottenham has of embracing all cultures. I think you’ll find us fans are well aware of what it means to sing ‘yid army’ even if you don’t want to believe tha.
23/01/2013 @ 2:50 pm
Interesting subject this. Peter Herbert and various Jewish celebrities/bloggers etc., have completely missed the point.
The word itself is completely irrelevant. West Ham and Chelsea’s braindead minority (really, minority? Hmmm not sure) use the word as a way of winding up and generally being nasty to Spurs fans. I’m not entirely sure that its use is anti-semitic. Isn’t it just anti-Tottenham? We in turn have taken the word as our own but that in itself is not neccesarily pro-semitic (is there such a term?) and certainly not pro-Israeli.
The important thing is the way the word is used. eg “F*cking Yid Scum”, which I personally have been referred to many times is unpleasant and infantile on many levels but is it any worse than “F*cking Gooner scum”? The only difference being that Arsenal fans have commandeered a name which has no outside connotations whereas we have a name which also refers to Jewish people. Just some food for thought…
Atheist Yid and proud!!
23/01/2013 @ 3:00 pm
I say ban the ‘yid’ word. its old and useless now. People dont even know why they sing it.
your allowing people to abuse u if u keep singing that shit.
This is football ( A SPORT) lets leave it that way. Cheers
23/01/2013 @ 6:10 pm
I get where you’re coming from, but my experience is that banning people who have a positive association with a word from saying it doesn’t stop abuse, it just leaves the abusers as the only ones using the word.
Bigoted scum will use “Yid” as an insult, because bigoted scum think it’s insulting to suggest someone is Jewish (or Black, or whatever). That won’t stop if we stop calling ourselves Yids. But by using it ourselves we deny them power over the word.
25/01/2013 @ 12:04 pm
stop this ‘people don’t know why they sing it’ bullshit. We know better than that, we sing it because we’re proud to represent a multicultural fanbase, and it makes people uncomfortable to know that, they can’t believe that football fans could ever do anything ‘good’ and immediately assume that we are either ignorant, stupid or evil.
23/01/2013 @ 6:29 pm
Well written, Izzy. I wrote a piece on this a few months back and got similar responses. I understand al sides of the argument; the Jewish fans who are proud of the name and those who see it as an insult, as well as the non-Jewish fans who don’t mind it and those who don’t like association. I became a Spurs fan in the 1970’s long before I was aware of the Jewish connection. It was obvious to me that there were a lot of Spurs fans because of geographic reasons and nothing more. I think that we have to accept that this is the situation and make the best of it. Even if we were to stop using the Y Word, that doesn’t mean that other football fans would stop using it against us.
If you would like to read my article, here is the link
http://www.thefightingcock.co.uk/2012/05/the-y-debate/
23/01/2013 @ 6:48 pm
Thanks, David. Your article is thoughtful and compelling.
I think you’re absolutely right that the word will always be used to try to abuse Spurs supporters, so we might as well make it a point of pride. And not everyone will agree. Of course that’s absolutely their right. I just object to being told to avoid the word, or that it is somehow criminal when used in a non-derogatory way.
24/01/2013 @ 11:51 am
no matter what colour you still my brother
up the spurs
29/01/2013 @ 1:53 am
I’m a half jewish spurs fan and I would rather the word was not used at all. Personally I had the word ‘Yid’ hurled at me as a term of abuse across the school playground and classroom for 5 years (this was before I even was a spurs fan) and it’s quite frankly both offensive and unacceptable.