Appropriateness of dedicating my thesis to a Jewish mathematician who died in a concentration camp

Question

I am a Muslim student in a non-Arab country. Would it be unwanted/inappropriate for me to dedicate my thesis on Tauber theory to Alfred Tauber, and more generally to all those Jewish mathematicians who died in Nazi concentration camps during WW2? I thought it would form a nice opportunity for some remembrance of the fact that so many people whose work we value today were affected. I was greatly saddened to learn about the fate of A. Tauber and wanted to do something with that. On the other hand, a mathematics thesis might not be the place to "confront" like this.

Answer 1

Aeismail’s answer is spot on: who you choose to dedicate it to is entirely up to you (modulo political expedience). I've read theses dedicated to martyrs and I've read theses dedicated to cats. Do what you feel moved to do. See answers here for some discussion.

As for how it would be received by the Jewish community and Jewish mathematicians, I am confident that the answer is "extremely well," based on my experiences and conversations about similar tributes. On a personal level, as a Jewish mathematician and descendant of survivors I would find this incredibly meaningful to come across and quite likely be moved to tears by a well-written dedication along these lines.

A tip about writing the dedication: one common mistake that people writing about the Holocaust make is to paint it as “unimaginable” or “unprecedented.” Although it is by far the single largest genocide in terms of total number of people killed (6M Jews, 5M others includes Poles, the disabled, and homosexuals) that usually rubs me the wrong way. The Holocaust is without a doubt the most socially prominent, but definitely not only, example of persecutions of Jews or of genocide as a whole. It’s also not the most recent or “last” (I see people use this term) genocide, nor has Nazism gone away. Today there is genocide in Myanmar against the Rohingya people and in Iraq against the Yazidi. Today neo-Nazis openly march in Virginia, USA while targeting Jews in their chants and waving the swastika. These facts are things people tend to be unaware of, and so people can sometimes accidentally take away from their tributes through inaccurate or dismissive words.

I think a dedication to Tauber and the others who were murdered would be lovely, but caution you to think carefully about the wording lest you accidentally minimize or dismiss the aforementioned facts.

A couple of people seem to have missed the fact that there’s a direct connection between Tauber and your work. To explicitly state that for anyone who is reading this: the field that is the topic of the dissertation is known as “Tauber Theory” and (presumably) Tauber’s work was foundational and central to the field and the dissertation.

Answer 2

Who you choose to recognize in your acknowledgments is up to you. If you would like to dedicate it to the memory of someone, that's entirely your choice. If you are worried about the political backlash, you could submit the thesis to the reviewer without the dedication and acknowledgments and then add those at the end.

Answer 3

a mathematics thesis might not be the place to "confront" like this.

No, I disagree. There are few ways in academia to draw attention to this crime more powerful than the acknowledgements section of your thesis. I hope you choose to do so!

Also, to speak to another part of your comment . . .

I am a Muslim student in a non-Arab country. Would it be unwanted/inappropriate for me . . . .

That you are Muslim does not detract from this in any way. Politically, to the Jewish communities, that you are Muslim would only add more power to your acknowledgement.

Answer 4

A lot of people don't seem to realize that acknowledgments are most often inserted into the thesis after the committee has read and signed off on it. On the one hand this is justified because they are not part of the intellectual content of the thesis, and indeed the committee should not be swayed by the acknowledgments in either way. On the other hand, this makes good practical sense because acknowledgments most commonly contain thanks and praise for the thesis advisor, and it's best if the thesis advisor doesn't see this until after she has read and approved the thesis. In light of this I fervently disagree that the OP is accruing any non-negligible risk that placing this acknowledgment will jeopardize the outcome of his thesis submission or defense.

But more than this I fervently disagree with the idea that the OP would necessarily be wrong to incur any non-negligible risk to his academic career by speaking out on something that he believes in. Shame on everyone who suggested or implied that the OP may not know where the Holocaust deniers / anti-semites / anti-Israeli leftists may lie and therefore should behave as though anyone could potentially be such a person. That is exactly wrong.

I have led my professional life in open support of those who have feeling for their fellow human beings, even / especially those who come from different backgrounds than their own. This has worked well for me, but if it had worked out badly then it would have been even more important.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

I encourage the OP to be a pico-Gandhi by having the courage to honor the people he wants to honor in his own thesis acknowledgments. Maybe this will serve as an example in particular to those who have advised against this here.

Answer 5

I would argue that such a dedication is appropriate - it serves to memorialize a great person who moved mathematical study forwards significantly, and was killed by an oppressive regime due to his ethnic background. This would be akin to a computer science publication being dedicated to Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, who was oppressed for being gay in 1940s England. It is not an exceptionally controversial dedication so much as one that recognizes our field's past and humanity's advancement in the face of adversity. I would not hesitate to dedicate a published document to a significant historical figure who influenced the entire field behind my work, no matter their religious or ethnic background. This is your thesis, however, so it is ultimately your judgment call.

Answer 6

A thesis is, among other goodies, a piece of literature. I would include historical remarks into it, too - for the purpose of educating the reader. In the historical section, I would elaborate on the fates of the involved mathematicians. This would make the thesis interesting to read even for non-mathematicians. In particular, I would speak about Alfred Tauber there as much or as little as I wish - and make this section captivating. Yes, I would definitely mention his death circumstances. A dedication to Mr. Tauber may or may not be inlcuded according to your wish, but if you include it, it will certainly raise the literary quality of your writing.

The fact that you are a Muslim in a non-Arab country is irrelevant. Being a Muslim is about your own, personal beliefs and your own, very personal way of thinking, behaving, and living, and has nothing to do with mathematics and the history of Holocaust, in particular, of Mr. Tauber. Mr. Tauber's death in a concentration camp, the worldwide sufferings of the Jewish diaspora, and, finally, the Holocaust are disgraceful, horrible pages of the history of mankind that are written with blood. The world should be aware of them, and it's everyone's duty to know about them and learn from them. Germany has already learnt, and the time will come when the other countries will also have to learn. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls …" But, regardless of this shame on us, Mr. Tauber's personal life, in its core, is not directly related to your thesis, to you personally, or to your religion.

Answer 7

As a Jewish researcher in the Jewish state, I was profoundly touched by your post. I agree with previous answers that you can make this acknowledgment. But at the same time, it may indeed potentially damage you, as Arthur Tarasov said. Probably you can make some more general dedication to all innocently killed or repressed mathematicians (or scientists, in general). At the end, it might not be that different whether a scientist (or any person at all) died in Hitler's concentration camp, executed by Stalin's regime (as for example, Matvei Bronstein or was prosecuted because of his homosexuality as Alan Turing.

Answer 8

You should be careful when writing personal statements into public work. These include dedications, acknowledgements, even cover pictures in some cases. This is intended as general advice, without the political implications which other answers already discussed.

You should always ask yourself "What is the message I want to convey?" and "What am I achieving by conveying my message in this particular way?".

It is fine to care about causes or be touched by the fates of people. Most people will agree with your dedication. Few will not. And some, and this is the most important category, will question your intentions behind it, regardless of how they feel towards your statement. (Are you trying to gain favors with the committee? Are you trying to promote your political views through your scientific publication? Are you a provocateur? etc.)

The point is, strong statements in work where science is the focus reap no benefits from the positive effects, but can cause harm if viewed negatively. Your ultimate goal is to have your thesis approved and to graduate. People who are favorably inclined towards your statement won't give you "bonus points" for it, i.e. let you graduate if you would have failed otherwise. But people who are negatively inclined, might be biased enough to cause you trouble. The worst thing here is that probably nobody will voice their disagreement with your dedication directly, but will show their bias in other ways. Thus, you put yourself in a position where you might evaluate every critique whether it is a valid remark on your work or just some psychological reaction to your dedication.

Therefore, I would always advise against strong statements unrelated to the work. Your views are better and more professionally expressed (and bound to reach a broader audience) when included in your monographs or blog posts, for example, as opposed to theses or papers.

Answer 9

Is it important for you to concentrate on his death? I (personally) would rather be remembered for what I achieved and and not what was done to me. So rather "He was great mathematician and his research influenced hundreds of mathematicians in the following decades".

Answer 10

I think that the idea behind this is excellent and highly laudable.

The only possible issue is that an academic publication should be purely academic and free from any personal political or moral (as opposed to ethical) stance.

With this in mind I think it would perhaps be better to restrict any acknowledgements to those which had a direct influence on your paper, as academic publication is not really the appropriate forum to express your personal opinions, no matter how morally justified.

Having said that I would certainly encourage you to do everything you can to promote the value of science, reason and humanist (in the general sense) discourse above racial, national and religious differences in other forums.

But then again it is hard to see how a personal dedication, which is obviously separate from academic acknowledgements as a preface to the paper would be a bad thing. The key being to be clear that it is separate from the academic work itself.

Answer 11

Students have wide scope in their acknowledgements to dedicate their dissertation to whoever they wish. Your proposed dedication is unlikely to be even mildly controversial; a much more interesting question is whether one would incur a backlash dedicating a thesis to a mathematician on the other side of this historical event (e.g., Ludwig Bieberbach), but even here, an acknowledgement should not be an issue, and a professional reviewer would ignore your acknowledgement in assessing the merits of your academic work.

Given your thesis topic, it makes perfect sense that you might like to dedicate your thesis to Alfred Tauber, since he is the progenitor of the field that is the subject of that thesis. It also makes sense to mention his demise, and it is not at all unreasonable to mention other mathematicians who shared his fate. The only possible negative is the decision to include other Jewish mathematicians killed in the Holocaust, but exclude other non-Jewish mathematicians killed under other regimes, but even here, this is a direct offshoot of recognising what happened to Tauber. It would take a very tendentious person to be offended by this.

Answer 12

If your thesis is on Tauber theory then dedicating it to a man would be appropriate, so long as you do not do it for political reasons. However, it seems that at least in part you are doing it for political reasons. I would remove all that is not mathematics from your dedication statement. A simple sentence would work fine "I dedicate this work to Tauber."

Answer 13

You're a Muslim? I'd definitely avoid it. Even if you weren't a Muslim, I'd tell you to avoid it because of how touchy a subject it is unless the person in question was directly related to the work you've been doing, or you personally were directly related to them, but when you add in the ongoing tensions between Israel and much of the rest of the Middle East, there's too big a risk that it might come off as mocking them or gloating about it.

Additionally, even if you manage to avoid falling into that additional pitfall, there's enough antisemitic sentiment among the Left-wing political activist types common on university campuses (e.g. the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement) that I'd recommend against referencing them at all, even in a positive light; you never know if one of the people marking your paper is one of the people that really, really doesn't like Israel.