Author and translator Hillel Halkin writes a column on language at the Forward using the nom de plume Philologos and a recent topic of his was how we frum Jews ought to be referred to by our non-Orthodox brethren.
The piece is rife with errors of fact and logic. He writes that the JTA “substituted ‘fervently Orthodox’ for ‘ultra-Orthodox’ as far back as the 1990s” although it has done no such thing. He writes too that “‘ultra-Orthodox’ may sound pejorative to some people but I very much doubt that it was coined with such an intention in mind.” Why?
And who cares what the coiner’s intention was? There’s a simple way to ferret out double standards in cases like this: Simply replace “ultra-Orthodox” with terms used to refer unflatteringly to blacks Hispanics or almost any racial or religious group in America save for religious Christians and then have Mr. Halkin tell us how much the original coiner’s intention matters. Works every time.
And that’s as it should be from a Torah standpoint. Names that individuals or communities honestly regard as pejorative ought not to be used. There are in fact descriptive terms that many frum Jews use for certain racial groups that don’t bear any inherently disparaging implication certainly nothing approaching that of “ultra-Orthodox ” yet in certain contexts may indeed be perceived as less than complimentary. I try to be careful in my own conversations not to use them.
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