Photo Credit: Saul Jay Singer

 

Magazine cover featuring Einstein as Time’s Man of the Year.

Born into a secular Jewish family in Germany, Einstein distanced himself from religious practices in his youth but, even then, he did not identify as an atheist and he self-described as “a deeply religious non-believer.” He would later more fully embrace his Jewish identity, albeit in a cultural and ethical sense rather that a religious one; reflecting on this transformation in his biography, he noted that his early religious experiences were attempts to free himself from religious doctrine to facilitate his understanding of the scientific world.

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In 1934, he wrote: “The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence – these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.” Although he professed a general non-belief in G-d, he nonetheless saw a guiding hand in the symmetry and beauty of the universe and manifested an abiding contempt for atheists; as he once wrote, “The fanatical atheists are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who – in their grudge against traditional religion as the ‘opium of the masses’ – cannot hear the music of the spheres.”

While he did not engage in traditional religious practices, he did occasionally participate in Jewish events, particularly Passover Seders. During his time at Princeton, he joined students at Seders in which he engaged in the rituals and discussions; he attended a Seder in 1944 with college students, reading from the Haggadah and playing his violin afterward; and, at a Seder in 1950, he reportedly autographed copies of the Haggadah (however, as, let us say, “an interested collector,” I have never seen one).

Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric, was of Serbian orthodox Christian background, and their children were raised entirely secularly. His second wife, Elsa Lowenthal – who was also his first cousin – was Jewish, but there is no record indicating that Einstein placed any important weight on marrying within the faith, either for himself or his children.

Frontispiece to Einstein’s About Zionism (1930)

Einstein took an active part in Jewish affairs, including raising significant sums for Jewish causes. For example, he often lent his name to UJA efforts and appeared on its behalf (see exhibits); he helped Chaim Weizmann raise funds for the purchase of land in Eretz Yisrael (1921); he supported the establishment of Israel as the fulfillment of an ancient dream; in About Zionism (1931), he spelled out his support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael; and he later appeared before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine to enter a strong plea in support of a Jewish homeland (1946).

After barely escaping Germany himself, he never stopped thinking about his Jewish brethren who were left behind and he actively campaigned on their behalf, becoming one of the most prominent and outspoken supporters of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. As early as 1929, he wrote:

When I come across the phrase “German Citizens of the Jewish Persuasion,” I cannot avoid a melancholy smile. What does this high-falutin’ description really mean? What is this “Jewish persuasion?” Is there, then, a kind of non-persuasion of which one ceases to be a Jew? There is not. What the description really means is that our beaux espirits (“brilliant minds”) are proclaiming two things; First, I wish to have nothing to do with my poor East European Jewish brethren and, secondly, I wish to be regarded not as a son of my people, but only as a member of a religious community… I am not a German citizen, nor is there anything about me that can be described as “Jewish persuasion.” But I am a Jew, and I am glad to belong to the Jewish people.

 

Original newspaper photo: Einstein opens the United Jewish Appeal drive at Princeton (May 14, 1946).

 

A passionate Zionist, he wrote to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1947): “I made the cause of Zionism mine because through it I saw a means of correcting a flagrant wrong.” He elaborated in About Zionism:

[Antisemitism and growing discrimination in Europe] have awakened in me the Jewish national sentiment. I am a national Jew in the sense that I demand the preservation of the Jewish nationality as of every other. I look upon Jewish nationality as a fact, and I think that every Jew ought to come to definite conclusions on Jewish questions on the basis of this fact. I regard the growth of Jewish self-assertion as being in the interests on non-Jews as well as Jews. That was the main motive of my joining the Zionist movement. For me, Zionism is not merely a question of colonization. The Jewish nation is a living thing, and the sentiment of Jewish nationalism must be developed both in Palestine and everywhere else…

Through the establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine, the Jewish people will again be in position to bring its creative abilities into full play without hindrance… The rebuilding of Palestine is for us Jews not a mere matter of charity or emigration; it is a problem of paramount importance for the Jewish people. Palestine is first and foremost not a refuge for East European Jews, but the incarnation of a re-awakening sense of national solidarity…

It is not sufficient for us to take part as individuals in the cultural work of mankind; we must also set our hands to some work which can serve the ends of our corporate national existence. In this way and in this way only can the Jewish people regain its health… If we really succeed in establishing a nucleus of the Jewish people in Palestine, we shall once more have a spiritual centre, notwithstanding that the great majority of us are scattered over the world… I am convinced that every Jew who cares at all for the dignity of Jewry must cooperate with all his power in the realization of Herzl’s ideal…

Original ticket to attend Einstein’s lecture at the Lemel School in Jerusalem (February 6, 1923).

On his return from a lecture tour to the Far East, Einstein visited Eretz Yisrael for twelve days in what would turn out to be his only visit there. He was greeted with great pomp as if he were a head of state, including a canon salute upon his arrival at the residence of the British High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel. Einstein and his wife were treated to a round of official festivities organized by the Zionist leadership and the Mandatory Government. For example, exhibited here is an official invitation to a reception held in honor of Professor and Mrs. Einstein on February 6, 1923 at the auditorium of the “Lemel” school in Jerusalem, where the student body turned out en masse to line the streets and welcome him.

The history of the Lemel School is fascinating and historically steeped in deep controversy. In 1854, Mrs. Hertz-Lemel sent Ludwig Frankel to Jerusalem to open a school for poor Jews as a memorial to her late father. The curriculum of the Lemel School, which was entirely tuition free, included classes in foreign languages, science, and vocational skills, in addition to Torah studies. However, great controversy ensued when Rav Yitzchak Deutsch of Vienna, aware of Frankel’s secular views, sent an advance warning to the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem, resulting in the Ashkenazim placing the school in cherem [excommunication] in a special ceremony held on 9 Sivan 1856. Nonetheless, embraced by the Sephardim, the Lemel School opened in Tammuz 1856.

During his trip to Eretz Yisrael, Einstein walked through the Old City of Jerusalem, which he described as the place where “dull ethnic brethren with their faces to the wall bend their bodies to and fro in a swaying motion. Pitiful sight of people with a past but without a present.” Among other sites, he visited the Bezalel Art Academy, the National Jewish Library, Rachel’s Tomb, the Dead Sea and Jericho, the agricultural settlements at Mikve Israel and Rishon LeZion. He was made an honorary citizen of Tel Aviv, and, when he visited Haifa, he planted two trees in the Technion and met with workers there.

An enthusiastic supporter of establishing a university in Eretz Yisrael, he traveled to Mount Scopus on February 7, 1923 to formally inaugurate the Hebrew University. While expressing regret that he could not lecture in “the language of his people,” he opened his address with a sentence in Hebrew – he considered it important that the first official words spoken at Hebrew University be in the holy tongue – before delivering the first scientific lecture at the new university. Though he remained deeply and enthusiastically involved in the University’s development and activities, including serving as a member of its Board of Governors and Chair of its Academic Committee, he was steadfast in his refusal to assume a full-time professorship there, greatly disappointing Weizmann.

Einstein was blown away by his entire experience in the Holy Land:

The deepest impression left on me by Zionist work in Palestine is that of the self-sacrifice of the young men and women workers… I was also most favorably impressed by the spirit of initiative shown in the urban development. There is something here that almost suggests an avalanche. One feels that the work is being borne along on the wings of a strong national sentiment. Nothing else could explain the extraordinary rapid advance, especially on the seacoast of Tel Aviv.

 

* * * * *

Extreme rarity: May 16, 1949 Israel First Day Cover, originally signed and dated by Einstein!

 

Einstein and Weizmann first met in 1919, when Weizmann invited Einstein to join the Zionist cause and Einstein was persuaded by his vision of a Jewish homeland. Two years later, Einstein accompanied Weizmann on a fundraising tour across the United States, and the two men quickly developed a profound and multifaceted relationship rooted in mutual respect and a shared vision for the Jewish people, and their collaboration spanned several decades, encompassing scientific, educational, and political endeavors.

After Israel’s First Knesset ultimately voted no confidence in the government and disbanded itself over the highly partisan and emotional issue regarding the jurisdiction over the education of religious families and the Second Knesset convened for the first time on November 19, 1951, Weizmann was re-elected president on an 85-11 vote (with three abstentions). However, on December 11, 1951, only a few weeks later, the Knesset Committee announced that Weizmann was relinquishing his position for health reasons. Joseph Sprinzak, as Speaker of the Knesset, served as the Acting President until Weizmann’s death on November 9, 1952.

Newspaper reports at the time suggested that Sprinzak was the most likely successor to Weizmann, but it was clear to all that the presidency, though essentially ceremonial, needed to be occupied by a person of great stature. According to Yitzhak Navon, then Ben Gurion’s political secretary and later Israel’s fifth president, Ben Gurion told him on the morning after Weizmann’s death that “There is only one man whom we should ask to become president of the state of Israel. He is the greatest Jew on earth. Maybe the greatest human being on earth. Einstein.” As Navon explained in On Einstein and the Presidency of Israel:

I know that what Ben Gurion did was really a way of expressing the deep admiration and gratitude he felt for Einstein the humanist, and of proclaiming the pride of the Jewish people in a man who was a great universal figure and at the same time did not deny, but on the contrary was proud, that he belonged to this persecuted people, a people who indeed saw in science and culture the climax of achievement.

 

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A Jew by action and birth, if not actual belief (a very complex subject for another day), Einstein was, as discussed above, a vociferous supporter of the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael. Yet, even a cursory review of the internet will yield a plethora of nonsensical and hateful gibberish to the effect that because Einstein was a humanist, pacifist, internationalist, and a “cultural Zionist” who advocated peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews – facts that are all beyond dispute – that somehow means that he opposed Israel as a Jewish state and that the Zionists have misrepresented him as one of their own. The bottom line, however, is that no other Jew of Einstein’s stature consistently permitted the use of his name to advance Zionist objectives.

 

Grenada postal sheet: “When Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel and an old friend of Einstein’s died in 1952, Einstein was offered the presidency. He regretfully declined… ”

 

Ghana postal sheet featuring Einstein and Ben Gurion.

 

The suggestion that Einstein be invited to assume the presidency of the Jewish State was first publicly disseminated by the evening newspaper Maariv. The idea, which spread quickly, became broadly popular; for example, one government statistician commented: “He might even be able to work out the mathematics of our economy and make sense of it.”

On November 16, 1952, Ben Gurion sent a cable to Abba Eban, then Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, directing him to “inquire immediately of Einstein if he is prepared to become President of Israel if elected [by the Knesset].” After several unsuccessful attempts to contact the scientist by phone, Eban sent him a wire explaining that he had orders from the Israeli government to convey a message of historical consequence which was too important to communicate telephonically. Eban asked Einstein to accept a visit from David Edward Goitein, second in command at the Embassy, who would deliver an important letter.

According to Helen Dukas, Einstein’s secretary, Einstein knew very well what “the important message” was going to be, and he was troubled about how to turn down the offer, as he paced the floor of his Princeton home muttering, “This is very awkward, very awkward… why should that man come all that way when I only will have to say no?” Though he knew with certainty that he was going to decline the offer, he was deeply concerned about the possibility that his refusal could cause embarrassment to Israel. Dukas suggested that Einstein could simply call Eban, and she tracked him down in Washington, D.C. and put Einstein on the phone with him.

Einstein told Eban that he knew very well what the ambassador wanted to tell him; confessed that he had no talent whatsoever for human relations and wanted to continue his scientific work without distractions; and declared that he could not consider even discussing a position for which he was so eminently unqualified. Nonetheless, Eban, explaining that he had to at least go through the motions and officially present the offer, pressed him to receive Goitein. Einstein, while emphasizing that he had already made up his mind and characterizing such a visit as a waste of time, finally relented, and Goitein delivered the following November 22, 1952 correspondence from Eban:

The bearer of this letter is Mr. David Goitein of Jerusalem who is now serving as Minister at our Embassy in Washington. He is bringing you the question which Prime Minister Ben Gurion asked me to convey to you, namely, whether you would accept the Presidency of Israel if it were offered you by a vote of the Knesset. Acceptance would entail moving to Israel and taking its citizenship. The Prime Minister assures me that in such circumstances complete facility and freedom to pursue your great scientific work would be afforded by a government and people who are fully conscious of the supreme significance of your labors.

Mr. Goitein will be able to give you any information that you may desire on the implications of the Prime Minister’s question. Whatever your inclination or decision may be, I should be deeply grateful for an opportunity to speak with you again within the next day or two at any place convenient for you. I understand the anxieties and doubts which you expressed to me this evening. On the other hand, whatever your answer, I am anxious for you to feel that the Prime Minister’s question embodies the deepest respect which the Jewish people can repose in any of its sons. To this element of personal regard, we add the sentiment that Israel is a small State in its physical dimensions, but can rise to the level of greatness in the measure that it exemplifies the most elevated spiritual and intellectual traditions which the Jewish people has established through its best minds and hearts both in antiquity and in modern times. Our first President, as you know, taught us to see our destiny in these great perspectives, as you yourself have often exhorted us to do.

Therefore, whatever your response to this question, I hope that you will think generously of those who have asked it, and will commend the high purposes and motives which prompted them to think of you at this solemn hour in our people’s history.

Ben Gurion is reputed to have sheepishly asked: “What do we do if he accepts?” Navon writes that, after the invitation to Einstein had been extended, Ben Gurion asked him: “Tell me what to do if he says yes. I’ve had to offer the post to him because it was impossible not to. But if he accepts, we are in trouble.” To Ben Gurion’s great relief, however, Einstein turned down the offer and, in his famous and oft-quoted formal reply to Eban, he wrote:

I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions. For these reasons alone I should be unsuited to fulfill the duties of that high office, even if advancing age was not making increasing inroads on my strength. I am the more distressed over these circumstances because my relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.

Now that we have lost the man who for so many years, against such great and tragic odds, bore the heavy responsibility of leading us towards political independence [i.e., Weizmann], I hope with all my heart that a successor may be found whose experience and personality will enable him to accept the formidable and responsible task.

Having prepared this written response in advance, Einstein presented it to Goitein immediately upon receiving him. Goitein quipped: “I have been a lawyer all my life, and I have never received a rebuttal before I have even started my case.”

Born in England to an Orthodox Jewish family, Goitein (1901-1961) received a law degree from the London School of Economics (1922) and worked as a lawyer in London before making aliyah to Eretz Yisrael (1924), where he joined the Habonim Zionist movement and served as editor of the Palestine Bulletin (a predecessor of The Jerusalem Post), an English daily which was published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. During Israel’s War of Independence, he was appointed by the Haganah as a military justice and contributed to preparing Israel’s legal code before serving as Israel’s consul general (1949) and minister (1950) in South Africa; as Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States (1951-1953); and, upon his return to Israel, as a justice of Israel’s Supreme Court.

Einstein later explained to a Jerusalem newspaper that he did not want to face situations where he might have to back a government decision that could create a conflict with his conscience. As he wrote to his stepdaughter Margo: “I would have had to tell the Israeli people things they would not like to hear.”

The media response to Einstein’s declining Israel’s presidency was widespread and varied. The Israeli press generally reported on his decision with a mix of respect and disappointment, and major newspapers around the world highlighted his humility and dedication to his scientific work. For example, the New York Times covered the story extensively, reflecting the global interest in the intersection of science and politics. The coverage often emphasized his deep connection to the Jewish people and the Jewish State, portraying him as a figure of moral integrity who recognized his limitations.

It is interesting to note that on November 18, 1952, Ben Gurion’s office issued a formal denial of ever having offered Israel’s presidency to Einstein. While that may or may not have been true at the time – and there is overwhelming evidence that Ben Gurion fibbed – Abba Eban’s letter followed a mere four days later; Einstein declined the appointment; and the rest, as they say, is (documented) history.

The Knesset ultimately elected Yitzchak Ben-Zvi as Weizmann’s successor on December 16, 1952, with 62 votes out of 120. Peretz Bernstein, the candidate from the General Zionists Party, garnered 40 votes and there were 15 Knesset members who were absent or did not vote (there were also three blank ballots).

 

Original drawing of proposed Israel Einstein stamp.

 

 

FDC featuring Israel’s Einstein stamp (2005).

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Saul Jay Singer serves as senior legal ethics counsel with the District of Columbia Bar and is a collector of extraordinary original Judaica documents and letters. He welcomes comments at at [email protected].