The BiG Story

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm,
Germany, on March 14, 1879.
A great deal has been written
about his extraordinary infancy and
youth. It all sounds amazing — and
most of it is actually true.
When he was born, Albert did
indeed have an oddly shaped head
and he was terribly overweight.
And he was slow to talk — but
exactly how slow remains a mys-
tery.
In later years, Einstein himself
insisted that he was 3 before he
said anything, and that his parents
feared he was retarded. Yet Ein-
stein's grandmother and sister dis-
agreed, saying he certainly could
talk much younger than that, and
that he often made clever remarks

Albert Einstein

when he was about 2-1/2.
Albert's father was Hermann Ein-
stein, a businessman. His mother,
Pauline, was a homemaker.
When Albert was about 3, the fam-
ily left Ulm for a new, large house
outside Munich. Here, Albert took
care of himself for much of the day,
playing alone (he rarely enjoyed the
company of other children) and prac-
ticing on his violin, which he hated
(but his mother insisted).

1/8

1999

58 Detroit Jewish News

One of the most famous stories
about Einstein, which he himself
recounted, has to do with a present
from his father. When he was 5,
Albert became ill and had to spend
many months in bed. His mother
hired a tutor, who promptly
declared the boy brilliant. But Albert
was most interested in a present his
father brought. It was a compass,
and Einstein later said that he was
obsessed with the idea of finding
out how it worked.
So, too, later in life would he feel
compelled to understand the work-
ings of the universe — and it was
this driving fascination and creativity
which he regarded his most impor-
tant assets, rather than any textual
learning.
When Albert returned to
school (where he was the only
Jew) at age 7, his teachers wit-
nessed little of the genius the
boy's tutor had apparently seen.
And in fact they did label the
boy retarded. H.e was smacked
on the knuckles when he couldn't
supply a correct answer, and at
first he worked diligently to mem-
orize whatever his teachers
taught him.
But soon afterward he simply
gave up on that in which he had
no interest. Though he enjoyed
Latin and math, anything that
bored him he ignored.
When Albert was 9, he began
a friendship with a young man
named Max Talmud, a medical
student who joined the Einstein
family each week for lunch.
According to Einstein: A Life by
Denis Brian (John Wiley & Sons
Inc.), Max often spoke about new
scientific discoveries with Albert.
Soon after, friends and family
began challenging the boy with dif-
ficult math problems; and whenever
he solved them, "Albert yelled tri-
umphantly like a soccer player scor-
ing an unlikely goal."
A few years later, when Albert
was 13, he began studying higher
mathematics.

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand
Barbara (later changed to Barbra)
Joan Streisand was born April 24,
1942, in Brooklyn. Her father was
Emanuel Streisand, a teacher, and
her mother was Diana Ida Rosen
Streisand, the daughter of a part-
time cantor.
According to a famous story, Bar-
bra was quite vocal from the
moment she was born; her cries
were said to be so loud even the
physicians and nurses in the deliv-
ery room were amazed.

When Barbra was 5 months old,
her father died suddenly. It was an
event that would forever shape his
daughter's life (today, she still feels
the loss, she says). After her hus-
band's death, Diana moved in with
her parents. She shared a bed with
Barbra in one of the iwo bedrooms
in the small apartment. Barbra spent
her days playing with stuffed ani-
mals, watching television and
attending a Jewish school.
Barbra was a skinny and often
sickly child with little hair, but when