Category talk:Jewish scientists

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Articles for deletion This category was nominated for deletion or renaming on 2005 September 22. The result of the discussion was merge from Category:Jews in science. An archived record of this discussion can be found on this log page.
Categories for discussion This category was nominated for deletion, renaming, or merging with another category on 2007 April 10. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Category:Jewish scientists page.

This category, apparently, contains a list of various figures who are "Jews" in either a religious, a culturual, a matrilineal, or a familial sense, with a hodge-podge mixture of different meanings between the figures. User:Lulu_of_the_Lotus-Eaters

OK, but we really need some stated criteria for who goes in here. Just referring to several other pages from which readers may (or may not) manage to fathom the intended category scope is no good. Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters
  • It looks like this category has caused some controversy I was hoping to transfer some of the lists at List of Jews into categories so you can actually see their inclusion on the linked pages I have started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Jews_in_music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Jews_in_the_visual_arts

and this one, maybe there is an easier way to transfer these lists to categories? comments appreciated Arnie587 00:04, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Split up?

If this category is done properly, it will soon have a very large number of names. Wouldn't it be sensible to start categories for Jewish physicists, biologists, etc.? - Newport 22:08, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Aim?

What is the sense in this categorization? Shouldn't we have a page for vegetarian scientists as well? What about Aryan restauranteurs?

The label "Jewish writers", say, may make some sense in certain contexts: there are certain motifs in common in -- for example -- the works of Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud and Mordecai Richler. (Of course, even then, it would be more precise and meaningful to refer at some point to their origins in an immigrant population coming from a particular swath of Eastern Europe, sharing, in most cases, certain practices or beliefs.) "Jewish scientists" seems to be a quasi-racial classification done for its own sake (or goodness knows what purpose). It might be safe to venture that few of the figures listed here observed any religion, and even if they did, it is hard to see what effect that would have had on their work. It is not as if there were such a thing as Jewish science.

The relationship of religion and science is of some interest even if not to you. Also "Jewish" is considered to be an ethnicity or nationality as well. On religion see Category:Christians in science and Category:Muslim scientists. On similar nationality or ethnicity categories see Category:Catalan scientists, Category:Puerto Rican scientists, Category:Welsh scientists, and Category:African American scientists.--T. Anthony 12:23, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish scientists: Religious or cultural-social group?

I think that the chief problem with this list is its inclusion of those who are Jewish scientists by race (such as Steven Rose, who is an atheistic biologist), and those who who are Jewish by religion. Perhaps it would be an idea to have a sub-heading in ths category, so that readers can check which Jewish scientists have remained devout, practicing Jews. ACEO 19:56, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

That would open a can of worms. One person's devout, practising Jew is another's "hardly keeps anything". The only sensible procedure consistent with the principles of Wikipedia is to find a reliable source that says that someone is Jewish.--Runcorn 23:04, 10 November 2006 (UTC)