Is saying "Jew" is racist?

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It always makes me feel uncomfortable when I hear the word for some reason, maybe because it's nearly always used negatively. It's a religion and not a race, but it's about the only religion I feel does not deserve negativity because of the whole Holocaust thing.

This thread is over 5 years old----NOT that it isn't still relevant; I just wanted people to know that quoting someone, may not bring a response from them.

In regard to the OP: I never use the word----I HATE it, for the reasons others have stated, that I have heard it used with such contempt, in one's voice.

Saying any word per se is not racist ... all depends on context as people have commented.

Jew is both a cultural and a religious name Like `Buddhist`.
Yes, It has just been used in derogatory ways by nasty people in history, but the same is happening to `Muslim` as we speak.
A person who goes to synagogue to follow their religion is a Jew... whats the problem.

If you feel bad about saying it reclaim it as a positive.

Here in the UK some Jewish Spurs football supporters in London have even reclaimed the word "Yid" (Yiddish is a proper word of course). They began their own chants in response to anti-semitic chanting from visiting fans (English football is sadly still a hotbed of racism in spite of all the efforts to reduce it)

etract from the Daily Telegraph 2014:

" Football supporters who sing the word ‘Yid’ at White Hart Lane will no longer be an arrestable offence, The Metropolitan Police has announced.

The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust (THST) asked the police for their position on the controversial term in a police and safety forum meeting last Monday.

They were told anti-semitic holocaust songs directed at Spurs fans, which are an offence, are different from chants sung by Spurs fans including the Y-word, which are not.

Constable Steve Payne, Football Intelligence Officer for the Met, said fans would still be arrested for using the Y-word if a complaint was made against them.

The FA issued guidelines for supporters’ behaviour and said the use of the word was “derogatory and offensive” and could amount to a criminal offence, even if it was being sung by supporters of Tottenham, who traditionally drew a large following from the Jewish community"

Like some black people reclaiming the word "n****r" as a positive with a sense of community, or Gay people reclaiming the word "Queer" in an self-empowering way

HOWEVER I think some of these words are contencious and should perhaps only be used by people from that community.....but I think Jew is generally accepted as not at all problematic unless used in a negative context.

Dynamic and ever changing language and taboos are fascinating, if your heart isin the right place and you are reasonably considerate I shouldn`t worry too much.