Talk:Tobias Asser

Is Asser Jewish?
Editor User:RachelBrown has made some changes to indicate that Asser is Jewish. No other editor has done anything in this regard, and RachelBrown has not made any unrelated edit to this page. Moreover, the Nobel bio page doesn't give any indication of a Jewish religious/ethnic background for Asser.

Moreover, I've had some minor conflict elsewhere with RachelBrown over my perception of her excesses of "Jewish inclusionism"... that is, she apparently likes to characterize people as Jewish, but without necessarily giving verifiable support for such characterization. Not that it matters either way, but for her this characterization is a form of praise, rather than of condemnation or neutral facticity.

Do other editors feel that this characterization is supported? Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 18:35, 19 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I put these indications on at Mr Lulu's insistence - he believes that people cannot appear on lists of Jews in Wikipedia unless there are large signs all over their articles that they are Jewish. I would never have done so otherwise, yet now he criticises me for doing so.  As noted in the article, Mr Asser is listed in the Jewish Encyclopedia, a standard work of reference.  Apparently, this is not enough for Mr Lulu.  What would be enough? - RachelBrown 14:20, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

There is absolutely no doubt that he was Jewish. He even was a member of the Netherlands Israelite Seminary. However, he abandoned Judaism in 1890 and probably converted to Protestantism, although he never formally joined that church. (Source: Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands, http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn2/asser [in Dutch])

BTW, his legal name was Tobias Michel Karel Asser, although he called himself T. M. C. Asser. Vernoeming (talk) 14:41, 21 October 2010 (UTC)