SeattleJew will be attending the Republican State Convention Thu, May 31, 12am – Sat, June 2, 12am. I am going as part of the now defunct Santorum delegation.
Looking for a hotel, I noted that one of the convention hotels is the Hotel Murano. I wonder if the Republican leaders are aware that “murano” in Spanish is an epithet for Jews .. So for SJ, saying at Hotel Murano is sort of like staying at the Hotel Nigger?
To be fair to the Republicans. the term “murano” is used for many other things .. especially glass made on an island off Venice.
That glass making island, by the way, was long ago made Judenfrei and Jewish glass makers moved to Amsterdam. One descendent of those Jews was Baruch Spinoza. I guess as an atheist and a Jew, Spinoza would not have been welcome at a GOP convention. Wonder how they will treat SJ?
(adapted from the Wikipedia) The terms Murano (Spanish) or Marrano (Portuguese) derive from Arabic مُحَرّمٌ muḥarram; meaning “forbidden, anathematized”. Marrano acquired connotations of “filthy-dirty” (sucio) and “unscrupulous” (sin escrúpulos) during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, when the term was used to impugn the character of the recalcitrant crypto-Jew. Marrano in Spanish still means pig and dirty.
In the sixteenth century sense, marrano was used to accuse Miguel de Cervantes, of being of Jewish descent.
Of course we Jews have our own epithets. Shiksa is a pejorative term for a non-Jewish woman. Derived from the Hebrew root Shin-Qof-Tzadei (שקץ), meaning loathsome or abomination. Most commonly used to refer to a non-Jewish woman who is dating or married to a Jewish man.[80]Shkutzim is used against non-Jewish men, especially those perceived to be anti-Semitic. The singular is sheigetz.[80]
I wonder if the GOP might not want consider moving to the Hotel Schiksa?