Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/SovietJewry



The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society hosted an edit-a-thon centered on the American Soviet Jewry movement. The event was open to everyone, no previous Wikipedia editing experience necessary!

Resources included materials from the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement at the American Jewish Historical Society that were recently digitized with the generous support of the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC). For more information on the NHPRC-funded digitization project see a recent blog entry on the Center for Jewish History's 16th Street Tumblr.

Event information
Before the event During the event
 * Date: Sunday, November 22, 2015
 * Time: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
 * Location: Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th Street, New York, NY 10011 40.73803°N, -73.99381°W
 * Subway:
 * to 14th St. (exit at 14th Street and 7th Avenue)
 * to 14th St. (exit at 14th Street and 6th Avenue)
 * to 14th St. (exit at 14th Street and 6th Avenue)
 * to 14th St. (exit at 14th Street - Union Square)
 * to 14th St. (exit at 14th Street - Union Square)
 * to 14th St. (exit at 14th Street and 8th Avenue)
 * Bus: buses
 * Hashtag: #TBD
 * Training: Training sessions on editing Wikipedia will be held at 11:15 am and 1:00 pm. Experienced Wikipedians will be on-hand to assist throughout the day.
 * 1) Please create a Wikipedia account
 * 2) RSVP via the Center for Jewish History here
 * 3) If you already have a Wikipedia account, please add your username below as well.
 * Please bring a laptop with you!
 * Light refreshments will be provided.
 * Make edits! Ask questions! Be bold!

Attendees
Please add your Wikipedia username to the appropriate section below. Please RSVP directly to the Center for Jewish History at the link above if you plan on attending in person. The Meetup link is here.

Likely attendees

 * 1) Lange.lea (talk) 21:23, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
 * 2) RachelCMiller (talk) 22 October 2015
 * 3) Pharos (talk) 01:59, 23 October 2015 (
 * 4) Lutzv (talk) 13:35, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
 * 5) kosboot (talk) 15:16, 1 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 6) AndreyPFilimonov (talk) 11:37, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 7) Rh236 (talk)
 * 8) Nwhysel (talk) 17:23, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 9) Jwhysel (talk) 17:23, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 10) Sarah.r.glover (talk) 08:30, 20 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 11) Mozucat (talk) 22:00, 20 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 12) Lilerner3215 (talk) 16:30, 22 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 13) Jim.henderson (talk) 16:50, 22 November 2015 (UTC) will leave early
 * 14) Greenhousenicole (talk)

Tentative

 * 1) Kschlot1 (talk) 12:18, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
 * 2) Rrrowmyboat (talk) 23 October 2015

Regrets

 * 1)  czar  06:18, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 2) I would very much have liked to participate.  Unfortunately, I have an unbreakable prior commitment.  Enjoy! -- Y not? 20:37, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * 3)  DGG unfortunately not practical. ( talk ) 23:38, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

Remote participants

 * 1) Glowinska (talk) 18:54, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Articles to improve
Below is a list of articles that would benefit from edits and expansion during the edit-a-thon.

People
alphabetical by last name


 * Donna Arzt
 * Iosif Begun
 * Jacob Birnbaum -- better sources needed. See NYT Obit,
 * Herman Branover
 * Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
 * Shlomo Carlebach (musician)
 * Alan Dershowitz
 * Robert Drinan -- Needs content concerning participation in the Soviet Jewry movement. Several NY Times articles dated 1970s-1980s are helpful; can be found in database with keyword search: Drinan Soviet Jews
 * Si Frumkin
 * Martin Gilbert
 * Malcolm Hoenlein
 * Meir Kahane
 * Eduard Kuznetsov
 * Haskel Lookstein -- more content needed concerning activism. See Rafael Medoff's biography, Rav Chesed: The Life and Times of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein (2008)
 * Solomon Lozovsky -- needs more citations
 * Yosef Mendelevitch
 * Jack Minker
 * Micah Naftalin
 * Ida Nudel
 * Natan Sharansky
 * John Steinbruck -- Needs information about Steinbruck’s death in March 2015 and perhaps further details about his relationship to the Jewish community and movement for Soviet Jewry. See Washington Post Obit and Washington Jewish Week Obit
 * Mary Travers
 * Avi Weiss
 * Zev Yaroslavsky
 * Peter Yarrow

Subjects

 * 1970s Soviet Union aliyah -- expansion and link to archival papers needed
 * 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah -- expansion and link to archival papers needed
 * American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants -- needs images
 * American Jewish Congress
 * American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
 * Antisemitism in the Soviet Union -- expansion and link to resources at AJHS needed
 * Anti-Zionism -- expansion and links to resources at AJHS needed
 * Doctors' plot
 * Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair -- better sources needed
 * Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews
 * Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America
 * HIAS
 * Jackson–Vanik amendment -- heading "Soviet Union" needs references - working on this now Kschlot1 (talk) 16:27, 22 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
 * Jewish Defense League
 * Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center
 * List of protest marches on Washington, D.C.
 * Movement to Free Soviet Jewry -- Needs extensive copy-editing, additional in-text citations, and more content. The middle two largest paragraphs were copied verbatim (plagiarized) from the website of Beth Israel West Temple, Cleveland. That section needs to be revised and integrated into a larger discussion. Works that can be consulted to improve the article include: Stuart Altschuler, From Exodus to Freedom.
 * National Conference on Soviet Jewry -- Need specific references to website where appropriate, and additional sources other than the organization itself; copy-edit for more objective tone. Possible source: Myrna Shinbaum, "Mobilizing America: The National Conference on Soviet Jewry," p. 173-180, in: M. Friedman & A. Chernin (Eds.), A Second Exodus: The American Movement to Free Soviet Jews (Brandeis University Press, 1999).
 * Nativ
 * Night of the Murdered Poets - added sentence on Soviet Jewry commemorations Kschlot1 (talk) 17:34, 22 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Persecution of Jews
 * Person of Jewish ethnicity
 * Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
 * The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
 * Refusenik -- Needs in-text citations
 * Refusenik (film) -- Stub, needs expansion, citations
 * Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
 * Russian Jewish Congress -- Needs citations / has no citations
 * State atheism
 * Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry
 * Union of Councils for Soviet Jews

Articles to be created

 * Pamela Cohen -- see entry in Jewish Women’s Archive and Stuart Altschuler, From Exodus to Freedom (2005), esp. p. 49-54 (term in office, p. 50)
 * Sovetish Heymland -- to translate from Russian Wikipedia
 * Carol Kekst -- see finding aid working on this now Kschlot1 (talk) 17:46, 22 November 2015 (UTC) -- UPDATE I tried, but I don't have enough sources.
 * Murray Levine -- see finding aid
 * Morey Schapira working on this Kschlot1 (talk) 18:17, 22 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Avital Sharansky 19:08, 22 November 2015 (UTC)
 * South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry citing Adele and Joel Sandberg. See finding aid for their papers held at AJHS
 * Boris Tsitlionok

New articles created
Alphabetical
 * ru:Джейкоб (Яков) Бирнбаум (Jacob Birnbaum page in Russian) --
 * 1) Pamela Cohen --
 * 2) Morey Schapira --
 * 3) Avital Sharansky --
 * 4) Sovetish Heymland --

Articles improved
alphabetical by first letter
 * 1) 1970s Soviet Union aliyah references improved --
 * 2) American Jewish Historical Society -- ,
 * 3) Center for Jewish History --
 * 4) Donna Arzt --
 * 5) Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair --
 * 6) Jackson–Vanik amendment --
 * 7) Jacob Birnbaum --
 * 8) Jewish Defense League --
 * 9) List of protest marches on Washington, D.C. -- added link  and other content --  and
 * 10) Martin Gilbert -- added content and citations --
 * 11) Micah Naftalin -- added external link --
 * 12) Morey Schapira -- cleaned up cites, added info --
 * 13) National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry -- updated content --
 * 14) Night of the Murdered Poets --
 * 15) Si Frumkin --
 * 16) Soviet Jewry Movement -- moved page to better title, added content --, added content
 * 17) John Steinbruck -- added death date --
 * 18) Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry --
 * 19) Union of Councils for Soviet Jews -- added content -- ,
 * 20) Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews -- added content and links --

Images added to Wikimedia Commons

 * File:AJHS logo horizontal.png --
 * File:AJHS seal.jpg --
 * File:AJHS logo stacked.jpg --

For further inspiration
For ideas for further articles to edit as well as possible categories to add to articles above, see:

WikiProjects

 * WikiProject Jewish history
 * WikiProject Judaism
 * WikiProject Soviet Union

Resources

 * Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement at the American Jewish Historical Society. See in particular:
 * Archival Collections
 * Digital Collections - these are artificial collections that pull from many parts of the larger Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement. See the above archival collections link for guides to the papers of particular individuals or organizations.
 * Digital Collections at the Center for Jewish History - this searches across all digitized items held by all of the Center's partner organizations. Searching here will pull from all items digitized under the recent NHPRC grant for Soviet Jewry materials.
 * YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
 * Encyclopedia Judaica The electronic version of the 2nd edition (2007) is available onsite at the Center for Jewish History here: Encyclopedia Judaica online
 * American Jewish Archives Journal, published by the AJA, is freely available and keyword searchable.
 * Ancestry.com (onsite access only)
 * Newspapers:
 * American Jewish Newspapers (onsite access only)
 * New York Times 1851-2012 (onsite access only)
 * Washington Post 1877 - 1999 (onsite access only)
 * Brooklyn Daily Eagle (open access via Brooklyn Public Library)
 * America History and Life (EBSCO database, onsite access only)
 * JSTOR (onsite access only)
 * Project Muse (onsite access only)
 * Proquest Obituaries (onsite access only)

Editing Wikipedia resources

 * Beginners’ Guide to Wikipedia (account creation, article editing)
 * Cheatsheet for editing Wikipedia
 * Five Pillars of Wikipedia (philosophical guidelines and best practices for Wikipedia editing)
 * Tutorial
 * How to Edit a Page
 * Wiki Markup Quick Reference (PDF version of printed handout)
 * Guide to Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing by Susan H. Rodger (applicable to any biography)
 * Article Development
 * Your First Article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
 * Manual of Style
 * Citation templates
 * Infobox templates
 * Bookshelf (additional "getting started" resources)
 * Art+Feminism – Video training
 * Art+Feminism – Training Lesson Plan
 * WikiD Guides to Wikipedia Editing

Tools and templates

 * Cheatsheet for editing Wikipedia
 * Infobox template - person
 * Biographies of living persons
 * Writing an article
 * About the Sandbox
 * Determining Notability of Creative Professionals
 * Conflict of Interest in Wikipedia Editing
 * Verifying Reliable Sources


 * N.B. There is an IRC channel if online participants need help:
 * IRC/wikipedia-en-help

Templates

 * Template:American Jewish Historical Society - Finding Aid
 * An example:
 * displays
 * displays
 * displays


 * Template:CJHr
 * An example:
 * displays
 * National Eternal Light Vigil for Soviet Jewry held by the American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History
 * displays
 * National Eternal Light Vigil for Soviet Jewry held by the American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History