Talk:Simon Wiesenthal Center

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1 Suggested edit
2 Copyright
3 Introduction
4 Frank Walus
5 Concerning Dr. Haavard Koppang's analysis of the Jewish lobby in the US
6 IHR link
7 Criticisms
8 Ex-Nazis
9 Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
10 "The Long Way Home"
11 Heim located?

[edit] Suggested edit

The page should be edited to also reflect some of the SWC's rather rabid lashing out at any critics of any jews, anywhere.

Example from the current debate regarding the statements of the internationally famed author, Jostein Gaarder, who spoke against the Israeli campaign in Lebanon. SWC claims that Gaarder has been recruited "to the forces of darkness" for speaking out against the recent Israeli campaign, which Gaarder deems an excersie in overkill. http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=312458&content_id={2147E1EE-FC04-4D0E-9230-C572B7F5EE8F}&notoc=1

Some of the statments in this open letter leave serious doubts as to the objectivity of the SWC as a research foundation. Resembling fanatical, if coherent, ramblings rather than anything else I hope this does not reflect SWC's usual policy to criticsm. I might add that the original piece by Gaarder quite specifically refrains from general criticsm against jews, but rather focus on the excesses of the Israeli State. http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1415414.ece

GHBrekke

[edit] Copyright

[edit] Introduction

The third paragraph of the introduction begins "The organization fosters tolerance and understanding". This is not NPOV, and I suggest changing it to "The organization aims to foster tolerance and understanding". This does not imply criticism of the SWC (and I have no such criticism to make); it is simply a matter of making a neutral statement. 158.109.1.15 (talk) 23:02, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Frank Walus

This page needs either a paragraph on Frank Walus, or else Mr Walus deserves his own wikipedia entry which is linked to his page, and this page linked to that one. No event in history better ullustrates the credibility and fanaticism of Wiesenthal and his followers better than the case of the late Frank Walus.....20 August 2006

The text is copied directly from www.wiesenthal.com, which clearly states it is © Copyright 2005, Simon Wiesenthal Center, 1399 South Roxbury, Los Angeles, California 90035. It is a clear copyright violation, and in no way covered under GNU-FDL. Please stop inserting it. Jayjg ^(talk) 19:12, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Sorry for the misunderstanding, this is a project carried out for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The previous text has been written in agreement with the SWC and the museum of tolerance and should therefore be published. However, the SWC was consulted and the copyright-line mentioned before can be deleted if not allowed in wikipedia. If allowed, the SWC wishes to keep the line. Thank you!

The thing is, Rick2000, is that the text you have published was just a copy and paste from the organizations website. That is what the problem is: we just do not like it when people just copy and paste stuff. Plus, the version you have now put on here is not really much about the organization itself, but about their leaders, bios, etc. We want information on just about the center. Zscout370 (talk) 19:50, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Hello! thank you for your answer! yes, the text has partly been taken from the web page, which has, however, been made in agreement with the SWC and the museum of tolerance. The goal of the project is to expand the original text, which has been online until today in wikipedia. If you do not accept the text because it is not much about the organization, we would need to reconsult with the SWC and the museum! However, we believe that that text actually shows very well what the SWC and the museum do. The leaders mentioned in the text are a crucial part of the center and also the reason why the center got famous and should therefore be mentioned according to the SWC and the museum. We hope it will finally be possible for us to publish the text. Thank you for your help!

Does the SWC even know what is going on? If not, I would suggest to you to stop printing information to that effect. The Center is an organization that is well know, since I mainly know about it due to the Nazi-hunting they perform. However, we can mention the organization is run by X person, there is branches in Y location and also the establishments of Z memorials and museums. But we do not need bios of the leaders. And if the information is included, make sure that it is reworded, since we do not want to get in trouble for copyright violations/plagirism. Zscout370 (talk) 20:54, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

---

Hello! Thank you for your feedback! This project, to expand the Center’s Wikipedia site, has been started with the SWC and its museum of tolerance. The Center believes that the original text (which is currently displayed in Wikipedia) should be expanded with the Center’s office locations, founders and archives. To fulfill this task the Center provided us with flyers about the Center and a brochure that contains pretty much the same information as the web page. In this revised version, we have concentrated on the Center only and will link to the bios of the founders etc. Thanks again for your help!

I am glad you want to expand the page, but just the way you have been doing it is raising eyebrows. We have nothing against you, but many Wikipedia pages are not cut and paste from various websites. We can provide information that is listed on the wesbite, but it has to be reworded so we do not face many copyright problems. Zscout370 (talk) 17:03, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Ok, this version is fine. Zscout370 (talk) 17:07, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

I would like to clear up a misconception. This is not the "Center's Wikipedia site". It is the site on wikipedia about the Center. An article should be unbiased, and generally it is considered to be wrong that a person or entity write about them selves on wikipedia. Please note that I am not criticizing the text, but the potential bias of the ones who wrote it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 130.226.87.178 (talk) 19:18, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Concerning Dr. Haavard Koppang's analysis of the Jewish lobby in the US

Haavard Koppang, employed at the BI Norwegian School of Management in Oslo, Norway, wrote an article on November 13th 2006, concerning the Israel lobby in the USA ("USA's strong Israel lobby"), published in the national newspaper Aftenposten [1]. His article was criticised by the US vice-ambassador to Norway, Kevin M. Johnson [2] and others. Dr. Koppang's employer also received a letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, asking them to look into whether Dr. Koppang had expressed his views to his students and possibly suspend him [3]. This was not done by the employer [same source as previous]. This case is of interest because it concerns whether, or to what degree, freedom of speech should be limited in a democracy.

Dr. Haavard Koppang based his analysis on the works of Dr. John J. Mearsheimer and Dr. Stephen M. Walt (University of Chicago and Harvard University), entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", published in Middle East Policy, Volume 13 Issue 3 Page 29-87, September 2006 [available from Blackwell-Synergy].

There should be a paragraph in the article of the Simon Wiesenthal Center concerning this episode, under criticism of the center. To get an understanding of the episode it is advised to read translated versions of the above mentioned articles and also the letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center sent to the BI Norwegian School of Management in Oslo [4].

[edit] IHR link

A link to an article critical of the center written by the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) was defunct, so I found the article through a google search. I do not know if this was the original article sited, although it is on the original web server.

I also deleted the phrase that the IHR was "an Anti-Semitic site concerning the centre". Although I know little about either organization, I saw nothing from a quick overview of their site that would lead me to believe they were explicitly anti-semitic. Besides being POV, the comment had nothing to do with the link or the article. Aaronwinborn 15:43, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I just read wikipedia's article on the IHR, and I guess I was mistaken. I like the new description for the external link; it's sufficiently NPOV while warning the reader. Aaronwinborn 01:40, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Criticisms

So that no feathers are ruffled, just explaining my changes. I expanded the criticism of their recent attacks on Chavez, since the original sentence didn't say enough about what the criticisms (or their accusations) were. I also reworded the bit about the professor's book, since it was just a quote the way it stood. Aaronwinborn 16:55, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The final paragraph seems to me to be nothing but personal opinion using weasel words("some critics"? How about a citation then?) to make it seem legitimate. It needs to either be re-written or removed.

[edit] Ex-Nazis

I moved the section about "Locating Ex-Nazi's" up to make it more prominent, because it looked like a footnote where it was at the bottom. Seems like if this is a notable event and part of their mission, they should get more credit for it. Also, it had a link of nazis|ex-nazis, so i made that just ex-nazis to be more clear. Aaronwinborn 16:55, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service

The use of 'so-called' in following line seems to be somewhat inappropriate:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance is one of many partner organizations of the Austrian Association for Service Abroad (Auslandsdienst) and the corresponding so-called Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (Gedenkdienst).

In particular, the use of the word 'so-called' seems to be passing some kind of judgement on this organization. After reading the linked article, I'm still not sure what that judgement is supposed to mean Ericzundel 11:33, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. I'm familiar with the Austrian service program and it's bona fide. Perhaps the editor who wrote "so-called" was referring to the German-English translation of its name. At any rate, it smacks of POV and I've deleted it accordingly. -- Deborahjay 09:26, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "The Long Way Home"

According to its advertisement in the Haaretz newspaper (27 September 2007) announcing an upcoming one-time screening in Jerusalem of "The Long Way Home", winner of the 1998 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, the Simon Wiesenthal Center was involved in the film's production. I have no further information to clarify or corroborate this, but think it would be an appropriate addition to the Center's page. -- Deborahjay —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 09:21, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Heim located?

The article currently states: "In November 2005, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem Director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, located Aribert Heim, who had been hiding in Spain for 20 years".

However, this is not the case as Heim has not been located : [5] BBC article Is the net tightening on Nazi Dr Death?

I've never done anything with Wikipedia before so unsure how to go about editing anything but read this entry immediately after reading the BBC article about Heim so thought someone should know.

Cheers Steve Clennell

213.249.208.106 (talk) 16:48, 29 November 2007 (UTC)