I am having some trouble with one of our new contributors, Jayjg. Jayjg is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish contributor, who until recently has gotten along fine with most people. His knowledge about many aspects of Judaism has added needed data and perspective to a number of our articles. We both have worked together very well on many articles; it is always good to bring in more knowledgeable editors.

However, about two weeks ago I started having trouble with him on a Talk page for the WikiProject on Judaism articles. We were not disagreeing over what to put in an article. Rather, whenever topics on theology arose, he seemed unable to understand many of my statements, and began imputing positions to me that I did not have and refuting positions which I never held.

I repeatedly tried to clarify the situation, but Jayjg kept on acting as if every statement made contained some sort of hidden attack on his religion. He even criticised me on many points that we *agreed* on; that really made me nervous. Despite this, we still got along fine with edits on all other articles. I regarded him as a useful Wikipedia contributor.

However in recent days his ultra-Orthodox bias against all other forms of Judaism have overwhelmed his common sense; Jayjg has passed from partisan bickering into vandalism: He is effectively committing fraud by making up statements by "the leadership of Reform Judaism", making them out to be anti-Semites who hate Orthodox Jews.

Now, if this were true, I would not have a problem with mentioning the actual quotes made, the context in which these quotes were made, and the response to them. However, the article he links to doesn't back up his story. (In fact, it contains no quotes from the original speech at all, and no quotes which support his story!)

In fact, I personally have corresponded with some of the Reform rabbis Jayjg is hysterical about, and I have read their actual statements. The text which Jayjg keeps inserting is some sort of paranoid fantasy about the leadership of Reform Judaism slandering Orthodox Jews, in general, as being as evil as terrorists like Osama bin Ladin. Yet in point of fact, no such statement was ever made.

The actual documented events show quite the opposite: a number of Ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel issued a number of angry pronouncements against all of Reform Judaism, on repeated occasions, and this led to violence against Reform Jews, death threats, and harassment. In response to this, one single Reform rabbi wrote that those particular people who engaged in such behaviour were like Jewish versions of Islamic fundamentalists who encouraged violence; those particular people were twisting their faith to promote hatred, and did not represent mainstream Judaism. Nowhere was there any attack on Orthodox Judaism in general, or even on Ultra-Orthodox Judaism; rather, the author was asking that attacks on _Reform_ Jews end!

Bizarrely, Jayjg has reversed the sequence of events, has faked statements, and has attributed his fake statements to the general Reform leadership! He keeps reverting the article to remove real quotes from the rabbi in question, and keeps deleting all discussion of the events (in all sections of the article) that would lead to understanding this in its historical context.

Readers should understand that many people in Jayjg's sect of Judaism believe that any form of Orthodox or non-Orthodox Judaism (other than their own, of course) is dangerous and dishonest. Perhaps he feels that he has somehow read between the lines and "uncovered" the true beliefs of Reform Jews; perhaps he was taught this by his teachers, and cannot believe that they misled him. If so, then perhaps we can talk to him privately over how to write NPOV articles, the crucial need for historical context, and the sacred need for accurate quoting!

But until then, we cannot allow him to effectively vandalize this article. We can't make up statements and beliefs, and criticise people and movements for these non-existent beliefs.

See this article: [[Relationship between segments of Judaism]]

Robert (RK)

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