In the text of the posters, you will notice that the word ‘God’ is spelt ‘G-d’. The reason for this is that Judaism treats even references to G-d with respect, and therefore try to avoid writing the word in case the paper it is written on is destroyed or defaced. In Hebrew, when the name of G-d is not being used in prayer, it is often replaced by “HaShem” (“the Name”), and in English the word is avoided by using an abbreviation.

Terminology such as “Old Testament” and “worship” are Christian usages, and are not used by Jewish people. Instead, these would be referred to as the “Torah” or the Hebrew Bible, and “praying” or “services” (or, commonly, the Yiddish word “davening” or Hebrew word “tefillah”.

The Hebrew Bible is not “the Old Testament” because for Judaism there is no “New Testament” to contrast it with. Any language that implies that Judaism has been replaced or superseded by Christianity is offensive and should be avoided.

It is easy to assume that because the Hebrew Bible is common to both religions they are understood in the same way. That is not so – for example, “original sin” is a purely Christian interpretation of the Creation story. Other concepts such as confession, absolution, and grace also have no relevance to Judaism.

At the 2023 General Assembly, the Church of Scotland and the Chief Rabbi launched a Jewish-Christian Glossary that explains the difference of understanding of many terms that are used by both faiths.

For similar reasons, many Jewish people (and others) avoid the terms “BC” and “AD” as these count from a notional year 0, and are explicitly Christian terms (“Before Christ” and “Anno Domini”, meaning “in the year of our Lord”). This resources therefore uses the abbreviations “BCE” and “CE”, for “before the common era”, and “common era”.

Some people avoid using the word “Jew”, treating the word as if it were derogatory, and say “Jewish people” instead. Many Jewish people would disagree, but it is better to avoid a term that even some people are offended by.