Wikipedia talk:Jewish Encyclopedia topics

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[edit] Purpose

What are we trying to achieve here? JFW | T@lk 29 June 2005 15:44 (UTC)

Hello. These lists have been posted to provide suggestions for Jewish-related topics which Wikipedia may grow to include in the future. I did not compile these lists with the intention of starting a campaign to dump the text of every article in the JE into the Wikipedia. Instead, I hope that these lists will help users to identify any gaps that Wikipedia may have in its treatment of Jewish topics. If users find a subject on the list which is missing from Wikipedia, they may choose to click on the adjacent link to the Jewish Encyclopedia entry as the first step in researching a new article. The availability of these lists, I believe, will make the task easier. A user who is browsing for ideas for new articles will be saved the inconvenience of having to scroll through the topics on the JE website (only ten of which can be seen at a time) and to constantly jump back and forth between the JE directory and the search page on Wikipedia to see if the topic has already been covered.--Defrosted 1 July 2005 05:13 (UTC)

[edit] JewishEncyclopedia.com

I found this website, and it mentions the JE being in the public domain, but its terms of use are a bunch of legal gibberish. I think they restrict the use of this stuff (which includes scanned page images), but why would they do that? It's just stuff copied from a public domain resource, so all they're doing is hampering the flow of information about Jewish history and culture. Any ideas? I'd like to use this, but I'm not sure if I can, so I haven't.

by the way: --Joel7687 30 June 2005 22:52 (UTC)

Hello. I believe that you can copy text directly from the Jewish Encyclopedia (hard copy--definitely, electronic transcription--extremely likely) into Wikipedia without committing copyright violations. See [1] for a (incomplete) list of almost 100 Wikipedia articles which have incorporated JE text. So far, I have not seen any notices being circulated to halt or forbid the borrowing of JE text. Therefore, I presume that the numerous users who engage in such borrowing can freely continue their practice. Of course, a proper acknowledgment of the original source should always be attached to the newly derived Wikipedia article, using the {{JewishEncyclopedia}} template[2].
However, I am uncertain about the copyright situation of the images in the JE. I have so far refrained from importing JE graphics into Wikipedia, for if I remember correctly from the last time I checked, they bear the copyright logo. Hope this helps.--Defrosted 1 July 2005 04:13 (UTC)

Hi, I took a crack at an article, Yiram of Magdiel. Fairly straightforward, however, I will ask anyone working on these article, PLEASE do not just copy and paste. Clean them up. Make them into English. Fix the spellings. Get rid of the 19th century references unless they really move the text along. That said, I believe that this can be a valuable resource. I think I did a decent job cleaning up Yiram, so that, when compared to the original, can be a model of what I mean. Danny 02:52, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Encyclopedia Judaica

Is anyone checking this encyclopedia for articles on topics not in the Jewish Encyclopedia? This encyclopedia will still be copyright, so we can't just copy it, but we can identify article topics. RachelBrown 13:44, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Perecentage done?

I'd like to add a percent done number to this page, but to do that, I need a initial number. Defrosted, as you created this page, do you remember how many links were on it originally? If so, please add that # to the page, and I'll come along and create a percentage number, and add it to the Missing articles template. Thanks! JesseW 23:52, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Alphabetical Listing of Topics?

There are links to each of the alphabetical pages, but some of those page links are still red (i.e. they don't exist). Do those lists exist someplace? Could someone create those pages, please? Womble 01:04, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes, the rest of the lists are still waiting to be created. Even though I started this subproject, I have been largely absent, being very busy with other work, and have only recently returned to compile the remainder of C. You (or anybody else who may be interested) are welcome to pick another letter and influence the direction of this venture.--Defrosted 02:09, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Problem

I noticed User:Dubaduba was copying material from, among other places, the encyclopedia britannica, searching his contribs, he has also been dumping material from the jewish encyclopedia, so i am afraid all blue links wil have to be checked. Martin - The non-blue non-moose 23:39, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the notice. The direct importation of material from the JE shouldn't pose a problem in itself (and nor would this violate copyright since the JE has been released into the public domain), but User:Dubaduba has surely left a fair amount of cleanup work for others who have to tidy up the formatting he has neglected to do. Good luck with straightening out the articles which have been plagiarized from Encyclopedia Britannica (if that is indeed the problem you are describing).--Defrosted 11:00, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
Thanks, yeah it's dealt with now. Martin - The non-blue non-moose 09:23, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikiproject

Hi, this is a general invite, asking whether anyone might be interested in joining a long term Wikiproject

(As in Biblical Criticism, rather than about criticising the bible)

Its goal is to increase the amount of information originating from academia in biblical articles, as it is noticably lacking at the moment, this includes

  • Textual criticism
  • Critical theories
  • Mention, and summary, of historical commentaries (i.e. commentaries interpreting the subject from people thousands of years ago)
  • Information concerning change in interpretation, over tim
  • Interpretations from historic groups cast as heretics by the mainstream, including esoteric traditions (such as from groups like those responsible for the Book of Enoch)
  • Interpretations from historic groups who were once the mainstream, but where the interpretation is no longer supported by the mainstream.
  • Apologetics (from academic sources, rather than local religious people)

This also includes transferring the information present in the public domain Jewish Encyclopedia, which is not present in Wikipedia. This work is over 100 years old, and so the information needs updating once copied over, e.g. by taking account of subsequent scholarship (e.g. Martin Noth, Richard Friedman, Israel Finkelstein).

--francis 15:29, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pruning

When someone scans one of the project subpages for pruning and follows the bluelinks, one of the following is possible:

  1. The page was copied from JE - the link is safe to prune
  2. The page is about something which while is mentioned in JE, is not Jewish specific - general subjects such as Life, Wife etc, or geographical locations such as Los Angeles etc - the link is safe to prune
  3. The page is about something completely different - the link cannot be pruned, and comment must be made that dab page is needed
  4. The page is about the same subject, but information there is incomplete compared to JE - the link cannot be pruned, and the comment must be made that more information needs to be copied from JE

Last two points about leaving comments are important for the future editors.

[The above comment was posted by User:Wikiolap on 00:08, 21 February 2006].

Thank you for posting your proposed pruning policy.
I endorse the ideas you have mentioned except for No. 2. While the trio of JE articles named "Life", "Wife", and "Los Angeles" may have ordinary-sounding titles, the coverage they receive in the JE is naturally Jewish-specific rather than generalist. This definitely does not mean that Wikipedia could not benefit from JE's treatment of these topics. The critical-historical surveys that the JE famously made of the views and relationships Jews have with these subjects could and should be incorporated into Wikipedia where relevant.
One method of integration might involve merging the JE material into Wikipedia entries with the same title; for example, transfer the JE information on Vultures [3] into the section of Vulture that deals with the cultural significance of the bird. For other topics, however, the Jewish content may be so extensive that it deserves a Wikipedia article of its own under a specifically Jewish label rather than being appended to the generic article. "Los Angeles" [4] has the third largest Jewish community in the US so there probably needs to be a separate article called Jewish history in Los Angeles, like the other geographical locations pertaining to the series on Jewish history (e.g., History of the Jews in Tunisia, etc.) The JE information on "Husband and Wife" [5] would constitute a subset of Jewish view of marriage and Role of women in Judaism.
I regret that these intentions had not been properly outlined on the project page before you put in the hard work of pruning the lists, during which you removed some of the generic-sounding topics. Please do not think that I am accusing you of having done anything wrong. When you were doing your job, you violated no pruning policy since no such thing ever clearly existed. I have been thinking about restoring the generic deletions, but the task of reaching agreement on a standard pruning procedure is more urgent. Defrosted 01:28, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, this makes sense, the modified proposal is
  1. The page was copied from JE - the link is safe to prune
  2. The page already contains the same information as in JE (even though it wasn't ported from JE) - the link is safe to prune
  3. The page is about something which while is mentioned in JE, is not Jewish specific - general subjects such as Life, Wife etc, or geographical locations such as Los Angeles etc - the link cannot be pruned until either the JE information is merged into the article (Vultures example) or special Jewish related page is created (Jewish history in Los Angeles example). The comment must be made requesting either merge or a new article.
  4. The page is about something completely different - the link cannot be pruned, and comment must be made that dab page is needed
  5. The page is about the same subject, but information there is incomplete compared to JE - the link cannot be pruned, and the comment must be made that more information needs to be copied from JE

By Wikiolap 06:29, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Orthodox Judaism

Welcome Wikipedia:WikiProject Orthodox Judaism. Please join if you are interested. Thank you. IZAK 08:59, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "gymnasium": Disambiguation link repair

This is a note to let you know the reason why I removed the link to "gymnasium," and to offer a suggestion. A link to "gymnasium" merely points to the disambiguation page (not any article), which creates a need for Disambiguation link repair - You can help!. Also, on this particular page, "gymnasium" seems to be a list item rather than a topic that is being discussed. I felt that removing the link would not damage the page's contents; plus I wasn't sure which meaning of gymnasium was being referred to. A more specific link will not cause this problem. Examples include: [[Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]] and [[gym|Gymnasium]] Thanks for your patience, Ling.Nut 00:15, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish WIKIVERSITY

NEW: On Wikiversity there is now a "Jewish Studies School." Will it become a "duplication" of many things on Wikipedia? What should it's goals and functions be? Please add your learned views. Thank you. IZAK 09:08, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish Encyclopedia off line?

I haven't been able to connect to the Jewish Encyclopedia at http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/index.jsp for three days now. Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know what's going on? --Rbraunwa 14:58, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

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