(Jewish Group) Belgian university posts hooked-nose gesture for 'Jew' in sign language video

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

A Belgian university included in its sign-language dictionary a gesture meaning “Jew” which involves signaling a hooked nose.

The European Jewish Association on Monday protested in a statement the gesture’s inclusion in online videos on the website of a dictionary compiled in conjunction with the University of Ghent. In a letter to the rector, it demanded the clips be removed.

The first videos, that function as sign language definitions for Jew, “seem standard,” the Association’s director, Menachem Margolin, wrote in the statement. Both videos show a presenter stroking an imaginary beard.

“The second involving side-locks are borderline acceptable if misleading, and the last two are simply racist and demeaning to Jews, using a gesticulation of a large and hooked nose to define Jew,” he added.

Margolin was told about the videos by a Jewish family who had been looking up sign-language gestures online.

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[sprinkleeninow]

1. I'm not; however a family member married someone of European Jewish heritage.

Sorry to say, a former neighbor whose country of origin was Belgium and I could see him endorsing and smiling over such as this bc of other racist wording emitted from his mouth. Made me ill to say the least.
💙 🙏

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. How old are those signs?

I'm guessing they date back a hundred years or more.

In ASL (American Sign Language) the sign for boy indicates a cap, and the sign for girl indicates the ribbon of a bonnet. Which tells you a lot about when those signs originated.

Which isn't to suggest the signs for a Jew should be changed, and I wonder if anyone has found a deaf Jewish person in that culture and queried what they use.

[MosheFeingold]

3. As Orthodox

I approve of the ASL sign — ha.

Put on your kippa and be proud.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Of course, they made an excuse for it...

Belgian sign language group defends hooked nose gesture for ‘Jew’

A Belgian government-recognized organization caring for people with hearing impairments defended the inclusion in its sign language dictionary of a hooked nose gesture for the word “Jew.”

The Flemish Sign Language Center offered the defense in a statement Wednesday following protests about the gesture by the European Jewish Association. The dictionary is made up of videos and hosted on a website belonging to the University of Ghent.

The statement also said the videos depicting the gestures have been online for years and were not recently added. Notwithstanding, the center added the words “negative connotation” to the two videos depicting a long nose and sidecurls. Other videos for the same word included beard gestures.

The dictionary has a “descriptive” goal rather than a “normative” one, the authors of the statement wrote, explaining they seek only to catalog and display the accepted gestures of sign language in Flemish rather than instruct speakers on how to use gestures and which ones to use.

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Sign Language is a language, and as such has evolved, part of the evolution should be signs like this being relegated to "archaic".