I am personally apathetic towards the whole issue, but I'd like to point out to Mets that I've while I've met a large amount of people who consider the word a slur, and Judaism simply a religion, I've also met a decent amount of people (both Jewish and non-Jewish) who feel the exact opposite.
I was at a seminar awhile back for a certain disorder that one of my family members has, and a during Q & A a Rabbi in the audience commented about how nice it was to see science paying attention to a disease in which a significant percentage of those who had it were "Ashkenazi Jews" [sic]. In science, certain ethnic groups which contain "Jew" in the title (such as Ashkenazi) are considered distinct gene pools.