Jew's harp
Why do I own a Jew’s harp? I own a Jew’s harp for the same reasons that I own a lot of other varied cultural items, to use as classroom props for demonstration. Twang! I own a WWI gas mask and pickelhaube helmet. I own Victorian-era coins and Roman coins. I own an Australian didgeridoo and a Japanese shakuhachi flute. I own ritual carved masks from east Africa. I own ancient Middle Eastern oil lamps - both modern reproductions and 2,000-year-old originals. I own a set of Japanese katana swords, and several Tibetan prayer wheels and gongs. I own fossils. I own a complete, life-size facsimile of the Codex Sinaiticus. I own a prism and a tuning fork, a periscope, a beaver pelt, a Japanese rising-sun pennant, a Japanese wedding kimono, a pair of handcuffs, an Indiana Jones-style bullwhip, a horseshoe, an old Canadian brown stubbie beer bottle, a snowshoe, a canoe paddle, spats, a sample of volcanic ash from Mt. Saint Helens and much more.
But about the Jews harp: in this day and age, is it OK to continue calling a “Jew's Harp” by that name? Or, is that anti-Semitic or even racist? I know that “Mouth Harp” is the current fashion. Some people even call it a “juice harp,” which I think is disgusting. I don't like it because it makes me think too much about other people's juicy saliva. I think “Juice harp” originated with people who are too dumb to hear the name properly - “Jew's Harp,” which sounds nothing like “juice harp” if you are paying attention - and speak the English language properly: people who confuse a turtle with a tortoise; people who mistakenly call unborn fetuses “unborn babies;” people who think “ya’ll” is a word; people who think Coke and Pepsi taste the same. But some might say that it’s got nothing to do with intelligence. (Maybe the way I use “intelligence” in my world view is snobbish, elitist, prejudiced, judgmental and ugly. Or not.) I know that the instrument has nothing at all to do with Jews or with the Bible, and in fact its name probably stems from the word "jaw" in Anglo-Saxon, or something. In English, "Jew's Harp" is traditional, but …
Fortunately, I don't have to make a decision on the matter any time soon, because I very rarely need to say it. I’m just saying …
Some might say the name has simply fallen out of common use. Others might say it’s a generational thing: older people call it one thing while younger people call it another. Others might combine the two and say that the name is falling out of common use concurrently with the deaths of members of the older generation who used it.
On Friday, June 29, 2018 I took my Jew's harp to work. I showed it to a young (24 years old) American acquaintance there and asked him “What do you call this?” Silence. He didn't know what it was, had never seen or heard of one before. I put it in my mouth and twanged it a little to let him hear the sound. Nothing. No recognition. It's a strange new world we live in.