User:Letsgointhegarden/sandbox

Peer-review changes made/considered

 * The issue I have encountered with providing photos is that Wikipedia follows strict copyright and sharing rules, that I cannot find images that seem to follow it. While I do have images of Jewish life in the Sudan from the book Jacob's Children in the Land of the Mahdi: Jews of the Sudan, I would have to contact the author of the book to see if he would be will to allow me to use it with attribution, as the book was not published before 1923. I do not know how to get into contact with him, and I am doubtful he would allow me to publish these images, as it would be allowed for others to take and use.
 * Sudanese Jews from my research dressed for the most part as non-Jews dressed at the time, with current trends in fashion evident in their photos. I do not see any evidence that they dress now in "their traditional dress" or evidence of a traditional dress.
 * On the topic of Sudanese Jews who went to Israel after leaving Sudan, I have added the sentence: "Those who moved to Israel faced difficulty, as Sephardim from Arab countries made up a large portion of the lower class in Israeli society. "
 * On the question about difficulty of Sudanese Jews converting back to Judaism, I did not find any difficulty Jews had in claiming the Right of Return or in reverting back as the period was only three years. I did add to this sentence to clarify: "After Anglo-Egyptian rule had been established, six of the formerly Jewish families chose to revert to Judaism after forced for three years to be Muslim."

Outline for Structure of History of the Jews in Sudan

 * Introduction
 * A small but vibrant community of Jews lived in Sudan from about 1885 to around 1970, with most of the community leaving for Israel or Europe after anti-Semitic attacks began to spread against both the Jews in Israel and those still living in Sudan.
 * The first presence in the region
 * Due to other Jewish presence near Sudan, such as in Elephantine, Abyssinia, and Yemen, there is a possibility that there were Jews in the region earlier. However, David Reubini (1490 -1540) is thought to be the first Jewish traveler to the region.
 * Beginnings of the Community
 * There was a small Jewish presence of eight families in 1885 living in Omdurman in Sudan, under Turkish and Egyptian rule. The origins of these families and how they settled in Sudan is largely unknown. They were free to practice Judaism until the rebel leader Muhamed Ahmed Ibn Abdulla El-Mahdi seized control of Sudan from its Ottoman-Egyptian rulers in 1885 and the community was forcibly converted to Islam. In September 1898, General Kitchener and 20,000 Anglo-Egyptian troops including a young Winston Churchill entered Omdurman and regained control of the Sudan. The country became an Anglo-Egyptian condominium and with this new political status it began to economically flourish.  The railway line built by the British from Cairo to Khartoum (originally for the military campaign) became particularly important for opening up a previously long and difficult route for traders, including many Jews.
 * The main community
 * After Anglo-Egyptian rule had been established, six of the formerly Jewish families chose to revert to Judaism after forced for three years to be Muslim. They were quickly joined by many more Jewish families who saw the economic opportunities of the developing country.  From 1900 Jews from all over the Middle East and North Africa began to arrive in Sudan via Cairo and settle along the Nile in the four towns of Khartoum, Khartoum North, Omdurman and Wad-Medani.  Predominantly small-time merchants of textiles, silks and gum, their businesses soon began to flourish.  The Jewish community of Khartoum was first officially organized in 1918.  By 1926 the small synagogue they had quickly erected had been replaced by a brand new, self-funded building and several of its members owned large, successful business.  Despite the fact that the Jewish community as a whole was split between Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman, it was incredibly tight-knit.  A single mohel and shochet served the entire community and at the centre of the social scene was the bustling Jewish Social Club (sometimes referred to as the Jewish Recreational Club).  This social club held Jewish communal celebrations and fundraisers. At its peak, between 1930 and 1950 the Jewish community in Sudan numbered between 800 and 1000 people.
 * What happened to the community
 * In 1956 Sudan gained independence and hostility towards the Jewish Community began to grow. From 1957 many members of the community began to leave Sudan for Israel (via Greece), America and other European countries - primarily Britain and Switzerland. In 1967 after the Six Day War anti-Semitic attacks began to appear in Sudanese newspapers,  advocating the murder and torture of prominent Jewish Community leaders. By 1970 almost all of the Jewish community had left Sudan. Those who moved to Israel faced difficulty, as Sephardim from Arab countries made up a large portion of the lower class in Israeli society.
 * The Desecration of Jewish Cemetery
 * In 1975 an air-transfer of some of the human remains from the Jewish Cemetery in Khartoum was organized by several prominent members of the community and reburial was arranged in Jerusalem after reports of desecration and vandalism occurring there. The bodies were moved and reburied at the Givaat Shaoul Cemetery in Jerusalem. As of 2005 there were at least 15 Jewish graves left in the Jewish Cemetery at Khartoum. However, in recent years even these have been desecrated and the site was used as a dumping ground for used car parts. In the last year efforts have been made to preserve and clean up the cemetery. The site of the much older Jewish Cemetery in Omdurman is unknown.  The Synagogue was sold and demolished in 1986 and a bank now occupies the site.
 * Further reading
 * http://www.philippbreu.com/2016/07/21/the-jewish-cemetery-of-khartoum-sudan/

Bibliography for History of the Jews in Sudan

 * Ilan, Nahem. "The Sudan Jewish Community According to the Community Register." Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, edited by M. Avrum Ehrlich, vol. 2: Countries, Regions, and Communities: Part One, ABC-CLIO, 2009, pp. 505-509. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2448900130/GVRL?u=umuser&sid=GVRL&xid=f9b30296 . Accessed 4 Oct. 2018.
 * Kramer, Robert S. "The death of Bassiouni: a case of complex identity in the Sudan" Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines (2015), 49:1, 95-107, DOI: 10.1080/00083968.2014.971834
 * Malka, Eli S. Jacob's Children in the land of the Mahdi - Jews of the Sudan. Syracuse University, 1997.
 * Mustafa, Alhaj Salim. "A Jewish Scholar in a Muslim Community: The Sudan's Life and Writings of Sigmar Hillelson (1911-1933)." American International Journal of Social Science 2, no. 3 (May 2013): 56-64. http://www.aijssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_3_May_2013/6.pdf
 * Omer, Ibrahim M. "The Ottoman Jewish Community of Sudan." The Jewish Magazine, (October-November 2009).
 * Warburg, Gabriel. "Notes on the Jewish Community in Sudan in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." The Bulletin of the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo 24 (2001): 22-26. https://www.academy.ac.il/Index4/Entry.aspx?nodeId=845&entryId=18679.Accessed 4 Oct. 2018

History of the Jews in Sudan
The article has an empty talk page and has been rated a stub-class article. The article's content is entirely relevant to the topic of the history of the Jews in Sudan. There are a few mentions of Sudanese history that does not specifically involve Jews, but it is used as context for events that do. I believe it is written neutrally. The content appears to be factually based and does not seem to be trying to persuade me to any certain viewpoints surrounding the history of Sudan's Jews. Not all claims have citations or are not clearly cited. There are also only 7 citations for the entire article, on the entire. Some of the citations are reliable. There are no broken links and there are two citations to academic presses, such as, and a citation to a magazine entry with sources credited within it. The article does have a structure, moving forward in time beginning in 1885. There is not a great structure however, as there is only one paragraph for the entire history of Jews in Sudan. There are no photos and are only five paragraphs for the entire article.

Some sources for future content could be:


 * Robert S. Kramer (2015) The death of Bassiouni: a case of complex identity in the Sudan, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 49:1, 95-107, DOI: 10.1080/00083968.2014.971834
 * I believe more can be taken from Malka, E.S., Jacob's Children in the Land of the Mahdi: Jews of the Sudan. Syracuse University Press: 1997.
 * Ilan, N. "The Sudan Jewish Community according to the Community Register" in Ehrlich, M.A., Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, Vol. 1.  ABC-CLIO: 505-9: 2009.

Article evaluation- Jewish views on slavery
Yes everything in the article appears to be relevant to the article topic. The article is set in a way that the information flows nicely from one time period to the next, and addresses important discussions and ways Jews approached the idea of slavery along the way. It may be because of the time we spent reading and discussion the use of the Curse of Ham as a justification for slavery, but I found there could have been more relevant information added to that section in the article on who did use the Curse of Ham as a justification for slavery due to the mentioned misinterpretations. It also claims at one point that Jews have not used this to justify slavery and then later on discusses a Rabbi who used the Bible as a supportive source for slavery. It is possible that the biblical justification he used was different from the Curse of Ham but clarification would be helpful if able to provide it. I believe that more could've been added in the discussion of bias of the Nation of Islam, as the text seemed to stick to only refutations of the book in question itself. While the article did a good job listing those refutations, it did not do much to discuss the biases that Nation of Islam has been said to have by other sources.

The article does seem to be neutral. The claims focused on the extent of the role of Jews in the slave trade favor the claim that they did not have a significant role in slave trade, though both the viewpoint of low significance and the viewpoint higher significance are discussed in the article. Specific evidence is used in the supporting of that favoring as well, citing multiple sources. I suppose one could say that the viewpoint that Jews had a large role in the slave trade could be underrepresented, but I believe that giving equal merit to that argument when there is much more evidence against it would be a mistake.

Many of the links in the source work, however there are some citations deemed 'obsolete sources' and a few places where 'citation needed' can be seen. Except for those instances, each fact seems to be referenced with an appropriate and reliable reference. The information comes from many places, such as historical texts like the bible, academic presses such as Oxford University Press, international newspapers like the BBC, and peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Law and Religion. When dealing with claims that go against the general consensus of this article, such as The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews published by the Nation of Islam, the article brings up claims of bias and anti-semitism from other scholars and goes on to talk about the work published in response as a means to refute the claim of Jews having a very significant role in the slave trade.

The kind of conversations going on in the Talk Page seem to be focused on that there seems to be a much more significant role that Jews had in both the slave trade and in owning slaves. As mentioned at one point in the Talk Page is that this article is far more that solely the Jewish views on slavery, it also goes into the relationship Jews had with slavery so possibly 'Jewish relationship with slavery' would be a more appropriate title. The article is rated B-Class and is a part of a few WikiProjects such as WikiProject Jewish history, WikiProject Sociology, WikiProject Discrimination, WikiProject Human rights, WikiProject International relations / United Nations / la. This Wikipedia discusses this topic in a similar way that we did in class with using the progression of time as a way to structure our studying, but it differs in that it goes past where we left off and discusses Jewish roles in the abolitionist movement and also discusses more on Jewish slave ownership in America which we did not cover.