Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Communist antisemitism


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep. The majority of the delete arguments cite problems with the article that can fixed by editing it. Any cleanup/renaming/merging/splitting/whatever can be discussed on the article's talk page. Beeblebrox (talk) 02:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Communist antisemitism

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The article entitled "Communist antisemitism" was added to Wikipedia a very short time ago. While I would not dispute that there is real encyclopedic merit to articles that explore links between Marxism and anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, and other related topics, this particular article does not rise to that standard. This is a polemical work that violates WP:SYNTH and WP:N, and I'm inclined to think that the title does not belong on Wikipedia at all. For that reason, I'm suggesting deletion.

Addendum: The sole author of this article has linked it to several other pages related to anti-Semitism and has attempted to add it to the antisemitism template. This strikes me as both promotional and very inappropriate. CJCurrie (talk) 05:38, 23 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep for now - lets give the author and interested people some time to improve the article. The topic seems to be quite notable although we can think of a better title Alex Bakharev (talk) 05:44, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I rather think that any encyclopedic content in the article should be spun off to separate topics. The current framework strikes me as pretty close to an inherent WP:SYNTH violation. CJCurrie (talk) 05:48, 23 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep While I do understand the topic may be controversial, it has widespread coverage in multiple scholarly sources. Historian and ex-Harvard professor Erich Goldhagen wrote an entire chapter titled "Communism and Anti-Semitism". Raphael Patai and Jennifer Patai covered the topic well in their book The Myth of the Jewish Race published by Wayne State University Press. There is a scholarly journal article documenting this topic. I think the article passes WP:N and WP:RS and should be kept. --Defender of torch (talk) 05:47, 23 February 2010 (UTC)


 * A google book search for "Communist anti semitism" proves there are plenty of scholarly sources discuss this topic. Search for "Marxist anti semitism" also return many ghits  --Defender of torch (talk) 05:54, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't doubt there are plenty of scholarly works that debate the topic of communism and anti-Semitism. What I'm suggesting is that the current article is incredibly polemical and may be an inherent violation of WP:SYNTH. CJCurrie (talk) 05:58, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * From the references it is clear, there is a link between communism and antisemitism, or communist regimes displayed antisemitism. I don't see SYNTH in the article, but as a compromise the name can be changed for example Communism and antisemitism. But blanket deletion is not a solution. --Defender of torch (talk) 06:04, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree that Communism and antisemitism seems to be much better title. I have moved the article Alex Bakharev (talk) 06:31, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Defender: Right now the article does not define its scope at all, so every partisan can bring in RS to back up any point. Academic research on the topic addresses different aspects of it, in fact different topics. Consider the case of grassroots nationalism in the Eastern Bloc countries that frequently evolved into outright anti-everything. Was it part of communist ideology? no. Part of regime? Rarely, rather the regimes simply failed to control it. Part of the history of communist nations? Definitely yes. Any given academic source (say, Reinventing Russia: Russian nationalism and the Soviet state, 1953-1991 by Yitzhak Brudny]) will be on topic for some scopes and off topic for others. The fact that this book exists (and is fully recommended by yours truly) does not mean it's usable in each possible scope.


 * Delete since "communism" is supposed to be antithetical to religion. Since judaism is a religion, it would necessarily be hunted down and destroyed, just like any other religion. 70.29.210.242 (talk) 07:49, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment: While I agree with you that the article should be deleted, I don't follow your rationale. You're saying that communism and Judaism are antithetical. That's also (in essence) what the article is trying to say. How is agreement with the article a reason to delete it? Cosmic Latte (talk) 08:09, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Reply Well, since anti-religion is a defining characteristic, there's no point in singling out Judaism, since it's just another religion of out of many. It's core concept should already exist on the main communism article. So this article is pointless. 70.29.210.242 (talk) 12:48, 24 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete: Given the extensive citation in the article, I would have said to WP:USERFY until the article's WP:SYN and WP:COI blemishes become sufficiently removed (assuming that they can be removed). However, given that the article's main contributor is no longer interested in being a part of the WP community, I see no reasonable option save for outright deletion. Cosmic Latte (talk) 08:04, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Weak Keep: The article has problems -- in some places bordering on severe -- but the topic is notable, the content is well-sourced, and the re-title helps. I would be a very strong supporter of this being kept if the article's author hadn't just retired, however...indeed, I'm practically neutral on this. I can't quite endorse deletion, however -- the topic is a notable one, and the sourcing is excellent, if in places SYNTH-y. ɠǀɳ̩ςεΝɡ  bomb  08:58, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Narrow scope and Rename to evade the nonsensical oxymoron in title (how come "happiness for all /even if they don't want it/" ideology exclude one particular ethnicity? it did not). IMO, Communist ideology and antisemitism, Antisemitism of communist regimes, and Antisemitism in Eastern Bloc are three different scopes that only marginally overlap (the latter topic, for example, also covers antisemitism of anti-communists and grassroots antisemitism barely tolerated by the regimes); each has lots of academic research behind it. While all three can be merged into one summary-style pile Antisemitism and Communism, I don't see any chances of it happening in the near future. Start with one manageable topic. NVO (talk) 10:28, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I too think the article should be Renamed; remember, Marx himself came from an (ethnically, not religiously) Jewish background. It should be noted that while the Soviet Union, etc., did frequently engage in antisemitism, it wasn't truly a "communist" regime, at least not in Karl Marx's original sense; Stalin strayed quite far from Marx's teachings, and in some respects, the Soviet Union also had many of the characteristics of fascism, including, of course, antisemitism, which is a common feature of fascist ideologies. Stonemason89 (talk) 21:55, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Also remember about Jewish Bolshevism, which makes this article rather odd.Biophys (talk) 01:49, 24 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep and improve. Rather than noticing the atisemitism by many communist leaders, this article must establish connection with communism in general. This can be done by sourcing to works by Hanna Arendt who tried to justify the idea that all totalitarian regimes were antisemitic. This is not something universally accepted though.Biophys (talk) 16:08, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep and improve. Could become an interesting companion piece to Jewish Bolshevism. Jean-Jacques Georges (talk) 16:58, 24 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete per WP:SYNTH, WP:Coatrack and Attack page. Any accusations of antisemitism of different communist leaders belong to biographical articles about this people. DonaldDuck (talk) 07:45, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
 * That would be the case unless we had official antisemitic campaigns by the Soviet state, like the struggle with rootless cosmopolitans and Doctor's Plot (even most "pro-Russian historians like Figes honestly admit it). The prosecution of refuseniks was also arguably an antisemitic campaign as most of them tried to emigrate to Israel (there were quite interesting published debates between Brezhnev and Andropov about this).Biophys (talk) 20:23, 25 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep Definitely a notable topic, as the Soviets were very harsh to Jewish people. AbbaIkea2010 (talk) 22:39, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete Crude synthesis and OR. An article called Soviet antisemitism or Stalinist antisemitism would be better defined. Fred the happy man (talk) 21:16, 27 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete - weak ideological bases for the article in the first place --99.231.243.112 (talk) 01:43, 28 February 2010 (UTC) --Mista-X (talk) 01:44, 28 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete This is a fork that avoids building consensus on existing articles such as History of the Jews in Russia, Allegations of antisemitism on the part of Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union and the Arab–Israeli conflict and Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The section on the CPRF is used as a coatrack for BLP violations, and any relevant information from this section should be moved to Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Cs32en   Talk to me  23:12, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.