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From: R. Feldman
Subject: Token naming and cultural bias
Date: 27 Av 5782
The chair thanks R. Miriam and Dr. Stern for this observation.
The Rebbetzin raises a point that extends the question considerably. We are debating whether SHUL encodes Ashkenazi bias. But the entire specification is written in English. The token SYNAGOGUE would encode Anglophone bias. BEIT-KNESSET would encode Israeli bias, or perhaps Sephardi bias, or perhaps simply a different Ashkenazi bias (the Hebrew of the Enlightenment).
I would note that this committee conducts its business in English. Our archives, our specifications, our registries. This was not a deliberate choice. It was an assumption.
Perhaps we should discuss whether this is a problem we can solve, or one we must simply acknowledge.
—Yaakov Feldman, Chair
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