Pure hr Commentary
Israel's approaching national election also will arouse
inevitable speculation as to who will be the next president
of the state. There were two presidents preceding the cur-
rent President Zalman Shneour Shazar. Chaim Weizmann
was the first, Itzhak Ben-Zvi was the second. But Albert
Einstein might have been the second president of Israel,
if he had responded to the call of David Ben-Gurion when
a successor was being named upon the death of Dr. Weiz-
mann in 1952.
The fact are recalled again in the impressive biography,
"Einstein: The Life and Times," by Ronald W. Clark, pub-
lished by World.
His biographer took into account Einstein's pacifism
when he described in detail the Israeli offer to the world
famous scientist who had been a dedicated Zionist. Clark
relates these details about the presidential offer to Einstein:
" 'I am the more dis
tressed over these circum -
stances because my relation -
ship to the Jewish people ha s
become my strongest human
bond, ever since I became
fully aware of our precarious
situation among the nations
of the world.
"Einstein, like most of his
friends, refused to take the
idea seriously and when the
New York Times asked for
his reaction on the evening of
Sunday the sixteenth, he re-
fused to comment. Shortly
afterwards, the telephone in
Mercer Street rang again and
the operator said that Wash-
ington was on the line 'Herr
Gott,' exclaimed Helen Du-
kas, (Einstein's secretary).
who had answered: 'Wash-
ington! What is wrong now?'
This time it was Abba Eban,
the Israeli ambassador to the
United States, who was mak-
2—Friday, Jan. 19, 1973
should receive his deputy to
possible to claim that such
seek his 'reaction on a mat- a world figure, transparently
ter of the utmost urgency and
remote from the petty squab-
importance.'
bles of nationalism, would
"Einstein telephoned Eban, never be suspected of ulte-
again declining the invitation. rior motives, that he would
However, on Tuesday the be listened to where other
eighteenth a formal letter men would be ignored. It is
was brought to Princeton by more likely that his inno-
the Israeli minister, David cence of public affairs would
Goiten. 'Acceptance would have made him easy meat
entail moving to Israel and for the predators of the in-
taking its citizenship,' said ternational scene, however
the letter. "The Prime Minis- symbolic his appointment.
ter assures me that in such The proposal was, in any
circumstances complete facil- case, stillborn. "In order to
ity and freedom to pursue preserve my rights as a
your great scientific work thinker, I have to stay quiet
would be afforded by the in order to work," Einstein
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
WOMOVitZ
Clark's biography of Einstein provides valuable data zens of Jewish faith" I can-
in Zionism and the history of the Jewish liberation move- not help smiling a little sad-
ment. The enthusiasm Einstein displayed when he visited ly. What is there to be found
Palestine is told in the description of the eminent scientist's in this pretty label? What is
visit in Tel Aviv with his wife, Feb. 2, 1923. He was wel- Jewish faith? Does there
corned by Colonel Frederck Kisch who had just retired exist a kind of unbelief by
from the British army to join the Zionist Executive. The virtue of which one ceases
This is a great age, the age of the liberation of the Jewish want to be taken for a chlid
soul; and it has been accomplished through the Zionist of my own people, but only
movement, so that no one in the world will be able to as a member of a Jewish
destroy it."
community.
Indeed, Clark's is a valuable addendum to Zionist his-
•• • Is this sincere? Can the
tory. The Einstein biography deals at length with the career "Aryan" feel any respect for
of another great Jew who suffered from German persecu- such underhand fellows? I
tions, Prof. Fritz Haber, who was uncertain about Zionism, am neither a German citizen,
who finally was induced to go to the Jewish National Home nor is there anything in me
but who died just before he was to reach the new goal of which can be designated as
returning to the fold of the Jewish people. There are ac- "Jewish faith." But I am a
counts of Einstein's relationship with many Zionist leaders, Jew and am glad to belong
with the noted German Jewish leader, Dr. Kurt Blumen- to the Jewish people, even if
feld. In this connection, Clark writes: I do not consider them in
"Einstein and Blumenfeld
any way God's elect. Let us
met again. 'On this occasion,' ger. It made more difficult calmly leave anti-Semitism
anti-Semitism
writes Blumenfeld, 'he told their own attempts to be- to the non-Jew and retain our
me that Hermann Struck, the come assimilated into the love for people of our kind.
etcher, had tried to interest non-Jewish German commit - "I hope that you will not
him in the Bible and the nity and It provided a weapon frown on account of this con-
Jewish religion, but that he for those endemic anti- fession. No harm or unkind-
had refused to be drawn. 'I Semites whose attitude had Dees is meant.'
really don't know enough helped to produce Zionism. •• Eiosteto was later
to put
about my religious feelings,' Thus for every man who wel- his point of view even more
he said. . . . "I have always corned Einstein's espousal of pungently. "The Germ an
known exactly what I should the Zionist cause there was
Jew-
do, and I feel satisfied with another among his friends Jew who works for the Jew-
who would warn that this ish people and for the Jewish
that.' "
home in Palestine no more
"Shortly afterwards, Blum- was not really the way to ceases to be a German than
enfeld noticed a change in further the cause of Jews in
Einstein's attitude. "'I am Germany; that pressure on the Jew who becomes bap-
against nationalism but in them would be increased: tized and changes his name
favor of Zionism,' he said. and that if there were too ceases to be a Jew," he
'The reason has become clear much talk of a National wrote In 1926. "The two at-
tachments are grounded in
to me today. When a man Home outside Europe
there realities of different kinds.
has both arms and he is
always saying I have a right would be increasing demands The antithesis is not between
for Jews to be sent there.
Jew and German, but be-
arm, then he is a chauvinist. • .
The forces supporting as- tween honesty and lack of
However, when the right arm
rimilation were certainly character. He who remains
is missing, then he must do
strong, but so too were Ein- true to his origin, race, and
something to make up for the
missing limb. Therefore I stein's feelings once he had tradition will also remain
become seized of the Zionist loyal to the state of which
am, as a human being, an
cause. Just how strong is he is a subject. He who is
opponent of nationalism. But
as a Jew I am from today a shown by his letter of April faithless to the one will also
supporter of the Jewish Zion- 3, 1920, refusing to attend a be faithless to the other."
meeting organized by the
„
ist efforts.' "
A further gloss on his
Association of Ger-
"Einstein's support was to Central
man Citizens of Jewish Faith position is given by a letter
be complicated by the gen-
written on an unknown date
eral situation in Germany. to help combat anti-Semitism in 1921 to the Prague pharm-
Support for assimilation was in academic circles.
ecologist Professor S tarken-
possibly even stronger among
Jews there than it had pre-
viously been, partly as a
result of the forces unleashed
by the war, which tended to
draw together all those living
within the German Empire,
partly as a reaction to what
was considered the .Jewish
influence behind the Russian
Revolution. Few wished to
carry the policy as far as
government and people who had written to Weizmann in Einstein's colleague Haber,
are fully conscious of the circumscribing his Zionist who had taken himself and
supreme significance of your activities nearly 30 years his family into the Christian
labors.'
previously. That still held. church. Yet there were many
"It was a persuasive ap- He still put science first, for whom the possibilities of
Zionism had a double dan
peal to a man for whom the second, and third."
creation of Israel was a polit-
ical act of an essentially
moral quality. Its refusal illu-
minates a good deal of Ein-
stein's life in three starkly
honest paragraphs. 'I am
deeply moved by the offer
from our state of Israel, and
at once saddened and
ashamed that I cannot accept
it,' this said. '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 un-
suited to fulfill the duties of
that high office, even if ad-
vancing age was not making
increasing inroads on my
strength.'
By Philip
biographer reports how Einstein was baring his soul: being a Jew? There is not.
"I consider this the greatest day of my life. Hitherto I But it suggests that the right
" 'Now that we have los t have always found something to regret in the Jewish soul, people believe too things,
the man who for so many and that is the forgetfulness of its own people—forgetfulness i.e., (1) I don't wish to have
years, against such great and almost of its being. Today I have been made happy by the anything to do with my poor
tragic odds, bore the heavy sight of the Jewish people learning to recognize themselves (East European) Jewish
burden of leading us towards and to make themselves recognized as a force in the world. brethren, and (2) I do not
political independence, I hope
with all my heart that a suc-
cessor may be found whose
"Since the start of the cen-
experience and personality
tury, his life had presented a ing an informal inquiry. will enable him to accept the
series of unexpected contra- Would Einstein accept the formidable and responsible
dictions. The once Patent presidency if it were offered task.'
Office official had been by a vote of the Knesset?
"Thus the matter ended —
hoisted into academic life.
"His reply was in keeping after the editor-in-chief of
Th e hater of a l l things Ger- with his reputation. 'His Maariv had made an impas-
man had been tempted to main and urgent thought,' sioned entreaty for recon-
Berlin. The man who wanted says Professor Mitrany, who sideration of the idea, and
only a quiet life had in 1919 was with him when the call
after Einstein had pointed
become the most famous sci- came through, 'was how to out ',hat however formal his
entist in the world. The pad- spare the ambassador the functions, as president he
fist had been forced to sup- embarrassment of his in- would be responsible for the
• port armed resistance, and evitable refusal.'
country's actions and these
the man who regarded all
might conflict with his con-
war as murder had helped "To Eban the situation was science.
Push the buttons that killed mustily clear: 'Einstein was
"Einstein as president was
129,000. Now there was to Visibly moved by the splen-
come a final twist. In 1952 dor and audacity of the a prospect which aroused di-
the image of the old eccen- thought.' he has said, "but verse emotions among those
tric, plotting along in his his rejection was firm and who knew him best. Weiz-
seventies, was to be brusque- vehement: "I know a little mann had been a biochemist
ly shattered. Albert Einstein, about nautre." he said, "and by profession. Therefore it
the man who had always de- hardly anything about men." might be claimed that the
cried force, was invited to He implored me to accept idea of a theoretical physicist
become President of Israel, his negative decision as final holding such a post was
that realization of Zionist and do everything possible to nothing to startle the world.
hopes, the state which had divert and banish the press Yet their links with learning
successfully staked out its whose representatives were and their support for Zion-
frontiers by force of arms laying siege to his house in ism were the only things
which the two men had in
and was defending them Mercer Street.'
common; in many ways their
against all ccmers.
"But Eban's instructions qualities were diametrically
"The proposal, practical, had come direct from the contrasted. Certainly the
outrageous, or pathetic ac- Prime Minister. He finally very characteristics of steely
cording to viewpoint, splen- convniced Einstein that it determination and ruthless-
did in its audacity if gro- would be improper for him to ness which had enabled Weiz-
tesque in its implications, reject the proposal on the man to bring Zionism safely
followed the death of Chaim telephone, and the following home to port were, except
Weizmann, who had become day made a formal tele- when applied to science, not
first president soon after graphed request that he in Einstein's makeup. It is
declaration of the state of
Israel in May, 1948. Weiz-
mann died on Sunday, Nov.
9, 1952, and a few days later
Einstein was mooted as suc-
ces s or in the Tel Aviv news-
paper Ma a r i v. It seems
likely that this was a trial
balloon to discover public re-
ar lion If so, it was flown by
the Prime Minister, David
Hen-Gurion. "The presidency
in Israel is a symbol," he
said later. "It carries with it
no power I thought to my-
self: if we are looking for a
symbol, why not have the
most illustrious Jew in the
world, and possibly the great-
est man alive — Einstein?
That's all there was to it.
Had he accepted, I would
have submitted his name to
the Knesset — in Israel the
Knesset elects the President
—and I am quite sure that
the motion_ for his election
would have been carried by
acclamation."
Albert Einstein, Who Could Have Been
President of
Israel, Whose Loyalties
to Zionism Were Among His Major Ideals
"I should gladly come if I stein. Einstein stresse
d that
believed it possible for such denomination was itself un
an undertaking to succeed," important, although for a
he wrote. 'First, however, Jew to
embrace another
the anti-Semitism and the faith was a symbolic
action,
servile disposition among us indicating that he wished to
Jews in our own ranks would cut himself off from his own
have to be combated by more people, Possibly he had Ha-
knowledge. More dignity and
her in mind. Freedom from
more independence in our any denomination at all was,
ranks! Not until we dare to
however, a different matter.
regard ourselves as a nation, "I
myself belong to no de-
not until we respect our- nomination and consider my-
selves, can we gain the es- self a faithful Jew," he went
teem of others, or rather only on. "In how far we Jews
then will it come of its own should consider ourselves as
accord. There will be anti- a race or a nation respec-
Semitism in the sense of a lively, in how far we form
psychological phenomenon as a social community by tradi-
long os Jews come Into con- tion only, on this subject I
tact with non-Jews — what have not yet arrived at a
does it it to
matter?
Perhaps we decisive judgment. It suffices
owe
anti-Semitism
that that we form a social body of
we can maintain ourselves
people which stands out more
as a race. I at least believe
or less distinctly from the
so.
rest of humanity, and the
If I catch sight of an ex-
reality of which is not
pression like "German citi-
doubted by anyone.' "
All was not rosy in Zionist ranks. Einstein and Chaim
Weizmann were in controversy. There was a dispute over
the offer to Einstein to take an important post on the
faculty of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Ein-
stein-Weizmann friendship was restored, and they worked
together for the Zionist cause.
Ronald Clark's "Einstein" is complete in all details.
in relation to the atomic bomb, the acquaintances of Frank-
lin Roosevelt with the Einstein theories, the pacifism of
Einstein and the support he was compelled to give to
the war against Nazism because of Hitler cruelties. Im-
portant chapters in history are recorded in this great book.
A Meeting of the Greats: When Albert Einstein
met with David Ben-Gurion in 1951.
An addendum: Albert Einstein
and Rabindranath Tegore in a
dialogue on religion, Page 22.
1