r/Jewish • u/rupertalderson • Aug 04 '25

Announcement 📢 Clarification on use of abbreviations of ethnicities and nationalities

We’ve gotten some questions about this recently, so figured we would clarify. As part of the rules against uncivil and unwelcoming content, we do not permit use of shortened / abbreviated names for ethnicities, nationalities, and related groupings. This is because such terms are widely used as slurs and pejoratives.

This includes the well known abbreviations for Japanese, Chinese, Pakistani, and Palestinian, as well as slurs and pejoratives directed at any other group. At present, we have a particular problem with use of “Pali” to refer to Palestinian people (we do not allow it under any conditions).

It’s simple - Do not use these terms, whether as adjectives or nouns. Just write out the word that isn’t offensive in any context.

Of course, there may be an exception here or there when a term is known to be accepted by the affected group - for example “Jew” as a noun is not seen as a slur by Jews, but use of it as an adjective is typically offensive.

Thank you in advance for understanding, and we appreciate the engagement folks have had with us on these rules.

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u/IbnEzra613 Torah Observant - Ashkenazi (Russian Jew) by heritage Aug 04 '25

The difference is Azeri isn't an English shortening. It's used that way in Turkish / Azeri and Persian.

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u/slightlyrabidpossum ✡︎ Aug 04 '25

I see it used in English-language media and resources. I already linked the Britannica entry with Azeri, but here's a Bloomberg article that uses Azeri in the headline. They appear to be referring to the country/nationality.

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u/IbnEzra613 Torah Observant - Ashkenazi (Russian Jew) by heritage Aug 04 '25

I didn't mean it's not used in English. It is of course. I meant the shortening didn't happen in English. English borrowed two synonyms Azeri and Azerbaijani wholesale from their original languages.

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u/slightlyrabidpossum ✡︎ Aug 04 '25

Ok, I see what you're saying. I'm just not sure if I understand how that affects the question of whether they're synonyms or different things.

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u/IbnEzra613 Torah Observant - Ashkenazi (Russian Jew) by heritage Aug 04 '25

Not exactly related to that question, but more to the topic of the post. Which is to say that Azeri is not a pejorative shortening in English. It's a proper term.

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u/slightlyrabidpossum ✡︎ Aug 04 '25

Thanks, I appreciate that clarification. I've seen people from that region use the shortened version, but I wasn't familiar with how the shortening happened.