Talk:Wilfrid Israel

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I suggest adding the reference and more material from Naomi Shepherd's very well researched book on 'Wilfred Israel, Secret Ambassador of German Jewry' also published under 'A Refuge from Darkness'. It was supervised by British historian Sir Martin Gilbert and is based on WI's personal files held by the Wiener Library, London and at Zionist Archives in Israel. The man was the real 'Pimpernel' on this flight. Iain Brown —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.219.8.233 (talk) 12:30, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

"He is believed to have rescued some 2,600 children in 1944-45.[1]" What? He was killed in 1943, wasn't he? This must be a typo, but I don't know what the correct dates would be. Or does it mean that as a result of his work, the children were rescued? Could someone more knowledgeable than me look into this? Thanks. 74.68.155.226 (talk) 02:57, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Wilfrid Israel 20.JPG

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:52, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Source needed for claim about Gandhi–Einstein connection

On 27 September 1931, Wilfrid Israel took his Indian guest V. A. Sundaram to meet his friend, Albert Einstein, at his summer home in the German town of Caputh. Sundaram was Mahatma Gandhi's disciple and special envoy ... Although in the end, Einstein and Gandhi were unable to meet as they had hoped, the direct connection between them was established through Wilfrid Israel.

To me, the way this quote is written makes a very strong claim about the role that Wilfrid Israel played in a friendship/connection between Gandhi and Einstein. I have not been able to find the sourcing that supports such a strong claim. Additionally, the pronoun ambiguity makes it seem like the summer home was Israel's, but in fact it is Einstein's (excuse my WP:OVERCITE).

This claim is also included in the Einstein article (§ Political views) with a reference to this source , but this only supports Sundaram's involvement in connecting Gandhi and Einstein, making no mention of Wilfrid Israel. Online I was able to find this source with a footnote that reads:

„it was my father sundaram who visited prof.einstein with wilfrid israel in i931,as a young emmisary of mahatma gandhi- after talking to einstein for two hours,got this letter to take with him to London.iam delighted about this article.saraswati in Germany” [sic] https://www.kollermedia.at/2009/10/03/einsteins-brief-an-gandhi/ Access: 12 December 2023. On Wilfred Israel (1889-1943) see: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_Israel and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_Israel. On Vellalore Annaswamy Sundaram (1896-1967) see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._A._Sundaram.

Already, the linking to Wikipedia suggests the possibility of WP:CIRCULAR. In addition, this quote comes from a Nov 2012 comment left underneath an article by someone appearing to be Sundaram's daughter de:Saraswati Albano-Müller, which is not reliable sourcing for this claim.

This is clearly a fork. This is the transcript of an online lecture given on 9 Feb 2021 by Trudy Gold for 'Lockdown University', part of a series on Germany and Jewish Identity where Gold mentions Wilfrid Israel's facilitation of Gandhi–Einstein contact to give illustrate Israel's well-connectedness. While this source appears to be a more credible one, the bar is quite low and it does not include links to sources. I watched portions of the lecture to see if the slides contained any sources, but they only included a photo of Israel (the one used in this article).

There's nothing else online supporting the claim as it's worded now, so I have added and tags. ‍ –‍ Kilvin77 • 👾  02:15, 5 June 2026 (UTC)