A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from September 18, 2004
Hymietown; Jew York (Jew + New York)
"Jew York" and "Hymietown" are two terms that reflect New York City's large Jewish population. Both terms are usually considered derogatory.

The poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) used "Jew York" is a letter dated October 28, 1931. "Jew York" was used more frequently since the 1970s; the full "Jew York City" is less frequently used.

A term similar to "Jew York" (Jew + New York) is "Jew World Order" (Jew + new world order). The New York (NY) Times is sometimes called the "Jew York Times," a reflection of both the Jews in New York City and the newspaper's Jewish owners.

Jesse Jackson's famous 1984 use of "Hymietown" destroyed his political presidential ambitions. "Hymie" (from the name "Hyman") is in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, "a Jewish man or boy -- used derisively," with a first use of 1973.

New York City was briefly called "Jewtropolis" in August 2018, when online services were hacked.


Wikipedia: Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born Jesse Louis Burns; October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. Jackson was also the host of Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to 2000.
(...)
Relations with Jewish community
Jackson was criticized in the early 1980s for refusing to repudiate Louis Farrakhan, for his support of a Palestinian state, and for remarks made to a reporter where he referred to New York City as "Hymietown". (Hymie is a pejorative term for Jews.) Jackson ultimately acknowledged he had used the term, and said he had been wrong; however, he also said that he had considered the conversation with the reporter to be off-the-record at the time he made the remarks. Jackson apologized during a speech before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue, but an enduring split between Jackson and many in the Jewish community continued at least through the 1990s.

Google Books
Pound/Zukofsky:
Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky

Edited by Barry Ahearn
New York, NY: New Directions
1987
Pg. 104:
(Ezra Pound letter of October 28, 1931. -- ed.)
Mister KKKhann (M or N.) dere orter be a decent publishinkg housse in Jew York, I tink I can magke it pvay. if I can't ennyveh dere orter be.

Google Books
Four Short Plays
By Mark Howard Medoff
New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service
1974
Pg. 67:
GOLDMAN. (...) An' das por all jur lousy pawn stores in Jew York.

13 February 1984, Washington (DC) Post, pg. a5:
In private conversations with reporters, (Jesse -- ed.) Jackson has referred to Jews as "Hymie" and to New York as "Hymietown."

29 December 1993, New York (NY) Times, pg. B1:
While Mr. Farrakhan's own fiery speech on Dec. 18 in New York made no reference to his 1985 remark that Judaism was a "gutter religion," Mr. Muhammad at Kean was unsparing in attacking Jews and other whites.

Often affecting a Jewish accent or effeminate mannerisms, he sprinkled phrases like "Columbia Jew-niversity" and "Jew York City" through a rambling three-hour talk billed as "The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews."

Urban Dictionary
jew york
Used by anti-semites to describe New York. Refers to the high Jewish population.
"How can you stand living in Jew York", said the neo-nazi.
by Ding Dong December 31, 2003

Google Books
Dictionary of Jewish Usage:
A Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms

By Sol Steinmetz
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
2005
Pg. 81:
Some slang phrases, such as Jewboy (attested since 1796), Jew flag ('dollar bill,' 1932), Jew buggy ('a Cadillac,' 1960), and Jew York ('New York City,' 1931), are clearly meant to be contemptuous and are therefore unquestionably offensive.
Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityNicknames/Slogans • Saturday, September 18, 2004 • Permalink


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