The dark side of Einstein.. How did he use his wide fame to promote Zionism?

an introduction

It is common in our Arab societies that Albert Einstein, the most famous physicist throughout history, refused to become the president of the Israeli occupation state, and this is indeed a historical fact, but it gives a false impression that he was against the establishment of this state.

In this detailed report, which is based on memoirs first published about a decade and a half ago, you will see how Albert Einstein was a fervent enthusiast of the Zionist settlement project, and how he promoted and supported it with money, and that was primarily the goal of his famous trip to the United States of America, Perhaps you will also learn about how science and its men are used in the service of politics, perhaps you will also deduce from the context of this material how the famous myth that the theory of relativity is not understood by anyone came out (and in another form:

translation text

Albert Einstein's first trip to America in 1921 provoked a kind of mass hysteria, the same hysteria that greeted the Beatles four decades later (one of the most famous bands in the history of popular music), but newly published documents show that this trip fueled a sharp rift between European Zionists and some of their colleagues The Jews across the Atlantic, Louis Brandeis, a Jewish-American lawyer, university professor, judge, and politician, and one of the most prominent leaders of the Zionist movement during World War I, and Felix Frankfurter, an Austrian-American lawyer, professor and judge, saw that the best solution for Jews was to integrate with their surroundings, rather than to Incitement to establish a Jewish homeland.

Albert Einstein's first tour of America has been described as unique in the history of science. An opportunity like this would of course be eagerly sought by any scientist. What better way than to have a two-month parade that provokes a kind of public enthusiasm and journalistic adulation that in turn provokes the enthusiasm of the scientist who roams like a rock star?!

At this time, Einstein lived the height of his global stardom after observations made during a total eclipse confirmed the correctness of his theory of relativity when light rays were deflected by the sun's gravity in the way he had previously predicted. Men of science were affected by the results of solar eclipse observations to different degrees / Victories of Einstein's theory / The stars have deviated and are no longer in the place where they were calculated, but there is no need to worry.

When Einstein arrived in New York in April, crowds hailed him as the world's first famous scientific figure, a gentle symbol of human values ​​and a saint for Jews, yet newly published papers reveal a less joyful side to Einstein's famous visit that year, finding himself stuck In a battle between the enthusiastic European Zionists led by Chaim Weizmann, the most famous Zionist figure after Herzl, and the one who played the most important role in issuing the famous Balfour Declaration, and accompanied Einstein during his trip, and between the wary of American Jews, led by Louis Brandeis, one of the most prominent leaders of the Zionist movement, and Felix Frankfurter, The Austrian-American judge, and the heads of banking companies on the streets of Wall Street in New York, apparently, these disagreements caused Einstein not to be invited to give a lecture at Harvard University, and also led many prominent Manhattan Jews to decline an invitation from him to discuss his favorite project to establish a university in Jerusalem. .

Previous books reveal the full dimensions of this controversy, including a 2007 autobiography in a volume containing Einstein's 1921 Correspondence and Research, recently published by Princeton University Press in the United States. Most of them have not been published before.

This 600-page volume is the twelfth volume compiled by the Editors of the Einstein Papers Project, an international collaborative group of scholars, editors, and researchers in California who work to translate and publish Albert Einstein's writing and correspondence and bring them together in a way that allows us to see the political and emotional struggle that has faltered. It was clearly at the time.

Einstein's birth... and his deep disagreement with religious beliefs

Einstein grew up in a Jewish family of German origins and secular tendencies, but nevertheless he never hid his contempt for religious beliefs and rituals, (except for a short period in which he lived with religious fervor when he was a child). Tribes and clansmen.

His view of religion became clear after the blunt answer he sent early in 1921 to the Berlin rabbis (the rabbinic is the pioneer and spiritual teacher of the Jews) who urged him to join the Jewish community there and pay dues for their support. If it refers to nationality and origin, then I belong to it, and if it refers to faith, then I am a Jew in the first sense, not the second.

At that time, German anti-Semitism increased, so many German Jews at the time did everything in their power - including converting to Christianity - to integrate with the Germans, even urging Einstein to follow the same approach, but the latter took the exact opposite approach, so what Soon he became strongly acquainted with his Jewish heritage and embraced the goal of promoting a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and based on this position, the Zionist leader Kurt Blumenfeld, Secretary-General of the Zionist Organization, recruited him in 1911 by making a phone call to him in Berlin.

Blumenfeld described Einstein's questions as "too naive" when he asked him: Why should Jews create an agricultural homeland in the first place despite their intellectual gifts?

Why should the state be based on national foundations?

Isn't nationalism the problem, not the solution?

Eventually Einstein shifted his position and told Blumenfeld, “As a human being, I am opposed to nationalism, but as a Jew, I am a supporter of Zionist efforts from today,” then he became an advocate of the establishment of a Jewish university in Jerusalem, which later became the Hebrew University.

dollars trip

Einstein initially thought that his first visit to the United States, which he jokingly called "a trip to earn dollars", would be a way to make some money from stable currency, to support him in his precarious married life, as he had just come out of a bitter divorce experience, and the quarrel between him and his wife is still The new job was about finances, so Max Warburg, a German politician and banker, and his New York-based brother Paul tried to help Einstein arrange profitable lectures, so they asked Princeton and the University of Wisconsin to pay $15,000 for his lectures, but in February of 1921, Max Warburg told him about the impossibility of accumulating the amount he wanted, and it was surprising that Einstein was not too disturbed by this news, and he expressed this to his Austrian physicist friend Paul Ehrenfest by saying: “I see that they found my demands too high, however, I am glad I did not have to go there, It's not a good way to make money anyway."Instead, he made other plans that included going to Brussels in Belgium to present a research paper at the Solvay Conference, a European scientific conference in physics and chemistry that has been held since 1911 and includes the most prominent scientists of the time.

Zionist leader Blumenfeld came again to Einstein's apartment, this time bearing a telegram from Chaim Weizmann, head of the Zionist Organization and biochemist who had emigrated from Russia to England.

Weizmann asked Einstein to accompany him on a trip to America to raise funds to help with the settlement of Palestine in general, and the establishment of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in particular, but after Blumenfeld finished reading the telegram, Einstein refused this request as a scholar and not an orator, and said that the idea of ​​using his personality Famous for attracting the masses to the cause “a superficial idea that is not worthy of attention”, at the moment Blumenfeld did not object to Einstein’s words, but simply read the telegram again and loudly, and turned to him after he concluded by saying: “He is the head of our organization, and if you are serious about joining Zionism, you have the right May I ask you, on behalf of Dr. Weizmann, to go with him to the United States."

With great astonishment Blumenfeld received the news of Einstein's approval when the latter replied: "What you are saying is true and convincing, I now realize that I am part of this situation, and I must accept the invitation." This news pleased Weizmann as well, and somewhat surprised him, so he wrote to Einstein from London: Truly your willingness to come to the aid of the Jewish people at such a crucial moment."

This decision reflected a major transformation in Einstein's life, because before that he decided to devote himself entirely to science until he finished his theory of relativity, perhaps the reason for this was that the anti-Semitism that was spreading around him in Berlin prompted him to reconfirm his identity as a Jew, so he wrote to his French publisher He says, "I am not keen to go to America, but I do it on behalf of the Zionists. I must be known to do everything I can to help my people. They are treated harshly everywhere."

Thus, Einstein and his new wife Elsa sailed in late March 1921 on their first visit to America. During their trip, Einstein tried to explain relativity to Weizmann, and when the latter was asked after their arrival if he understood the theory, he replied maliciously: As soon as we arrived, I was absolutely convinced he really understood it."

When the ship arrived at Battery, on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, on the afternoon of April 2, Einstein stood on board, in a soft black hat concealing some of his shaggy graying hair, a shiny smoking pipe in one hand, In the other hand was a worn-out violin case. Commenting on his arrival, the New York Times wrote, describing him: "He looked like an artist, but beneath his shaggy tufts of hair lay a scientific mind whose conclusions amazed the brightest minds in Europe."

The big controversy

Thousands of spectators waited by the Jewish Legion (five formations of Jewish volunteers who fought for British troops) with drums in Battery Park, a public park at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York.

When the mayor and other dignitaries brought Einstein to the harbor via a police boat, the crowd sang her Jewish national anthem "Hatikva" and waved their flags, and although Einstein and Weizmann decided to head straight to the Commodore Hotel downtown, it didn't happen straight away, because their motorcade kept going through East Side ghettos until late at night.

Weizmann commented on this event: "All cars had horns, and they all sounded at that time to celebrate us, and at last we arrived at the Commodore about half past eleven in the evening exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and utterly stunned."

In the midst of all these celebrations and welcoming ceremonies, Weizmann and Einstein discovered that no party participated in these events. The leaders of the Zionist Organization of America, led by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who was its president at the time, did not send any formal greetings or congratulations.

To illustrate this disagreement, let's start from 1919, the year Brandeis traveled with Weizmann to Palestine, and the following year he went to London to be with him at a Zionist conference, but this calm between them did not last long, because soon afterwards they began to quarrel.

The reasons behind their conflicts were many, including some political differences due to Brandeis’ desire for Zionist organizations to focus on sending money to Jewish settlers in Palestine, and not on political incitement, including some old power struggles, Brandeis wanted to seize power from Weizmann and his followers in Europe But above all, it seems that the main reason behind their differences is the contrast between the two characters, we find, for example, that Weizmann was born in Russia, then immigrated to England, and Einstein participated in the contempt and contempt of the Jews who tried hard to integrate with European society, while on the other side Brandeis was born in Louisville, the largest city in the US state of Kentucky, graduated from Harvard Law School, flourished as a prominent lawyer in Boston, and was appointed by Thomas Wilson, then President of the United States, to become the first Jew to be a judge on the Supreme Court. , many Brandeis supporters have viewed it as inferiorTo the Jews who failed to integrate into Russia and Eastern Europe.

Brandeis revealed the cultural and personal foundations of his disagreement with Weizmann in a letter to his brother in 1921 in which he said: “The Zionist clash was inevitable as a result of different standards. Oriental Jews - like many Jews in Russia - lack the standards of honesty and honesty, so we will not trust them with our money, and although Weizmann He knows very well the meaning of honesty, he is weakly resigned to his Russian partners, and from this point on the conflict broke out between us, and we were divided."

Paradoxically, Brandeis initially expressed his happiness for Einstein's coming to America despite his accompanying Weizmann at the time, and wrote to his wife's mother saying: "The great Einstein will come to America soon with Dr. Weizmann, the head of our Zionist institution. Perhaps Palestine will need more than just imagine new to the universe, or the addition of several other dimensions on its earth, but it is good to remind the world that the clear contributions to the world of thought are made by the Jews.”

Einstein at the center of the controversy

In the midst of these disputes, two of Brandeis' closest associates expressed concerns about Einstein's visit to America, one Felix Frankfurter, his student and then a Harvard Law School professor, and Julian Mack, the judge whom Brandeis chose to be president of the Zionist Organization in America.These two thought it best if Einstein's visit appeared in the first place as a trip to give a physics lecture, rather than to raise money for Jews in Palestine, and based on their concerns, both intended to send a telegram to Weizmann urging him to make sure that Einstein would consider giving some lectures in physics, but they quickly changed their mind when they heard about Einstein's previous attempts to earn large sums from different universities for his lectures, while he was promoting Zionism for free, and they sent another telegram, but this time to warn of the danger that Einstein appears to be a figure trying to market her knowledge by converting him To a commercial commodity, Frankfurter and Mack feared that such foolishness might harm his image and that of the Jews, so the physics lectures had to be free. Mack sent Wiseman saying to him: "We see from your explanation of Einstein's negotiations about making money that his position is very difficult, So we will be waiting for your telegram if he agrees to a proposal to give free lectures."

Things did not calm down at this point, but the telegrams were constantly sent, their fear escalated in one of the telegrams to the extent that they urged Weizmann to cancel Einstein's trip, and in another telegram we announced the cancellation of lectures at the university where Frankfurter was then an influential professor by saying: "Harvard refuses Entirely Einstein's lectures, but we welcome him on an unofficial visit without giving lectures or paying fees."

As soon as Einstein learned about these cables, he was very angry, and Mac soon defended himself and Frankfurter - and by extension Brandeis - in a letter to Einstein in which he insisted that the only motive behind all this was to protect him from these expected attacks, and thus protect the organization from the consequences of these attacks .

Matters were made worse during Einstein's visit by Brandeis and his followers who, after a deadly clash between Arabs and Jews in Jaffa, declared their desire to ensure that there were adequate safeguards or precautions before raising funds for the Hebrew University in Palestine.

After this position, Einstein suspected that Brandeis and his followers intended to sabotage his mission, and when Rabbi Judah Magnes, a friend and supporter of Brandeis, suggested hosting a gathering of intellectuals in Manhattan to talk about the university, it was surprising that Einstein stipulated that this meeting be a fundraising meeting. "My purpose in this meeting was not to raise money, but in circumstances like this, it would be better if we canceled it," Magnes replied in a cold and succinct speech.

Paul Warburg

Resistance to Einstein's mission was not limited to Brandeis' Zionist establishment and his wary and conservative companions, but also to many successful New York reform Jews from Germany. The steward, who kept asking for fees for his lectures, wrote to him: “I see no benefit in my presence, but on the contrary, I fear that my influence, if I attend, will calm things down, for I have already told you on one other occasion of my personal doubts about Zionist schemes and my real panic about dire consequences."

There are some other personalities who have announced their rejection of Einstein's mission, including: Arthur Hayes Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, Bernard Baruch, a wealthy Jewish American political financier and statesman, lawyer Irving Lyman, an American politician from New York and the first Jewish cabinet secretary, Also Oscar Strauss, a famous composer from Austria, Daniel Guggenheim, a Jewish-American businessman and philanthropist, and finally, former Congressman Jefferson Monroe LaVey, an American lawyer and politician.

On the other hand, we find that some of the most enthusiastic Jews embraced the Einstein and Weizmann project. These enthusiastic Jews tended to live in Brooklyn or the Lower East Side of New York rather than Park Avenue (a skyscraper in Manhattan, New York), and it caused an attendance of more than 20,000 people. Among them, one of the activists was in unrest and riots when they "stormed police lines," according to the New York Times.

A man of Zionism and a visit to Washington

After three weeks of lectures and receptions in New York, Einstein visited Washington for reasons only the people of the city know, and during these events, the Senate - and the House of Representatives followed it - decided to discuss the theory of relativity in the Capitol (the seat of the Legislative Council of the United States of America), where Representative John J. Kindred, a member of the House of Representatives, proposed putting an explanation of Einstein's theories on the congressional record, but David Walsh, a Democrat and the Governor of Massachusetts, quickly objected to this suggestion, asking Kindred:

Do you understand the theory?

And the latter replied:

This theory occupied me seriously for three weeks, until at last some light began to seep in, revealing a glimmer of hope.

Well, what would this theory add to the business of Congress?

In the future, it may affect legislation (lawmaking) related to public relations with the universe.

Such talk, and with Einstein and his group visiting the White House, President Warren J. Harding, then President of the United States, was confronted with an inevitable question if he understood the theory. The Washington Post published a cartoon showing the president in confusion in front of a paper titled "The Theory of Relativity", while Einstein stands confused in front of a paper titled "The Theory of Normality", the name Harding gave to his ruling philosophy, and the event topped the front pages in the New York Times titled : "Harding's admission that Einstein's theory puzzles him."

During a visit to Washington, famous American journalist and powerful power broker Walter Lippmann attempted a peace meeting between Weizmann and Brandeis, but negotiations between the two camps of the two Zionist leaders quickly failed over a range of different issues, and the summit never took place.

Nevertheless, Einstein was happy to call Brandeis, despite Weizmann's warning not to do so, and ironically the two got along well during the call, and Einstein told his friend who arranged the visit that he came up with a new view of Brandeis "completely different" from the one he had convinced him with. Wiseman.

Brandeis also expressed his happiness at the meeting, and said in a letter to his wife the next day: “Professor Einstein and Mrs. His wife are two nice people, but during the meeting it became clear that it was impossible to avoid some discussions about the disagreement and the armistice between the two institutions even though this issue had nothing to do with them, but rather their biggest issue. It is the establishment of the university.

In the end, the differences between the two teams ended up unresolved, and things continued to deteriorate during the visit.

Einstein then went to Princeton, a multidisciplinary university in the United States to give a week-long series of scientific lectures. Indeed, Einstein did not receive $15,000 for his lectures, but received a more modest amount, in addition to a deal with Princeton University to publish his lectures in book form. And give him 15% of the profits.

His lectures were very technical, with more than 125 complex equations written on the board while speaking in German, challenging his audience in the words of one student: “I did attend, but what he explained was too difficult for me to understand.”

Einstein seemed to love the university when he described it as young and new, and as a pipe that had not yet smoked, and this was taken as a compliment from a man who always flirted with a new pipe, so moving there after ten years was not always a surprising decision.

As for Harvard, he did not like it very much, and although the university did not openly invite him to give a formal lecture, he walked kindly around the campus, visiting the laboratories and commenting on the students' work.

For the remainder of his trip in the United States, he and Frankfurter engaged in an exchange of letters, in which the latter, who was a professor at Harvard at the time, tried to distance himself from the blame and the idea of ​​his contempt for visiting Einstein, writing: “People accused me of wanting to prevent you from appearing at Harvard University, and this accusation is of course false. Einstein, however, learned of the telegrams which Frankfurter and Mack had sent in protest of Einstein's demand for a fee for the lectures, and though he did not fully accept Frankfurter's denial, he sent him:

One of the last stops on the Einstein and Weizmann Grand Tour was Cleveland, a city in the US state of Ohio, where several thousand gathered at the train station to meet the visiting delegation. An infantry division of the National Guard and a cadre of Jewish veterans in uniform, and during the parade, fans stuck all the way to Einstein's car, to the point of jumping on the doorstep of the car, as the police tried to drag them away.

The Zionist Organization of America was on the verge of holding its annual conference in Cleveland, when pro-Weizmann "downtown" Jews prepared to face off against Brandeis "downtown" Jews. Einstein.

Weizmann's supporters, entrenched in his support, were able to block a vote of confidence in endorsement of Brandeis and his main man in the establishment, Julian Mack, and as a result Mack immediately resigned as president, followed by Brandeis, who resigned as honorary president (an honorary president bearing the name without any authority), and others such as Felix followed suit. Frankfurter, and Stephen Samuel Wise, an American rabbi, and a member of the Foundation's Executive Committee, but the deep rift within American Zionism will persist, and weaken the movement within nearly a decade.

It was easier to get excited about this country than in other countries where I haven't settled, but I had to run around like a huge bull, you know!

It is a miracle that I can bear this visit, but the good thing is that it is all over now, what remains is the wonderful feeling that you have done something really good for the Jewish cause despite all the protests of Jews and non-Jews, I have also discovered that most of our tribesmen are more intelligent than their courage."

It was easier to get excited about this country than in other countries where I haven't settled, but I had to run around like a huge bull, you know!

It is a miracle that I can bear this visit, but the good thing is that it is all over now, what remains is the wonderful feeling that you have done something really good for the Jewish cause despite all the protests of Jews and non-Jews, I have also discovered that most of our tribesmen are more intelligent than their courage."

Reshaping Jewish Identity

The opposition that Einstein faced deepened his support for Zionism. “Zionism now offers a new Jewish model that can make Jews happy again,” Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian physicist and mathematician friend of Einstein, wrote after the trip, alluding to Einstein's participation in a stream reshaping Jewish identity in Europe, whether by choice or imposition.

On the day that Einstein left America, he told a reporter, “Jews in Germany did not consider themselves members of the Jewish people until a generation ago, but merely part of a religious community.” He declared that anti-Semitism was the reason for changing this view, and continued his speech: “The shameful obsession of trying to fit in, conform, and assimilate, espoused by so many people of social standing, has always been a disgusting behavior.”

The fundraising goal of Einstein's tour met with only modest success. Although poorer Jews and new immigrants flocked to see him and donate enthusiastically, a few high-profile Jews with great fortunes were part of the enthusiastic crowds. Einstein raised only about $750,000 for the university. The construction of the university was now financially secured, Einstein wrote to the Austrian physicist Ehrenfest: “The construction of the university is now financially secured.”

Four years later, the university has already opened on top of Mount Scopus overlooking Jerusalem. Ironically, some New York funders who initially refused to support Einstein eventually ended up supporting his project, but insisted on installing Rabbi Judah Magnes - who clashed with Einstein in 1921 And he canceled his reception when Einstein insisted that it be turned into a fundraising party - as president of the university.

Einstein was so upset by Magnes' appointment that he resigned from the board of directors in protest, but still decided to leave his papers and much of his property to the university.

It is also ironic that Einstein was again interested in raising funds for a new Jewish university in 1946 after he immigrated to America. Einstein never again clashed with some benefactors refusing to name the university, so the founders decided to honor their second choice, who died five years earlier, and named it the new Brandeis University.

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Translation: Somaya Zaher

This report is translated from: The Atlantic and does not necessarily represent the website of Meydan.