Yehuda Loew ben Betzalel [MaHaRaL of Prague] - relations of Maharal

In case you forgot - Geni is a site for Genealogy. That means people’s ancestors or descendants!!

Right, but Yigal has added to the name of each relative a description of the relation to the Maharal, as if he is the center of the universe. Take a look at the tree. For example, does Rabbi Chaim Wahl, [Maharal s.in law] really need [Maharal s.in law] as a title added to his name?

I personally find this useful when I'm searching and I'm a descendant of the Maharal's sister.

agree with peter hill. why am i in geni.com.? because i want to trace the ancestors of my family. all information concerning the maharal can be found inofficial literature about him. as simple as that. i do not understand the whole idea here!
hag sameach!

I like it when profiles have just first name, surname and potentially middle name, suffix and title and birth surname if it's not equal to last name. Other data should be in the new custom fields we can add. I hate it when display name is used to obscure the name data.

I like it too Jonathan, but when no surnames exist and sometimes no names at all, and especially for parents, siblings, spouses and close relatives of prominent rabbis of the 17th century and earlier - additional info is needed - especially to prevent wrong merges due to similar/identical first names.
After having to rebuild the Maharal's family tree at lease 5 times due to "bad merges", I found it necessary to include the added ID info in the name boxes.
Besides - in other cases it gives the name of celebs and their relatives (of older generations) a little twist, very much appreciated by family members, over the "dry-strike" info of a mere census.

Good points.

Try searching "Maharal" on Geni. You get 97 results. The actual Maharal appears on page three. That is a problem, in my view.

It is simply not necessary to label every single ancestor, child, grandchild, great-grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandson-in-law, parents of in-laws, etc. with the name "Maharal." Now that we have relationship locking, which can and should be used on these profiles, it really isn't necessary to have all these labels.

For example, why do we need the Maharal's 10g-grandfather labeled this way?

Rabbi Nachman Luria

Yes - as long as it is acceptable to most of the managers.

I have no problem with them. they are all over the tree top of the Katzenellenbogen and Vilna Goan trees.

I see @Randy Schoenberg's point. Perhaps, there is a way to have Geni either tweak the search algorithm, or we can come up with a standard naming configuration so that the primary alias has priority over tertiary uses such as "ancestor of" or "son/daughter of." Maybe having standard generational cut-off of say two or three generations might cut down on the overuse. Happy Pesach!

Hi Guys,
I believe GENI is intended for future generations. Their search should be in mind as well. Therefore as much information in the name is USEFUL. But if that is not ideal, the extra parts can be moved to: ALSO KNOWN AS, so that the search algorithm will find them.

I am proposing to sever the deep ancestry of the Maharal, which appears to be invented and without any reasonable source. I am sure people will be upset, but if you disagree, please follow the discussion at https://www.geni.com/discussions/194554 and add some sources to the profiles.

To be clear, I am proposing to sever the Maharal's maternal grandfather Chaim from his father.

Chaim Issenheimer or Klober, [Maharal Mat-Gd.father]

Randy Schoenberg Do you mean totally deleting the ancestry, or just removind the "Maharal _____" from the name?

Cutting everything above Chaim.

One of the things that makes Geni interesting is the ability to see how we are ALL, or at least almost all, connected to each other, regardless of current ethnicity or religion. For many of us, those possible connections are 20, 30, 50 generations back. At the same time, I understand the desire to be as accurate as "possible." So, even though we see an uncanny resemblance to several ancient Chinese emperors, I understand the severing of that connection through Attila The Hun a couple years ago. Similarly, the severing of the Spanish connection in the Horowitz tree, even though it remains possible, if not likely, they landed in Bohemia through Spain several centuries earlier. BUT, is it really necessary to sever the Maharal at his grandparents? Can't we just say, "For more than a century, we believed X, new information has cast doubts, so gaze into antiquity knowing there is more work to be done?" This is a big intersection, involving thousands of ancestors and their descendents. In such turbulent times, why add to the distress?

Because we can’t do “could be, why not” genealogy.

It is “by far” more distressing to find out that a site you thought you trusted was indulging in speculation. We can’t afford that on Geni.

Private User, read this article from 2009 and you will better understand what we are doing and why.

https://media.geni.com/p13/23/c3/6d/69/5344484c6dc91718/judah_loew_...

Randy Schoenberg

I know the article is academic, but considering the many frictions within the jewish community, can we be sure the research was absolutely impartial ? Is there a way to know there was neutrality in handling the matter ?