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Revision as of 08:40, 29 May 2018 editJack Upland (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users31,870 edits Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Jewish United States citizens..." in lede paragraph is WP:UNDUE← Previous edit Latest revision as of 04:24, 22 December 2024 edit undoSineBot (talk | contribs)Bots2,555,409 editsm Signing comment by 2600:8802:5913:1700:7597:DD0E:35B5:1044 - "" 
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== Age at death / limitations of sidebar == == Age at death / limitations of sidebar ==
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which I believe removes the ambiguity. There is still some minor formatting inconsistency as the sidebar places the initial age in parenthesis, but this was the best I could do with the automated process. At least now they are not reported dead at the same age. which I believe removes the ambiguity. There is still some minor formatting inconsistency as the sidebar places the initial age in parenthesis, but this was the best I could do with the automated process. At least now they are not reported dead at the same age.


== NPV maintained? ==

I'm questioning the NPV of this article. The article seems quite slanted towards putting forward a largely discredited theory of the Rosenburg's innocence. Anyone familiar with this episode is aware that it was a celebrity cause of the far left for 20 years that the Rosenbergs were innocent. Eventually the evidence became overwhelming with the release of the Venona intercepts and so it was shelved.

It seems this article continues the tradition, now limited to trying to prove the innocence of Ethyl Rosenburg, alone. In fact as current written it might better by titled "The Innocence of Ethyl Rosenberg".

I note that many of the sources are from the Communist news paper "Sparticus" which can hardly be considered a reliable source in an article about Communist plots and spying.

Having a section on "controversy" and including some trimmed down information on this might be appropriate, but repurposing the article as ongoing propaganda is not.

I believe the article falls far short of maintaining a neutral point of view.

] (]) 16:28, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

:] is not a Communist newspaper, though it does have a strange name. You are possibly confusing it with the ] or the ].--] (]) 22:40, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

::Generally, this article complies with ]. The section "Later Developments" has the minor issue that it has a single paragraph devoted to ], and ''four'' paragraphs talking about Ethel Rosenberg's innocence.
::This is not a huge POV issue for a reader who understands how to weigh emotional appeals (including the troubling statement that star witnesses in the Rosenberg's trial much later came forth to recant their statements about Ethel Rosenberg during her trial). However, less sophisticated readers may just count lines of text in our article and be persuaded of Ethel Rosenberg's innocence. At that point, our article loses encyclopedic value because walls of text about efforts to exonerate Ethel Rosenberg create ] issues.
:: Does anyone else think we ought to either
::*summarize the recent statements promoting Ethel Rosenberg's innocence in a paragraph or two (creating a separate main article in which the information as it appears in this article is presented in its present level of detail, along with her descendants' efforts to have her officially exonerated), or
::*expand the description of the ] so that is carries the same weight in the "Later Developments" section as the rest of the section?
:: If I see other editors support either of these options, I'll do a Request for Consensus on the one that gets the most support. ] (]) 04:35, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

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Cheers.—] <span style="color:green;font-family:Rockwell">(])</span> 18:03, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

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== Change "Later developments" section to use chronological order ==
Cheers.—] <span style="color:green;font-family:Rockwell">(])</span> 00:42, 7 December 2017 (UTC)


I think it will benefit our readers if we untangle this section. New sources of information emerged at specific dates, which we can use:
== ''"Julius and Ethel"'' (1983) is based on the Rosenberg case as seen through the Nobel prizewinner ]'s eyes" - ]?" ==
* 1995 publication of Venona decryptions (material that was available to the FBI but not made public during the trial)
* 2001 David Greenglass later statements
* 2008 release of grand jury testimony
* 2008 Morton Sobell later statements
* 2009 Vassiliev notebooks published online
The Rosenberg children and their campaign for the exoneration of Ethel Rosenberg belong in a different section.
I am going to try to sort this out. ] (]) 18:52, 15 November 2020 (UTC)
: 1995 Venona descriptions:
"...For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's brother David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband..."
But Mr. David Greenglass wasn’t the brother of Mrs. Ruth Greenglass. He was her spouse!
This phrase must be written so:


For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's spouse David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband. --] (]) 07:21, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
Under the heading '''Artistic representations''', the sentence
<blockquote>"'']'' (1983) is based on the Rosenberg case as seen through the Nobel prizewinner ]'s eyes".</blockquote> seems to place undue emphasis on Dylan's Nobel Prize for Literature, which nowhere cites the song "Julius and Ethel". The words "Nobel prizewinner" ought to be deleted from the sentence as ].
In addition, the statement is unsourced, which makes it stand out from the rest of the section, in which sources are given for each preceding statement of fact. It might be better for the sentence to be deleted entirely until a reliable source can be found stating what is said. ] (]) 18:33, 15 March 2018 (UTC)


== Clarification about Ethel ==
: Agreed. The whole line was poorly written. I've re-phrased it and added a citation. – ]<sup>(])</sup> 20:31, 15 March 2018 (UTC)


The previous version of this article claimed at the start that both Julius and Ethel spied for the Soviets and provided info to them. But all of the article’s sources that I looked at said that Ethel was involved in recruiting but ''not'' in providing info to the Soviets. So that opening paragraph seemed to me to be factually incorrect (according to the article’s sources), so I changed it. My change may not have been the best way to address this issue, I don’t know; but if someone ends up reverting my change, then please make other changes to make the article match what it says in the sources. (Or else provide a source for the specific claim that Ethel passed info to the Soviets.) — ] (]) 00:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)
== '''Julius''' and '''Ethel Rosenberg''' were Jewish ] citizens..." in lede paragraph is ] ==


== Ethel's Innocence ==
The lede paragraph of his article was modified on 20:49, 28 May 2018 to say <blockquote>"'''Julius''' and '''Ethel Rosenberg''' were Jewish ] citizens... ".</blockquote>.


This article would benefit from including information on the prosecution’s knowledge of intercepted Soviet communications related to the Rosenberg case. These communications detailed espionage activities using codenames for various spies, yet notably referred to “Ethel” directly in the description of the role codenamed “Antenna,” believed to refer to Ethel’s husband, Julius. It is significant that the prosecution was aware of this fact, and there is evidence suggesting that Ethel’s execution was intended, in part, to conceal the extent to which the United States had successfully intercepted and decoded Soviet messages. ] (]) 17:26, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
The religious background of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (both were from Jewish families) is already dealt with in the section "Early lives and education". If there is a notable connection between the religious and cultural milieu and the acts for which this couple became notable, it's not documented by a reliable source. Likewise, if either Julius or Ethel Rosenberg were observant Jews, that is also not documented by a reliable source.


:It's speculative.--] (]) 01:55, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
Neither of the two ways it's generally understood that the Rosenbergs could be called "Jewish" is relevant to the acts for which the Rosenbergs became notable. Stating the fact in the article's lede paragraph is ]. I reverted the change accordingly. ] (]) 02:41, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
::Wrong.
::https://www.justsecurity.org/105873/ethel-rosenberg-wrongful-execution/ ] (]) 04:23, 22 December 2024 (UTC)


== Not a spy ==
:Well, Jewish can be an ethnic description. No, neither of them were religiously observant: they were Communists. I agree this doesn't need to be in the lede.--] (]) 08:40, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
https://www.justsecurity.org/105873/ethel-rosenberg-wrongful-execution/ <!-- Template:Unsigned IP --><small class="autosigned">—&nbsp;Preceding ] comment added by ] (]) 04:23, 22 December 2024 (UTC)</small> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->

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Age at death / limitations of sidebar

The right-hand information block suggested that, having died the same day, they died at the same age in spite of having different birth years. Reviewing the code, it appears this was an auto-calculated field which does not allow the flexibility of reporting two death ages at a unique time for non-unique birthdates. To clarify for other readers, I changed the code from

| date_of_death  = June 19, 1953(1953-06-19) (aged 35) (both)

to

| date_of_death  = June 19, 1953(1953-06-19) (aged 35) (Julius), and aged 37 (Ethel)

which I believe removes the ambiguity. There is still some minor formatting inconsistency as the sidebar places the initial age in parenthesis, but this was the best I could do with the automated process. At least now they are not reported dead at the same age.


Change "Later developments" section to use chronological order

I think it will benefit our readers if we untangle this section. New sources of information emerged at specific dates, which we can use:

  • 1995 publication of Venona decryptions (material that was available to the FBI but not made public during the trial)
  • 2001 David Greenglass later statements
  • 2008 release of grand jury testimony
  • 2008 Morton Sobell later statements
  • 2009 Vassiliev notebooks published online

The Rosenberg children and their campaign for the exoneration of Ethel Rosenberg belong in a different section. I am going to try to sort this out. HouseOfChange (talk) 18:52, 15 November 2020 (UTC)

1995 Venona descriptions:

"...For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's brother David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband..." But Mr. David Greenglass wasn’t the brother of Mrs. Ruth Greenglass. He was her spouse! This phrase must be written so:

For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's spouse David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband. --Анатолий Глезер (talk) 07:21, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

Clarification about Ethel

The previous version of this article claimed at the start that both Julius and Ethel spied for the Soviets and provided info to them. But all of the article’s sources that I looked at said that Ethel was involved in recruiting but not in providing info to the Soviets. So that opening paragraph seemed to me to be factually incorrect (according to the article’s sources), so I changed it. My change may not have been the best way to address this issue, I don’t know; but if someone ends up reverting my change, then please make other changes to make the article match what it says in the sources. (Or else provide a source for the specific claim that Ethel passed info to the Soviets.) — Elysdir (talk) 00:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

Ethel's Innocence

This article would benefit from including information on the prosecution’s knowledge of intercepted Soviet communications related to the Rosenberg case. These communications detailed espionage activities using codenames for various spies, yet notably referred to “Ethel” directly in the description of the role codenamed “Antenna,” believed to refer to Ethel’s husband, Julius. It is significant that the prosecution was aware of this fact, and there is evidence suggesting that Ethel’s execution was intended, in part, to conceal the extent to which the United States had successfully intercepted and decoded Soviet messages. ChloeMS (talk) 17:26, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

It's speculative.--Jack Upland (talk) 01:55, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
Wrong.
https://www.justsecurity.org/105873/ethel-rosenberg-wrongful-execution/ 2600:8802:5913:1700:7597:DD0E:35B5:1044 (talk) 04:23, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Not a spy

https://www.justsecurity.org/105873/ethel-rosenberg-wrongful-execution/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8802:5913:1700:7597:DD0E:35B5:1044 (talk) 04:23, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

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