Talk:Yaaqov Medan

message: I have received the following request:
:Rav Meidan, now a Rosh Yeshiva in Yeshivat Har Etzion, recently requested that his name be spelled in English publications as "Yaaqov Medan." As you can imagine, this spelling garners much fewer Google hits than when spelled with a k. Should his article, and all mentions of him, be changed to "Yaaqov" in deference to him as a self-identifying entity, or not? I'm not familiar enough with WP:NC to know the answer. Thanks, DLand 18:31, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: [Hi DLand: Firstly can you DOCUMENT what you claim, otherwise who says it's even true that it is what he wants? Secondly I have asked a few other editors for their views, so wyou will hear about it. Thirdly, I do not have a opinion, I think it can LEGITIMATELY go either way because Hebrew language naming conventions have not been standardized on Wikipedia and they probably never will be (since Hebrew names come from so many legitimate traditions and histories: Israeli vs. non-Israeli; Ashkenazi vs. Sephardi; conventional common usage vs. academic technical; and even Hasidic vs. the rest ! See :Category:Hebrew words for the range of possibilities.) But I guess, being that Judaism teaches retzono shel adam zeh k'vodo and in this case you claim that the good rabbi wants his name written in a specific way in English(?) yet so we should probably respect his wishes if that is indeed what he wants even though it is NOT the common spelling for the name as you found out on Google. Be well. IZAK 20:52, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: As for documentation, the YHE office sent out an email to alumni notifying people of Rav Meidan's request. This is reflected in the latest edition of the alumni publication Etzion Update (PDF) in the first couple of lines. It may seem rather odd that Rav Medan would make a public announcement over such a minute issue, but I assume it has to do with the fact that he is a Bible scholar who is involved in the world of Jewish academia. It is like him to be medakdek in things like this. Thanks, DLand 21:20, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I assume you mean m'daqdeq?  :-D  As IZAK points out, we have no standardized Hebrew transliteration scheme on Wikipedia, as much as many of us wish we did... the problem with developing one is that there are too many strong proponents of a scheme who know beyond a shadow of a doubt that theirs is the "correct" scheme, and all of them/us have sound rationales for why.  That said, while retzono shel adam ze kvodho is not a wikipolicy, respecting people's wishes regarding articles about themselves, and the use of their names, does play a significant rôle in discussion about how WP should treat text regarding them.  In this case, many people go with "Yaakov", apparently because lack the ability to distinguish between ק and כ ... just as they likewise cannot distinguish between ט and ת or ח and ך...and, more relevantly in this case, between א and ע...  If he wants to be listed as Yaaqov, I see no strong argument denying his request.  Redirects (in this case from Yaakov => Yaaqov) are cheap.  Tomertalk 11:43, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Here are the rest of the comments so far from User talk:IZAK#Yaakov Meidan. Sorry about the confusing formatting.--DLand 19:07, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: To begin with, where did he make this request? Jayjg (talk) 17:18, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Rav Medan notified the people in Yeshivat Har Etzion who deal with "overseas" alumni affairs/English letters and publications/the Virtual Beit Midrash. This information was spread by email to English-speaking alumni (myself included). In terms of actual proof or documentation, Rav Medan's request is reflected in the latest issue of the alumni publication Etzion Update (PDF), in the first couple of lines, and in several places throughout the issue. I think it makes sense to move to Yaaqov Medan, even though that spelling is currently a big loser on Google. I'm sure that as time goes on his publications and references to him will abound on the internet with the "new" spelling and will eventually overtake the intuitive spelling. --DLand 04:23, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Request from the subject