User talk:הסרפד/Asher Eder

(New outline: 1. Unique source, 2. Lack of corroboration, absence of evidence etc., 3. Internal problems, 4. Suspicious similarity, 5. Serial fraud)

Eder and "Reuel Abraham"

The story of "Reuel Abraham" (ex-"Karl Heinz Schneider"), the former Luftwaffe pilot who converted to Judaism, though based on fact, is so hopelessly transmogriphied that it cannot be kept. Logic should trump the GNG when "reliable" sources are not to be relied on. (See WP:OTTO and the Kalyanasundaram case, for example.)

Review of the previous AfD

At the previous AfD, two and a half years ago, the authenticity and notability of the subject were questioned; the article was kept as "no consensus". Related discussions took place at Talk:Reuel Abraham and at the reference desk. It was determined that there are perhaps three reliable sources; two with substantial coverage and one without:

1. An article by the North American Newspaper Alliance (published in The Miami News on 21 April 1966, p. 7B (now a dead link), and previously by the Milwaukee Journal on 21 March of that year, Green Sheet p. 2, and even earlier by the Pittsburgh Press on 6 March, p. 1, 8 (cont.) where the author is identified as Leo Heiman])
2. An entry in A Treasury of Jewish Anecdotes attributed to a 1970 edition of The Jewish Digest (not especially reliable)
3. A passing mention, in a 2001 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, of a "Karl Heinz Schneider" as an ex-Nazi convert to Judaism in Israel.

The latter two sources are consistent with the NANA article, especially the Treasury entry.

• The reason to keep was that it meets the basic notability requirements (barely). (The question of which is more notable—Reuel Abraham or his life's story—is academic.)
• The reasons to delete were: that the tale is generally too far-fetched; it depends entirely on the word of the rabbi quoted in the NANA article (Hebrew or German sources referring to Schneider/Abraham could not be found]]); and that Schneider's leading a Hitler Youth battalion at a very young age is implausible.

  To these I might add: "all 363 precepts of Jewish law" is a bad mistake; no Israeli rabbi named Reuben Kahane is mentioned in contemporary Israeli newspapers[1] or rabbinic literature[2]; and the given etymology of Schneider's chosen Jewish name is ludicrous. (רעואל‎‎ is obviously the original name, not ראואל‎‎. This last error, more than anything, convinces me that the NANA article is a fanciful embellishment of a pre-existing article.). (The story of David Morris, an alleged reincarnation of King David, was also reported by Leo Heiman, and also quotes a spurious rabbi of the "Supreme Religious Council", as well as the head of a non-existent branch of the National Museum of Israel. [3] [4], 109–112, [5])

Those voting "keep" felt that these arguments are insufficient to discredit the above source(s).

Now, to the point:

I propose that the NANA article is a badly corrupted account of the colorful life of Asher (formerly Oskar) Eder (1925–2011), a prominent German convert to Judaism who lived in Israel, who indeed served in the Luftwaffe.

• The historical Eder

Oskar (Anton) Eder was born near Nuremberg in 1925. He was a member (not a battalion leader) of the Hitler Youth; he was a pilot in the Luftwaffe at the end of World War Two, but never engaged in combat. After the war's end until the early 1950's, he studied law and graduated as a doctor of law and worked as a lawyer for Commerzbank in Frankfurt. He then travel to Asia "in search of the truth". After investigating various Eastern religions and Islam, he moved to Israel, where, together with other Christian Germans, he helped found a small settlement near Yokneam in the Galilee where he lived in a small cabin. In February 1966, he submitted a request to convert to the Bet Din (rabbinical court) of Haifa. After a delay of almost three years (during which he visited Germany, and when his cabin was destroyed in a fire, resettled in Jerusalem) he completed his conversion in 1969, and then married. He changed his name to "Asher (Avraham) Eder" (spelling his surname in Hebrew inconsistently as either אדר‎ or עדר‎‎) as his Hebrew name, though he had been using "Asher" since learning Hebrew, after aariving in Israel. In his later life, he worked a tour guide, co-founded (with Abdul Hadi Palazzi) the "Islam-Israel Fellowship", and wrote several books. He was the primary inspiration of Ehud Ben Ezer's^(he) 1968 novel, Anshe Sedom (אנשי סדום‎), which, in its 2001 edition, has an epilogue describing Eder's history; in 2004, his biography, Pilgrimage from Darkness: Nuremberg to Jerusalem, was written by David E. Feldman (University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 978-1-57806-619-3).

Recent sources:
Haaretz (English); (Hebrew) La Presse (French) LOTEM (Hebrew) Israel Tour Guides Association Memorial site (a summary of Feldman's biography, with some details supplemented by the article's author; Hebrew} Hadashot Ben Ezer ("Ben Ezer News", Ehud Ben Ezer's 'blog'; Hebrew)

Naturally, Eder was covered by the contemporary press, from when the media became aware of his intent to convert (1963), up to his conversion (1969):

Newspaper articles:

Maariv, 2 August 1963, p. 6: Eder's intends to convert Maariv, 4 March 1966, pp. 6–7: Mention of Eder's recent formal request to convert Davar, 6 May 1966, p. 16; Maariv 18 May 1966, p. 1: Eder is suspected of missionary activity; conversion delayed Davar, 5 July 1968, p. 4: Eder renews his request after having himself circumcised Maariv, 8 January 1969, p. 7; Davar, 8 January 1969, p. 4: Eder converts AJR Information, March 1969, p. 12 (English)

• Comparison of the tales of the two converts:

The parallels to "Reuel Abraham"/"Schneider" are clear: German, born c. 1925, Luftwaffe pilot, lives in a village in the Galilee, and applies to convert at the rabbinical court in Haifa around early 1966 (no earlier than 1965 and no later than March 1966, for Schneider).

Discrepancies are also apparent

Schneider had active battle roles as a pilot, remained in Germany for twenty years, worked as the director a coal mine, settled in Bustan HaGalil, and actually completed his conversion in or before 1966; while Eder never flew on a mission, traveled abroad after less than ten years in Germany, worked as a lawyer in a bank, settled in Yokneam Moshava (some 20 miles from Bustan HaGalil), and had his conversion delayed by almost three years after his initial request. There are also many details in Schneider's story that do not correspond to known details in Eder's life (e.g. witnessing massacres in Poland, charitable donations, incognito visits to synagogues). Above all, the names, before and after, are incongruous.

• The missing link

On 25 February 1966, less than a month before the first known appearance of the NANA's story of "Reuel Abraham", a very brief article was published, in two identical copies, in the Israeli press: in Maariv (p. 2) and in Davar (p. 2).

The article tells of a former Luftwaffe pilot, aged about 40, who lives in a farm in "the North" (i.e. the Galil), having settled in Israel after exploring India, Burma, and Islamic countries, and investigating the local religions. The man, whose name is not given, has submitted to the Haifa rabbinical court a request to convert. The article reports that the members of the court suggested that, after converting, he chose the name Reuel (רעואל‎‎; note the Ayin!) which he correctly identifies as the name of Moses' father-in-law.

In all likelihood, the article refers to Eder. The Davar article of May 1966 specifies February of that year as the date of Eder's request, and mentions previous media attention, and the Maariv and Davar articles on Eder incorporate, in their descriptions of Eder, entire paragraphs of the February 1966 article verbatim. Also, Ben Ezer writes in his blog (linked above) that he first became aware of Eder from an article published in Yedioth Aharonoth (which, unlike Maariv and Davar, is not archived at my favorite newspaper archive...) on 27 February 1966, though that article was apparently more detailed than the Maariv/Davar article of two days prior. (I am not surprised that Eder did not take the rabbis' suggestion, as "Reuel" is a very rare name. In any case, the other articles show that he had been using "Asher" for several years before, so he had already made his choice of a Hebrew name.)

Nevertheless, the Hebrew "Reuel" is the only Eder article that fits the NANA's "Reuel" well, since the former pilot's name, post-war profession, exact location, and the chronology of his conversion are not given, leaving the original author of the "Reuel Abraham" story more room for "creativity" (which, as I argued above, he/she demonstrated). Artistic license also easily explains the modification of Eder's military career, with its great abundance of detail.

Yet some minor conflicts remain: Eder's birth date is given in