Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mechel Reisz

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 Soft delete. L Faraone 00:18, 31 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mechel Reisz[edit]

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This is an article about a Hungarian-born French rabbi who moved to the US after his retirement. I came upon this article through Wikipedia:Database reports/Living people on EN wiki who are dead on other wikis where Mechel Reisz' name came up a couple of weeks ago. (The claim, which I don't doubt, is that Reisz died on April 24) I noticed a complete absence of media reports of his death which indicated that his importance was possibly slightly overstated in the article. The article does cite several sources but after considering their content precisely, it's not even clear that any of them mention Mechel Reisz.

The source used most directly is a book Ruth Blau and a full paragraph of her work is quoted. There is at least one big problem: there's no guarantee that she's talking about Mechel Reisz since she doesn't give of the name of the rabbi she's describing. The author of the article asks us to accept the fact that the rabbi is Reisz. Blau says that the rabbi is "a Romanian Jew" whereas Reisz was apparently born in Hungary. (of course this might be due to the fact that some Jews in Hungary viewed themselves as Romanian but the discrepancy is still problematic)
Three other books are provided as references and each would be a strong sign of notability if they actually mentioned Mechel Reisz. According to Google Books however, they don't [1] [2] [3]
The last reference was published in Inyan (apparently a weekly associated with Hamodia). I cannot find trace of this online. I don't doubt that it exists but our article says that it's a letter to the editor which is far less reliable than a piece by a journalist. Given the title of the letter and its use in the article, it probably consists of little more than one apocryphal anecdote about Mechel Reisz and is not the kind of source we can actually build an article on.
I have tried to find better sources but I came up empty.

All in all, I just don't see how Reisz meets the requirements of WP:BIO nor do I feel that the current content is supported by reliable sources or even verifiable. Pichpich (talk) 20:29, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Judaism-related deletion discussions. czar · · 20:41, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of France-related deletion discussions. czar · · 20:41, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Rabbi Reisz's recent death was covered in virtually every Haredi publication; it is very likely that there are several in-depth articles about him. A search of his name in Hebrew (יחיאל מיכל רייז, some times abbreviated to מיכל רייז,‎ "מיכל" is also spelled מעכיל or מעכל) brings up many results, some of which may imply notability. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 23:42, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete: After reading nearly every online reference to him (to which I referred above), including the rabbinic literature databases hebrewbooks.org and otzar.org, I conclude that though he was very well-liked and quite well-known in the Hasidic community, Rabbi Reisz was not a very notable man. I could be convinced otherwise if it could be demonstrated that he was covered in-depth by an off-line Haredi newspaper, but the level of coverage on Haredi online news sources and forums indicates that this is unlikely.

(Note that his posthumous title, "Rebbe" and/or "Rabbi" of Paris, is apparently merely honorary; one unreliable but apparently accurate source states so specifically. ~~Also note that I am not confident that his surname is spelled correctly~~. Also, from what I know about the history of the Hasidic community of Paris, the claims of Rabbi Reisz's uniqueness are quite dubious.) הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 00:03, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind the spelling of his surname; it appears that his sons spell their name that way. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 00:09, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 01:19, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, L Faraone 04:57, 14 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, J04n(talk page) 12:59, 23 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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.