Why do Jews get upset when you call them a Chosen People?

Answer 1

Answer 1

I think they call themselves the chosen people because God had come to Abraham and Moses to help save their people. But why would they be chose, was a common question back then. Since there were so many other people in slavery at the point. So someone came up with a resolution that that was the reason.

Answer 2

According to the Torah, the Jews are the Chosen People. See Deuteronomy 7:6 (NIV): 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

It is worth noting that many non-Jews (as well as less-educated Jews) misunderstand the concept of "chosen-ness". It is not a statement of ethnic superiority in the vein of the übermensch or "White Pride". The Jewish understanding is that the Jewish people were charged with a distinct mission/task that the rest of the world was not assigned and this is to elevate the spiritual character of the world. This charge is very similar to that which monks and nuns take on in Catholicism and nobody chastises them for this act because we understand the hardship that comes out of that level of dedication. Jews are compelled to be so dedicated. That's it. Jews do not claim non-Jews to be inferior, unimportant, unworthy or lacking full rights in this life, or even unworthy of entering "the good place" after death. They, in fact, advocate exactly the opposite (that non-Jews are equal, critical, worthy of rights, have a reserved place in the "good place" after death provided they are good people).

(Another more pop-culturally modern version of this is the idea of the "Fellowship of the Ring" in the "Lord of the Rings". The members of the Fellowship are in no way superior or better than the rest of the inhabitants of Middle Earth, they just have a specific task to which they have been assigned and upon which the entire world depends. People outside the Fellowship are more than capable of helping this mission, and some of them (like King Theoden of Rohan and Faramir of Gondor) certainly do. It is just that the onus of responsibility lies on the Fellowship.)

Answer 2

This is almost like a racist statement, like calling a white person a cracker, or a black person the n word... you just don't do it. we are all the same.

Answer

It may be possible that some Jews are offended by the fact that The Bible specifically stakes their identity on them being the Chosen People, but the vast majority of Jews are proud of their identity as the Chosen People and do not get upset. What is upsetting to most Jews is that non-Jews misinterpret what "Chosen" means. It is not a throne or superiority, it is a delegation. Jews believe that God assigned a certain mission and place to them. Therefore they have to toil through far more requirements than were imposed on non-Jews.