Welcome!

Hello, Simonschaim, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  -- RHaworth 08:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

AfD edit

Normally when I send articles to AfD it is with a feeling of annoyance at how people can post such nonsense here. But in the case of the first Shabbat spent by civilians in Hebron after the Six Day War, I am nominating it with a certain hesitation. It is a good article; I assume it is your own work and not a copyright violation; it seems to have a reasonably NPOV. But I just don't feel it belongs here. If I get shot down in flames in the AfD discussion and get told strong keep, then I apologise in advance.

But, anticipating the result of the debate, I recommend you to secure the text on your own machine and publish the article on your own website. Having done that there are probably several existing articles here to which you can add a link to your page - and where the link will stick!.

Please don't let me put you off from contributing but I suggest you read a few more articles here and get the feel for the style and level of detail normally used. For example, isn't it a bit upside down to create The Jewish community of Przedecz, Poland before we have an article about Przedecz? -- RHaworth 08:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Richmal Crompton's "Just William" and the Jews edit

Hi, I have nominated your "three part" article (Richmal Crompton's "Just William" and the Jews - part 1, Richmal Crompton's "Just William" and the Jews - part 2 and Richmal Crompton's "Just William" and the Jews - part 3) for deletion. Please take a look at Wikipedia's policy on original research - as far as I can tell your article is your own research. As per RHaworth's note above, Wikipedia is not the venue for you to publish your own research on a topic, however well intentioned. Thanks, Gwernol 11:09, 23 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

No thanks edit

The AfD debate has pointed me to your GeoCities page. Now I am going to come in much more firmly. I could nominate all your stuff as copyvios - we have no proof that you are actually Chaim Simons. But I will assume that you are he, and say: no thanks, posting your articles as crude cut-and-pastes is totally out of the spirit of Wikipedia - which is based on colaboratively written articles. Doing so when they are already available on the web is really nothing but vanity. Some, like the Just William article are going to get tagged as original research. So please, no more copy-and-pastes but do feel free to add links to your stuff.

Incidentally, Richmal Crompton lived in Oakley Road, Keston. I have forgotten the name of her house but there is a blue plaque on it. Please accept my assurance, my motives are not anti-semitic in the slightest - it's not much evidence but I did add my own photo to Singers Hill Synagogue a few days ago. -- RHaworth 11:56, 23 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Answer edit

ANSWER TO RHAWORTH FROM SIMONSCHAIM

Dear Roger

Thank you for your message via Wikipedia.

Until the correspondence of today, I understood that the function of Wikipedia was to provide the maximum amount of information to the maximum number of people. To assist others, I myself have on several occasions in the past supplied answers to questions sent to the “reference desk.”

Due to the almost infinite number of sites appearing today on the Internet, I have been informed by an expert user that the chance of a person finding a particular website (unless it is very well known) is almost zero. I have also learned from experience this fact myself. Almost everyone I talk to, does not know of my website and those who have found it, have informed me that they only discovered it by chance.

It was for this reason alone (and not for vanity) that I put some material from my website on Wikipedia, so that a greater number of people might benefit from the literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours of my research.

Since receiving your comments today, I have studied the material put out by Wikipedia on the sort and limitations of material requested for articles and see that my understanding of what is required was incorrect. So I now know for the future.

I am very grateful for you pointing this fact out to me and apologise for giving you and other editors of Wikipedia any unnecessary trouble.

Best wishes

Chaim Simons

(I AM Chaim Simons and can send you plenty of evidence that me and the author of the website are one and the same!)

Thanks edit

Please note:

So what? The article to which those links refer contains over forty "non-links" of the first sort. You want people to find your site but, to put it crudely, why should people create links to your site, if you can't be bothered to create proper links on your site? I believe it is true to say that search engines will give higher rankings to pages that contain links.

So, think links! Let's be subversive and see how you can exploit Wikipedia to help promote your website. As I have already said, create links in existing Wikipedia articles. You have not done any in a logged on state and in fact it might be better to create them while logged off so people don't tie them up with your user name. I have already done links for you in Richmal Crompton and Just William - let's see if they stick. Create a short Przedecz article and put a link in it. Get one or two of Ayelet's photos, upload them and include them. (A few pictures on your own website would not go amiss!)

Elsewhere on the web. I am not a search engine optimisation expert but try the following: go to blogger, create a blog and update it regularly - there you can promote yourself as much as you like! Find Jewish forums and spam links with gay abandon - some of them will stick!

Keep a watch on The Jewish community of Przedecz, Poland - it may yet survive. It has been wikified for you. See my comments at User talk:FeanorStar7#Przedecz.

I was an avid reader of the William Brown stories when I was at school but only now, thanks to you, have I learnt that she and I were both born in Bury! Shalom. -- RHaworth 23:28, 23 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Your contributions edit

Greetings. I, for one, hope you will continue to contribute to Wikipedia – while remaining within the set policies of "no original research" and "verifiability", which require that citations to sources be supplied. If possible, could you cite your sources for The Jewish community of Przedecz, Poland? Further, when on talk pages, please sign your messages by appending ~~~~. If you want something else to appear than your Wikipedia handle, you can change this through the "my preferences" link on each page in the Nickname field. Thank you. --LambiamTalk 09:50, 24 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Thank you RHaworth edit

Thank you for your message and suggestions, which I have already started to put into practice. I really appreciate the time you have taken to assist me. Simonschaim 13:11, 24 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Thank you Lambiam edit

Thank you for your message and suggestions. I shall try and cite my sources for "The Jewish Community of Przedecz Poland." Simonschaim 13:12, 24 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Welcome edit

Ok the welcome message is already here. Please follow the links. You will find an answer to your question at the bottom of my talk page. Enjoy Wikipedia! Regards, gidonb 16:27, 29 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Confirmation of permission edit

I haven't received your email. Could you please re-send it? Alternatively, you can send confirmation directly to Wikimedia foundation. Conscious 07:37, 12 June 2006 (UTC)Reply

I have deleted The Jewish community of Przedecz, Poland, but I'm willing to undelete it if I receive the confirmation. Alternatively, you can contact Wikimedia foundation directly (permissions at wikimedia dot org) asking them to undelete the article. Other administrators can undelete articles as well. Conscious 08:45, 13 June 2006 (UTC)Reply
Thank you, I've received it. I will undelete the article now. Conscious 10:07, 18 June 2006 (UTC)Reply

Baruch Goldstein edit

Thank you for the wonderful letter. I suggest you add it to the page itself. I am not well versed on the Baruch Goldstein incident, but I did hear that a commission collaborated on the evidence given by Kach. I hope to visit Israel within the next year.

Best Regards,

Guy Montag 17:22, 25 June 2006 (UTC)Reply

Opposition to SECULAR Zionism edit

I suggest that you consider the impact of answering a Humanities Reference Desk query on Jewish anti-semitism with such divisive and disparaging remarks as you made. However truly held your contentions may be, I find them grossly insulting to and disrespectful of those non-Orthodox Jewish Israelis who serve in the IDF or come (and fall) under rocket attack—as opposed to how many pious Orthodox, praying for Zion but living elsewhere?. So perhaps it's just as well that readers of the Reference Desk, many of whom are generally ignorant of Jewish/Judaic/Zionist matters (and possibly antisemitic), will read your reply. This way, they (as I) learn the reality of what someone like you thinks of someone like me. Frankly, this rejectionist stance strikes me as smacking of "Jewish antisemitism," and I'm sadder but wiser for it. -- Deborahjay (talk) 22:10, 23 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

Canceling an adoption edit

Copied from Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities

According to a report in the "Jerusalem Post" in July 1995, the mother of a boy born in England in the late 1950s was an English Catholic and the father a Kuwaiti Moslem, but they were not married. The mother gave the boy over to a Jewish couple for adoption, he was given the name Ian Rosenthal, and he was later converted to Judaism. At a later date he changed his name to Jonathan Bradley and went to the High Court in Britain to have his adoption overturned, but his application was not accepted. According to this newspaper article he intended to bring the case to the House of Lords and, if that failed, to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Does any user know if this case came to these Courts, or that there were any other developments in this matter? Thank you.Simonschaim (talk) 18:15, 8 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

In July 1995, this case had already gone to the Court of Appeal, where it's called 'B (A Minor)' [1995] EWCA Civ 48. It was heard by Sir Thomas Bingham (then Master of the Rolls, later Lord Chief Justice) and by Lords Justices Simon Brown and Swinton Thomas. Bradley was represented by the late Allan Levy QC and lost again. In a Judgement dated 17 March 1995, all three LJJ dismissed his appeal, while expressing deep sympathy with him, and they also refused him leave to appeal to the House of Lords. So it seems the Jerusalem Post somehow had the story wrong, if its report dated two months later suggests that appeals were still pending. For more detail of the case, see the bailii site here. Xn4 19:17, 9 March 2008 (UTC)Reply


File copyright problem with File:Unknownsoldier.jpg edit

 
File Copyright problem

Thank you for uploading File:Unknownsoldier.jpg. However, it currently is missing information on its copyright status. Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously. It may be deleted soon, unless we can determine the license and the source of the file. If you know this information, then you can add a copyright tag to the image description page.

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If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thanks again for your cooperation. Ricky81682 (talk) 00:18, 9 April 2009 (UTC)Reply

Photograph of Rabbi Yosef Zemelman of Przedecz Poland edit

שלום, Simonschaim! I regret my inability to find information on this rabbi and his involvement in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. I suggest you contact historian Professor Esther Farbstein who is highly knowledgeable on related topics and very likely this as well. -- בברכה, Deborahjay (talk) 04:35, 20 December 2009 (UTC)Reply

Your book on the Kaifeng Jews edit

You can try the iUniverse publishing company. They helped Tiberiu Weisz publish his The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions in 2006. I would recommend that you first send the manuscript to an established authority to look it over. Whoever you contact might be able to give you helpful suggestions. And, beyond that, they might be able to write a blurb for the back cover or your book. To my knowledge, Mr. Weisz never submitted his book to any authority to read before it was published. I wish he had submitted it because it is clear from my reading that he jumped to a lot of conclusions, many of which are not even supported in the inscriptions. (I am actually writing a lengthy book review of it for the bi-monthly newsletter of a Chinese history forum I belong to.) The book has never been peer-reviewed in a scholarly journal either. I only hope that you don't make the same mistakes as Mr. Weisz. I truly mean this as a person who has been interested in the subject for many years now. I'm glad to see there are still scholars out there researching their history and religion. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 19:40, 26 July 2010 (UTC)Reply

Did you happen to use The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions as a source in your book? The review I mentioned above has grown to 16 pages (not counting the annotated references). Since I last wrote you, I have found an instance where the author not only misquoted a source so the information would support one of his theories, but mistranslated a key Chinese character in the process. This mistake automatically voids the theory and negatively impacts other theories regarding the Jews' religious practices. I am notifying you of this just in case you did.
How is your search for a publisher going? --Ghostexorcist (talk) 23:41, 30 August 2010 (UTC)Reply

Your recent edits edit

  Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment. You could also click on the signature button   or   located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when they said it. Thank you. --SineBot (talk) 17:16, 22 March 2012 (UTC)Reply

Your recent edits edit

  Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. When you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, please be sure to sign your posts. There are two ways to do this. Either:

  1. Add four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment; or
  2. With the cursor positioned at the end of your comment, click on the signature button (  or  ) located above the edit window.

This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is necessary to allow other editors to easily see who wrote what and when.

Thank you. --SineBot (talk) 13:03, 8 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Translating into Hebrew edit

"a mother who only wanted the best for me, but had to go on her hands and knees to get me. ... She was twice as protective, twice as smothering, twice as emotional".

Are you sure the three dots are also in the original text?

Anyways, as a native Hebrew speaker, I would translate it as following:

אמא שרצתה רק את הטוב ביותר עבורי, אך הייתה צריכה ללכת על ידיה ועל ברכיה כדי להעניק לי. ... היא הייתה מגינה פי שניים, חונקת פי שניים, רגשנית פי שניים

I Hope this helps. 87.68.250.119 (talk) 08:14, 5 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Re: Barcelona / Girona edit

  • I will do that and post any information I receive to your user page on my return, which may be September. Please bear in mind that my visit to BCN is a semi-business matter and the date is not certain. It may take place in 2018 or 2019.
  • I may even go to Gerona itself (it is just 1/2 hour by high speed train from BCN). The old town, as I mentioned, is excellently preserved but quite laborious to investigate. It covers a quite steep hillside, so all up and down lanes are long flights of steps. Even with a minimum of camera equipment this is "puff and groan".
  • There is a Jewish Museum there and, it seems, a sizeable body of documents / manuscripts going back to the times when Gerona was a centre for Kabbalistic leaning. It seems perfectly possible that these documents have not been translated / published.
  • You may be interested in this: https://www.timesofisrael.com/back-in-girona-after-500-years/. Essentially a blog, but probably of help.

--Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 16:43, 11 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

Hebrew text about Gemara study edit

Shalom, User:Simonschaim. I too am having difficulty understanding the Hebrew text on Gemara study you posted on the Language RefDesk requesting assistance in translating it to English. Several editors contacted me to weigh in, which I'm doing there on the aspects relating to Hebrew at my level which may be of general interest. (At least, I would hope so!) My difficulty stems from not knowing the religious context, being a secular Jew myself though living in Israel since 1984. Your best avenue of enquiry to locate a knowledgeable Wikipedia contributor would be to explore User accounts in the following categories:

Before you approach anyone (e.g. on their User talk page), you can check whether they're presently active by following this path:

  • Contributions > User contributions > Search for contributions > User name > Search

This displays the User account's activity in reverse chronological order. Though perhaps you have access to similarly qualified individuals outside the WP community. N.B. As a professional translator when I'm not volunteering for Wikipedia, I as a rule don't undertake texts outside my field of expertise. Hope this is helpful. -- Cheers, Deborahjay (talk) 20:21, 4 December 2019 (UTC)Reply
Edited with expanded content today. Hope it helps. -- Deborahjay (talk) 20:11, 7 December 2019 (UTC)Reply