Goy can be used in a derogatory manner. The
Yiddish lexicographer
Leo Rosten in
The New Joys of Yiddish defines goy as someone who is non-Jewish or someone who is dull, insensitive, or heartless. Goy also occurs in many pejorative Yiddish expressions, including: • ()Something only a goy would do or is capable of doing. • ()Pleasures or pursuits only a gentile would enjoy. • ()Exclamation of exasperation used "when endurance is exhausted, kindliness depleted, the effort to understand useless". Several authors have opined on whether the word is derogatory. Dan Friedman, executive director of
The Forward in "What 'Goy' Means, And Why I Keep Using It" writes that it can be used as an insult but that the word is not offensive. He compares it to the word "foreigners" which Americans can use dismissively but which isn't a derogatory word. The term
Shabbos goy, which refers to a non-Jew who performs certain tasks forbidden to Jews on
Shabbat, is an example of common usage that, while drawing attention to the binary division of all people into Jews and non-Jews, is not pejorative, and in fact highlights historical cooperation between observant Jews and their friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Rebecca Einstein Schorr argues that the word has an established pejorative overtone. She refers to the observation "the
goyishe groomsmen were all drunk and bawdy; of course, you'd never see that at a Jewish wedding" and "goyishe kop" where the word is used in a pejorative sense. She admits that the word can have non-pejorative uses, such as "goyishe restaurant" – one that doesn't serve kosher food – but contends that the word is "neutral, at best, and extremely offensive, at worst." She advocates that the Jewish community stop using the word "goy." == In antisemitism ==