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Category: Plagiarism & Attribution

Stolen Title Pages: The Case of An Unknown Contemporary Plagiarist

Stolen Title Pages: The Case of An Unknown Contemporary Plagiarist

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“Stolen Title Pages”: The Case of An Unknown Contemporary Plagiarist* The title of this post – “Stolen Title Pages” – is not mine, instead, I have borrowed it from Chaim Lieberman.[1] I have used this title because there are many forms of plagiarism – some, totally innocent – others involving lack of citation, borrowing a sentence here or there, but the plagiarism under discussion in this post is much worse than all of the above.[2] The plagiarism discussed in this…

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Pesach Journals, Had Gadyah, Plagiarism & Bibliographical Errors

Pesach Journals, Had Gadyah, Plagiarism & Bibliographical Errors

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Two journals have put out special collections devoted to Pesach. The first, Moriah, has continued their holiday specific journals and collected their third volume of articles devoted to Pesach. Yeshurun, for the first time has also collected choice articles related to a specific holiday and published a volume devoted to Pesach as well. Yeshurun’s effort, being their first, is the focus of this post. This volume is much smaller than their typical volumes. Usually, each volume of Yeshurun is huge…

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R. Avraham ben haGra: A Victim of Plagiarism?

R. Avraham ben haGra: A Victim of Plagiarism?

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R. Avraham ben haGra: A Victim of Plagiarism? In several previous posts at the Seforim blog, I have discussed instances of plagiarism and, in this post, I would like to mention one of the more famous instances of plagiarism within Jewish literature. To be clear, the issues of plagiarism under discussion lack any ambiguity, these discussed are limited to when the entire book is republished with the only difference being the authors name at the beginning. One of the smaller…

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Who Wrote the Mekore Minhagim?

Who Wrote the Mekore Minhagim?

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As I have previously discussed, there is a well known work on the sources and rationale for various customs titled Mekore Minhagim. Indeed, there are two works with that very same title – by two different authors – that cover the same material. The question is which author stole from the other? I hope that I can clear this up as there still appears to be a misconception about who is the plagiarizer. First, a brief history about prior attempts…

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Artscroll = Pornography?!

Artscroll = Pornography?!

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I recently received a sample of the new Artscroll work “A Daily Dose of Torah.” This work, which is more or less a modern-day Hok l’Yisrael, parcels out 18 minute learning sections covering Gemara, Siddur, Mussur, etc. But setting aside the content, in the introduction there is a very curious quote. In the introduction the editors thank Reb Sheah Brander for his “graphics genius.” They explain “As someone once said in a different context, ‘I can’t put it into words,…

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R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, Tikkat Shofar on Shabbat & plagiarism (of course)

R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, Tikkat Shofar on Shabbat & plagiarism (of course)

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Menachem Mendel has a very good post discussing the issues and the history regarding the propriety of blowing the shofar on Rosh HaShana when it falls on Shabbat. A central figure in this discussion is R. Akiva Yosef Schlesinger. R. Schlesinger is perhaps best known for his book Lev haIvri a commentary on the last will and testament of the Hatam Sofer. In this book, which perhaps can be used to trace much of Haredi ideology today, the bulk is…

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