ALBERT EINSTEIN'S ZIONISM
The Movement to Resurrect the Jewish Homeland
as seen through the eyes of its most exceptional advocate


A year-by-year account of Einstein's take on ideas and events as they shaped the Zionist struggle
(THIS WORK IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. EDITORIAL REVIEW, COPYEDITING, FULL REFERENCING, PERMISSIONS AND CREDITING IS IN PROGRESS)

An Internet Project By

Daniel S. Cutler

 

© 2005

All Einstein writings © Estate of Albert Einstein
Photos, images © as noted. More on ©  here.
Section 5 of 8
 

Before Zionism
1920-1929
 
Zionist Fundraising in USA - A Visit to Palestine - Arab Violence  
"I Feel an Intense Need to Do Something for This Cause"

THE BRITISH MANDATE FOR PALESTINE


1920

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND:

April 14
League of Nations formed

League of Nations opening session
Founded as a result of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, its goals are: disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy and improving global welfare.

Einstein will join its Committee on Intellectual Cooperation in 1922 and regularly attend meetings through 1927. The committee's purpose is to foster peace through academic collaborations. He indignantly resigns the next year after the League fails to address French reoccupation of German industrial Ruhr region ( to pressure German payment of assessed war reparations, which triggered German economic collapse). He rejoins in 1924, and attends meetings through 1930 (missing 1928 and 1929 due to poor health.) He later describes the Committee as "the most ineffectual enterprise with which I have been associated". Pais Einstein Lived Here p 172

SYRIA:

Feisal proclaims himself monarch of Greater Syria, based in Damascus
an independent Arab kingdom
as promised to him in the McMahon - Hussain correspondence.


British collude with French to oust Feisal from Damascus
(per their wartime Sykes-Picot agreement) . French forces are made ready. They will drive out Feisal later that summer.

PALESTINE:

Palestinian Arab elites insist Palestine is "Southern Syria", an integral part of Feisal's Kingdom and not an independent political unit.
Ironically, vociferous champions of this view are Arif al-Arif (a future Palestinian historian) and Amin al-Husseini who will become the dominant figure in Palestinian nationalism.

A contrary view, that Palestine is a unique country, was already being expressed in the newspaper Filastin, founded in 1909 by Orthodox Christian brothers. Einstein corresponded with this newspaper in 1930.
link

April 4-5
Palestinian Arabs rally for Feisal, violently protest Balfour Declaration:
"Nebi Musa" or "Bloody Passover" attacks (The Muslim and Jewish holidays coincided that year. Both fell on Easter Sunday). Jews are attacked by Arabs chanting: "Itbah al-Yahud" (Kill the Jews) "and "Palestine is our land, the Jews are our dogs" (it rhymes in Arabic: “Falastin beladna; wel Yahud kelabna!”. The chant is heard today at anti-Israel rallies in the US: link

Nebi Musa / Bloody Passover Riots
Amin al-Husseini and other Arab speakers denounce the Balfour Declaration as a betrayal of the Arabs by the British. Al-Husseini calls for Palestine to be united with Feisal's Arab kingdom, based in Syria. The procession confronts a march by Beitar, an assertive Zionist organization. The Arab mob chants "Itbah al-Yahud" (Kill the Jews).

Amin al-Husseini accused of inciting anti-Jewishriot
Amin al-Husseini flees to Trans-Jordan to avoid arrest by British military authorities. At the end of the decade Einstein will recall the Mufti's role in fomenting this 1920 riot one the following year.

Haj Amin al-Husseini accused, flees
British charge Amin al-Husseini with instigating the anti-Jewish violence. A former Turkish officer, then British agent, Amin al-Husseini had turned against Britain after Sykes-Picot agreement became known and the Balfour Declaration pronounced. He escapes to Trans-Jordan

Jews form defense force: Haganah.
Jewish underground militia forms in response to attacks. Called Haganah (defense) under auspices of the Labor Federation (Histadrut). It will evolve into Israeli Defense Forces. Many of its organizers are veterans of Jewish self defense groups who fought pogromists in Eastern Europe.

British expel militant Jewish leader Jabotinsky
Jabotinsky, veteran organizer of the WWI Jewish Brigade, is jailed by British for organizing armed Jewish defense, but released and banished from the country.

British Palin Commission attributes troubles to non-fulfillment of promises of Arab independence, fear of political and economic consequences of Zionism.

July
Present Lebanon-Syria border

French troops engage, defeat Feisal's small army. Feisal flees.
He finds asylum in Haifa until he is installed by British as King of Iraq.

Northern border of Mandatory Palestine remains undefined.

Cofounder of Jewish Legion falls as"collateral damage" to French-Arab conflict
Joseph Trumpeldor cofounder with Jabotinsky of WWI Jewish Brigade, falls defending Tel Hai, a settlement in the Upper Galilee. The boundary between French held Syria and northern Palestine is murky at this point.



First trade union in Palestine, established jointly by Jews, Arabs
In Haifa Arab immigrants from Syria, Egypt, Palestinian countryside join with Jewish immigrants to assert workers' rights in railway , telegraph and post office, all owned by British Mandatory government. (Pappe, A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge Press, 2 ed., c2006, pg.)

Einstein cites this cooperation as a model for future development of Zionism. link

GERMANY:
 
1920 portrait
Einstein professes Zionist, not assimilationist convictions.
Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith invites him to a meeting to plan response to anti-Semitism in academia. They are an anti-Zionist Jewish group, rejecting the idea that Jews are a nation but, rather, individuals who profess the "Mosaic religion"
"The Central Organization of German Citizens of Jewish Faith" --
Rebuffed by Einstein

Left: Ludwig Hollander, president of the assimilationist organization of German Jews. Einstein rebuffed their invitation to join their fight against antisemitism from an assimilationist stance. The 1932 Nazi cartoon (right) mocks the organization, portraying "Jewish faith" as being in money. Note the heroic storm trooper coming to rescue the German worker crushed by the greedy Jew.

Zionism is Self Respect

Before we can effectively combat anti-Semitism, we must first of all educate ourselves out of it... Only when we have the courage to regard ourselves as a nation, only when we respect ourselves, can we win the respect of others; or rather, the respect of others will then come of itself.

from 1920 April 3 letter reproduced as "Assimilation and Nationalism, section I", pg. 33 in Einstein, About Zionism, MacMillan (1931)


A quarter century later Einstein will recall the assimilationist, anti-Zionist Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith as "utterly impotent" and "corroding" to the Jewish people in its time of greatest trial.
Einstein offers university credit courses to Jewish students excluded from University of Berlin by anti-Jewish quota system.
His concern that Jews have access to higher education will drive his central Zionist effort: establishment of a Hebrew University in Palestine.

August 25
Relativity Theory denounced as "Jewish"

Anti-Einstein mass meeting held at Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Anti-Semites claim his theories poison the well springs of good German science. 1905 Nobel winner Phillip Lenard emerges as a leading anti-Semitic attacker. (He will go on to a significant role in Nazi administration.)

Einstein's signs manifesto: "No death sentences for political crimes"
Einstein is among several European intellectuals calling for restraint by Hungarian government after merciless execution of overthrown, short-lived communist regime of Bela Kun.

Bela Kun
Leader of Hungary's short-lived communist government, Bela Kun mesmerized his followers. In power he launched a "red terror" of secret police against enemies of the regime. After 133 days the Hungarian Soviet Republic, Europe's second communist country, after Russia, was overthrown by conservative forces. They initiated a campaign of violence against Communists, leftists and Jews (Kun's father had been a lapsed Jew, his mother a lapsed Protestant) known as the "white terror". Many supporters of the Hungarian Soviet Republic were executed without trial and it was this that Einstein protested.

SAN REMO, ITALY:
April 24
Britain and France divide conquered Ottoman lands
at a postwar conference held in the small Italian town of San Remo. Britain obtains "mandates" for Iraq and Palestine (on both sides of the Jordan river). The French claim Syria.
PALESTINE:
Sir Herbert Samuel arrives at Jaffa port to begin civilian administration of Palestine. Einstein will visit with him in Jerusalem two and a half years later.

July
First British High Commissioner arrives
Civilian commissioner takes possession from military governor of "One Palestine, complete". A Jew sympathetic to the Zionist cause, Sir Herbert Samuel feels obliged to be scrupulously fair to Arab concerns. Zionists come to see him as bending over backwards to the point of discriminating against them (Ben Gurion will call him a "traitor and slave") Segev, Tom, One Palestine, Complete pg. 396.

December 12
Histadrut (General Federation of Hebrew Labor ) formed

British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel pardons Amin al-Husseini. Al-Husseini returns.


An Arab Executive Committee formed, drops demand that Palestine is part of Syria
at Third Palestinian (Arab) National Congress (Haifa, December 1920)
It drops prior demand that Palestine be incorporated into Syria.

Third Palestinian National Congress, Haifa, Dec. 1920.
The banner in Arabic reads: 'Palestine is the cradle of Jesus'; 'Preserve Al-Aqsa Mosque'; 'Palestine is Arab'. Musa Kazim al-Huseini (fifthe from left, front row) the former Jerusalem mayor removed after 1920 riots, is elected head of Arab Executive of Palestine Arab Congress. Third right, bottom row, is Amin Al-Husseini, his younger relative from a different branch of the notable Jerusalem family.

Third Palestinian National Congress elects Executive Committee. Drawn exclusively from Palestinian Arab upper classes, it will represent all Palestinian Arab society in future dealings with British until 1935. Their demands:

1. Halt Jewish immigration.
2. Forbid Jewish land purchase.
3. Arab Independence

 

1921

PALESTINE:

Amin al-Husseini dubbed "Grand Mufti"
High Commissioner Herbert Samuels appoints him to succeed his deceased brother as Jerusalem Mufti (Islamic authority) over objections of other Muslim authorities. Flatteringly, Samuels adds the title "Grand" to al-Husseini's position description.

EINSTEIN JOINS ZIONIST TOUR OF US
FUNDRAISING FOR LAND PURCHASE IN PALESTINE, A HEBREW UNIVERSITY
GERMANY:

Spring
Einstein invited to join Zionist fundraising tour of US.

Kurt Blumenfeld extends invitation of Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann to accompany him on a fundraising tour of America to raise money for land purchase and resettlement on behalf of Karen HaYesod (The Zionist Palestine Foundation). Einstein's first instinct is to decline. He then agrees:

"You are right. If it were left to everyone to behave according to his own desires, it would be impossible to accomplish any united enterprise."

Blumenfeld warns Weizmann:


As you know, Einstein is no Zionist, and I beg you not to make any attempt to prevail on him to join our organization; I heard that you expect Einstein to give speeches. Please be quite careful with that. Einstein…often says things out of naiveté which are unwelcome to us.
(Pais pg. 315)

I'm Going to America
In the Interests of the Zionists

Einstein explains his motivation in a letter to his friend Maurice Solovine: I am not at all eager to go to America but am doing it only in the interests of the Zionists, who must beg for dollars to build educational institutions in Jerusalem and for whom I act as high priest and  decoy...

I do what I can to help those in my tribe who are treated so badly everywhere.

Just before embarking he writes Solovine again:

I, also, am not a patriot, and I firmly believe that the Jews, given the smallness and dependence of their colony in Palestine, will be immune from the folly of power.

Letters to Maurice Solovine quoted in Ronald W Clark Einstein: The Life and Times , p. 383-4


Einstein's "Intense Need" to Help Zionism

On Saturday I'm off to America - not to speak at universities (though there will probably be that, too, on the side) but rather to help in the founding of the Jewish University in Jerusalem. I feel an intense need to do something for this cause.

14 March 1921, Letter to Zangger, Human Side pg. 62

RECIPIENTS:

Maurice Solovine
Friend from days in Switzerland

Heinrich Zangger
Physiology professor who helped Einstein secure a position at the Polytechnic (where his applications for assistantships had been rejected just a few years earlier by several professors )

Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in New York
USA:

According to Abba Eban, Weizmann tells reporters that aboard ship every day Einstein would explain to him the theory of relativity so that, by the time they arrived in New York harbor, "I was convinced that he understood it". (Pais, Einstein was Here. pg. 154)

Beginning with the US tour Einstein and Weizmann worked closely together for most of the decade. In later later years Einstein said of Weizmann: "My relations with Weizmann were, as Freud would say, ambivalent." (Pais, Subtle is the Lord, pg. 315).

April 2
Einstein, Weizmann, Zionist contingent arrive New York harbor

for two month coast-to-coast lecture tour to promote the cause of the Jewish national home and to raise funds for the establishment of a Jewish university in Jerusalem.

April 2, 1921 Zionist Movement fundraising tour
Einstein arrives in America aboard the S. S. Rotterdam

From left: Menachem Ussishkin; Chaim Weizmann;
unidentified woman; Einstein;
Unidentified woman (probably Elsa Einstein);
Ben Zion Messensohn (UPI)

reproduced in Clark, Ronald; Einstein: The Life and Times

En route to Commodore Hotel, the contingent is cheered by crowds, including Jewish veterans of WWI who had fought in Palestine. At a reception in Manhattan a band played the German national anthem and Hatikvah, the Zionist (and later Israel's) national anthem.

Jews vs. "a Jewish People"

My greatest experience was seeing a Jewish people for the first time in my life. . Ladies and Gentlemen! I have seen a  great many Jews [laughter] , but I have not seen a Jewish people in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany...These people still carry a healthy national feeling within
them that has not been destroyed by the atomization and splintering of the individual.
Einstein speech on his America trip in Bluüthner Auditorium published next day in Judische Rundshau July 1, 1921 in Jurgen Neffe, Einstein A Biography Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York 2005 tranlation 2007 by Shelley Frisch pg. 311

 



Weizmann tells reporters:

Professor Einstein has done us the honor of accompanying us to America in the interest of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Zionists have long cherished the hope of creating in Jerusalem a centre of learning in which the Hebrew genius shall find full self-expression and which shall play its part as interpreter between the Eastern and Western worlds.

Einstein adds

"I know of no public event which has given me such delight as the proposal to establish a Hebrew University in Jerusalem."

After Weizmann's speech to the crowd Einstein addresses the crowd:

"Your leader, Dr. Weizmann has spoken, and he has spoken very well for us all. Follow him and you will do well. That is all I have to say."

NYT April 3, 1921

Weizmann and Einstein in New York

Einstein lectures on relativity
Columbia, City College of New York and Princeton

April 11
Weizmann, Einstein, honored for Zionist efforts at Metropolitan Opera House

May
Einstein inspires Jewish physicians group to buy land in Jerusalem, outfit a medical lab for proposed Hebrew University
Gala dinner fundraiser at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York is attended by 800 physicians. Funds are raised to purchase additional land on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem. Einstein later refers to how moved he is by the physicians' devotion to this particular Zionist project.

PALESTINE:

May
Arabs again attack Jews in Palestine

while Einstein is lecturing in Chicago. 17 people killed in Jaffa, followed by large-scale attacks on other Jewish areas. Jewish defense is organized to repel the attackers. In the Jaffa area, the defenders are joined by soldiers of the "First Judeans" regiment

Jewish immigration ordered halted
by Sir Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner. Yielding to Arab demands, he orders a temporary halt to Jewish immigration. He begins negotiations with the Arab Executive Committee. The outcome of these negotiations will be the 1922 White Paper (see below)

The riots are investigated
by British Haycraft Commission, summary report:


BRITISH HAYCRAFT COMMISSION REPORT ON 1920 ANTI-JEWISH RIOTS IN PALESTINE


The racial strife was begun by the Arabs, and rapidly developed into a conflict of great violence between Arabs and Jews, in which the Arab majority, who were generally the aggressors, inflicted most of the casualties. The fundamental cause of the riots was a feeling among the Arabs of discontent with, and hostility to, the Jews, due to political and economic causes, and connected with Jewish immigration, and with their conception of Zionist policy as derived from Jewish exponents

British Haycraft Commission Report

USA:
Einstein's commitment to Zionism strengthened
profoundly as he concludes the US tour on May 30. To his physicist friend Paul Ehrenfest he writes:

Zionism is a "New Jewish Ideal"

Zionism indeed represents a new Jewish ideal that can restore to the Jewish people their joy in existence ... I am very happy that I accepted Weizmann's invitation.

18 June 1921 Letter to Ehrenfest in Human Side p. 63


"Great Satisfaction"
with Helping the Zionist Cause

Two frightfully exhausting months now lie behind me, but I have the great satisfaction of having been very useful to the cause of Zionism and of having assured the the foundation of the university...

It is a wonder I was able to hold out. But now it is over, and there remains the beautiful feeling of having done something truly good...

letter to Michele Besso reproduced in Einstein: A Centenary Volume Harvard U Press (1979) p 203

RECIPIENTS:


Paul Ehrenfest Michele Besso
ALBERT EINSTEIN: PUBLIC ZIONIST

ENGLAND:

Stopping in England before return to Germany Einstein speaks in Manchester and at King's College, London

HOW EINSTEIN CAME TO ZIONISM

When I moved to Berlin... I realized the difficulties with which many young Jews were confronted. I saw how, amid anti-Semitic surroundings, systematic study, and with it the road to safe existence, was made impossible for them. This refers especially to the Eastern-born Jews in Germany... These eastern-born Jews are made the scapegoat of all the ills of present-day German political life and all the aftereffects of the war. Incitement against these unfortunate refugees, who have only just saved themselves from the hell which Eastern Europe means for them today, has become an effective political weapon, employed with success by every demagogue. When the government contemplated the expulsion of these Jews, I stood up for them, and pointed out in the Berliner Tageblatt the inhumanity and the folly of such a  measure. Together with some colleagues, Jews and non-Jews, I started University courses for these eastern-born Jews, and I must add that in this matter we enjoyed official recognition and considerable assistance from the  Ministry of Education. These and similar happenings 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 I fact regard the growth of Jewish self assertion as being in the interest of non-Jews as well as Jews. That was the main motive for my joining the Zionist movement... The Jewish nation is a living thing, and the sentiment of Jewish nationalism must be developed both in Palestine and everywhere else. To deny the Jews' nationality ...to all intents and purposes one denies the existence of the Jewish people...We live in a time of intense and perhaps exaggerated nationalism. But my Zionism does not exclude internationalism... Through the return of Jews to Palestine, and so to a normal and healthy economic life, Zionism involves a creative function, which should enrich mankind at large.

But the main point is that Zionism must seek to enhance the dignity and self-respect of the Jews in the Diaspora. I have always been annoyed by the undignified assimilationist cravings and strivings which I have observed in so many of my friends... [see here and here]


from essay in Judische Rundschau June 21,1921 reproduced as "Assimilation and Nationalism, section II " in Einstein, About Zionism, MacMillan (1931) September, 1-14:

 
Twelfth Zionist Congress

Twelfth Zionist Congress: The first Zionist Congress after the Balfour Declaration
On the agenda: Approving further land purchase, welcoming the decision of the principal Allied Powers to grant the mandate for Palestine to Britain and encouraged the ratification of the Mandate by the League of Nations.

The Congress discusses Keren HaYesod, the fund established a year earlier at the London Conference and whose purpose it was to raise funds for the upbuilding of Palestine from among the Jewish communities of the Diaspora.

Karen haYesod, founded one year earlier. It was on behalf of this fund that Einstein came first to America.

A further issue discussed at the Congress was the question of Zionism's relations with the Arabs. This matter had become serious as a result of Arab riots in Jerusalem (1920) and in Jaffa (1921). The Congress passed a resolution declaring that Zionism seeks,

to live in relations of harmony and mutual respect with the Arab people,"; and calls on the Executive to achieve a

"sincere understanding with the Arab people.

GERMANY:
Returning to Germany Einstein promotes Zionism
through essays contributed to the twice-weekly Zionistische Vereinigung fuer Deutschland (the Zionist Federation of Germany periodical. This alarms many German Jews who preferred quiet assimilation.

Rebuilding the Homeland:
Our "Great and Noble Task"

Ladies and Gentlemen!
For two thousand years the common property <heritage> of the Jewish people only consisted <rested on> of its past. Our people, who are scattered all over the world, had nothing in common but the carefully guarded traditions. Individual Jews may indeed have created great cultural values, but the Jewish people as a whole did no longer seem to have the strength for great collective achievements. This has changed now. History has assigned us a great and noble task in the shape of our active participation in the building of Palestine. Extraordinary members of our tribe are already working with all their might for the realization of this goal. We are presented with the opportunity to establish cultural sites that the entire Jewish people will be able to consider their own <property> work. We foster the hope to create in Palestine a homeland for our own national culture that should contribute to the awakening of new economic and spiritual life in the near Orient. The goal that the leaders of Zionism have in mind is not a political but a social and cultural one. The Palestine community should aim to approach the social ideal of our ancestors as it is set down in the bible and, at the same time, become a place of modern spiritual life. A spiritual center for the Jews of the entire world. Based on this understanding, it is one of the most important goals of the Zionist organization to establish a Jewish university in Jerusalem. I have been in America in the past months in order to help create a material foundation for this university. The success of this endeavor was outstanding. Thanks to the tireless work of Jewish physicians in America and their remarkable willingness to make sacrifices, we succeeded in gathering sufficient funds for establishing <realizing> a medical faculty, and the preparations for its realization will start immediately. Based on the successes so far, I have no reason to doubt that the material basis for the other faculties can soon be created. At first, the medical faculty will essentially be established as a research institute and will support the restoration of the land that is so very important for <colonization of the country> building the country. Lecture programs on a wider scale will only become important later. Since a number of capable scientists are already willing to accept an appointment to the university, establishing a medical faculty seems completely assured. I would like to mention that a special fund has been established for the university which is completely separate from the general fund for building the country. In these months, remarkable sums were contributed to the latter thanks to the tireless work of Prof. Weizmann and other Zionist leaders in America, especially due to the enormous willingness of the middle class to make sacrifices. In closing I want to make a heartfelt appeal to the Jews in Germany to contribute to the best of their ability to the building of a Jewish homeland in Palestine in spite of the present difficult economic situation: This is not an act of charity, but an endeavor that concerns all Jews, and whose success promises to become a source of the most rewarding satisfaction.

DOC. 59 On a Jewish Palestine. First Version (pp. 241–242 in translation volume) Princeton University Press 2002  59. On a Jewish Palestine. First Version [before 27 June 1921]


Rebuilding Palestine: Our Historic Task

The rebuilding of Palestine is for us...of paramount importance to the Jewish people. Palestine is first and foremost... the incarnation of a re-awakening sense of national solidarity... It is from this point of view that I look upon the Zionist movement. History has today allotted us the task of contributing actively to the economic and cultural reconstruction of Palestine. Inspired men of genius and vision have laid the foundations of our work, to which many of the best among us are prepared to devote their whole lives..."

from an essay reproduced as "Assimilation and Nationalism, section III" in Einstein, About Zionism, MacMillan (1931)

GERMANY:
June 24
Einstein acquaintance, Foreign Minister of Germany Walther Rathenau, assassinated
.
Foreign Minister of the German Weimar Republic - Jewish and an outspoken internationalist, is assassinated by a right wing zealot. Einstein, also an outspoken Jew, is marked for death.

Rathenau Assassination Site
Contemporary postcard marks the spot where right wing assassins murdered the German Foreign Minister Rathenau for being Jewish

Had He Not Been Murdered,
Rathenau Would Now Be in Palestine

I can remember very well the time when Jews in Germany laughed over Palestine. I remember, when I spoke with Rathenau about Palestine, he said: 'Why go to this land that is only sand and worth nothing and which can never be developed?' This was his idea. But, if he had not been murdered, he probably would now be in Palestine. You can therefore see that the development of Palestine is of real tremendous importance for all of Jewry.

At a 1940 testimonial dinner to Einstein, given by the friends of the Haifa Technion ( Institute of Technology), quoted in Abraham Pais, Einstein Lived Here, Clarendon Press, Oxford U Press, 1994, pg. 248

8 October
Einstein cancels public appearances, takes up his publisher's offer to tour Japan.
He and his wife leave for a five-month trip abroad


"After the Rathenau murder, I very much welcomed the opportunity of a long absence from Germany, which took me away from temporarily increased danger."
Pais, Abraham; , Einstein Lived Here Clarendon Press New York 1994 Pg. 159


Einstein Wins Nobel Prize
Word of Nobel Prize en route he gets word of having been named 1921 Nobel Prize winner - not for relativity, but for for work on quantum theory (It is later revealed that Philipp Lenard's lobbying has denied him the Nobel)
Per their 1919 divorce decree, Mileva receives entire sum, $32,000.


Russian Civil War Ends with Red Army Victory
Bolshevik-Czarist fighting provokes 2,000 pogroms in Poland, Ukraine.
Half a million Jews are left homeless; 30,000 Jews killed directly and an additional 120,000 die from wounds or as a result of illnesses during the pogroms. Plight of the survivors profoundly effects Einstein's view of the Jewish condition.

CHURCHILL'S WHITE PAPER


PALESTINE:
July 1
Churchill subdivides Palestine
Bars eastern Palestine to Jews, awards it to Hashemite ally, Prince Abdullah

British Foreign Secretary Churchill gives 80% of mandatory Palestine to Britain's allies, the Hashemite tribe of Arabian peninsula (where they have been conflicting with the al-Saud tribe). Emir Abdullah is named ruler.
Prince Abdullah with Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the British colonies, at Jerusalem Conference, March 1921. The photo shows Mrs. Churchill, Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner of Palestine, Mrs. Samuel, General Ghaleb Pasha Sha'alan, Colonel Fu'ad Sleem, and Colonel Aref Al-Hassan.
Abdullah, Feisal's half-brother is awarded eastern bulk of Palestine Mandate. It is closed to Jewish immigration.


Feisal Crowned as King of Iraq
After failing to deliver a United Arab Kingdom promised during WWI the British give a consolation prize to Abdullah's brother Feisal: They make him King of Iraq.

July 24
League of Nations assigns Palestine Mandate to Britain
Mandate terms requires implementation of Balfour Declaration

Mandates to prepare locals for home rule: Yellow: French Mandates,
Orange: British Mandates

"An appropriate Jewish agency"...

shall be recognized as a public body for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Administration of Palestine in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishment of the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine, and, subject always to the control of the Administration to assist and take part in the development of the country.

The Zionist organization, so long as its organization and constitution are in the opinion of the Mandatory appropriate, shall be recognized as such agency. It shall take steps in consultation with His Britannic Majesty's Government to secure the co-operation of all Jews who are willing to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national home.

"An appropriate Jewish Agency" to work with British authorities in Palestine .
Over the next three decades the Zionist Organization's "Jewish Agency" will develop institutions that will transition to a national government.

British create Arab counterpart, sort-of

March
Mufti Amin al-Husseini "elected" by fellow Arab elites to presidency of Supreme Muslim Council

a hitherto unknown religious body created by the British to replace defunct Ottoman religious authority. Appointed president of the first Supreme Muslim Council in March 1922 (until he flees Palestine in 1937). The Mufti now controls Waqf funds - the Islamic religious trust - worth annually tens of thousands of pounds, the orphan funds, worth annually about 50,000 pounds, besides controlling the Islamic (Shariah) courts in Palestine. These courts, among other duties, appointed teachers and preachers. Together with his role as leader of the Arab High Committee he now has temporal and religious authority of Palestinian Muslims.

Einstein: Mufti Amin al-Husseini
"the centre of all the trouble"


"utterly irresponsible and unscrupulous"

Such was Einstein's assessment eight years later. With attaining control of wakf funds as head of the Supreme Muslim Council he was free to "exercise his evil influence, garbed in all the spiritual sanctity of religion, and invested with all the temporal powers that this involves in an Eastern country..." -Einstein speaking of the Mufti Amin al-Husseini link

Hadassah nurse makes a home visit
Einstein and other Zionists were certain Palestinian Arabs would view their movement as beneficial to their own development. The women Zionists movement Hadassah particularly raised the standard of healthcare to the entire population with their visiting nurse program.
Egypt gains independence

Einstein's Zionist Fundraising in Singapore en route to Japan
Zionist Fundraiser in Singapore
Einstein (center) hosted en route to Japan

November 2, 1922

In October 1922, Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, had sent the following telegram from London to the Zionist Society in Singapore: "Professor Einstein and wife arrive Singapore November first Kitano Maru. Kindly arrange reception their honor. Celebrate event by raising a big contribution to Jerusalem University." Einstein described his arrival and reception in Singapore: "Arrived in Singapore. Through narrow passages between small green islands. There we were met and friendly greeted by Zionists."

Einstein spoke in German, translated into English by Montor:

Why a "Jewish" University?

If science is pre-eminent through its universal predomination, then one may ask, why do we need a Jewish University? Science is international but its success is based on institutions which are owned by nations. If therefore, we wish to promote culture we have to combine and to organize institutions with our own power and means.

Einstein continued:

We need to do this all the more on account of the present political developments and especially in the view of the fact that a large percentage of our sons are refused admission to the Universities of other nations..

Einstein in Singapore Joan Bieder in On The Page Web magazine issue no. 1, winter 2000–2001
http://www.onthepage.org/outsiders/einstein_in_singapore.htm


Einstein in Japan

On return voyage he stops in Palestine

 

EINSTEIN'S 12 DAY TOUR OF ZIONIST ACHIEVEMENTS IN PALESTINE

PLEDGES SOLIDARITY, INAUGURATES HEBREW U. IN JERUSALEM

1923


Zionist accomplishments in Palestine reviewed by Einstein
on returning voyage from Japan. Everywhere Einstein is greeted as a hero, his support of their efforts overwhelmingly appreciated. Cheering schoolchildren line the streets.

Augusta Victoria Hostel, Jerusalem. February 1923
Einstein (2nd from right), British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuels (2nd from left)
Photo: Father Caniere; © Albert Einstein Archives, Jewish National and University Library, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
February 8, Einstien named Tel Aviv's first honorary citizen
February 9, 1923: Einstein with Zionist workers in Haifa
photo: Margot Einstein reproduced in Einstein In America pg. 54
Einstein touring a Technion workshop
The Technion, Haifa
Einstein plants two trees in the courtyard of Israel's original technical college
Upon returning to German he accepts Chairmanship of the first Friends of Technion Society
Einstein Thrilled by Zionist Achievements

February 2
Einstein gives inaugural Hebrew University lecture,

Mount Scopus Jerusalem. Introduced by Menachem Ussishkin, president of the Zionist Executive and a member of the party with which he had first traveled to America. Before an enormous crowd Ussishkin grandly invites Einstein to "Mount the platform which has been waiting for you for 2,000 years. " (Hebrew University officially dedicated 1925). in a British police academy hall on Mount Scopus, he delivered the University's first-ever scientific lecture. Einstein began his lecture in Hebrew and then apologized for being unable to continue in the language of his own people, and resumed in French. Those present heard in Einstein's voice the birth song of the long anticipated Jewish University "national celebration" exulted the newspaper Ha'aretz.

Einstein's Palestine Diary

I consider this the greatest day of my life. Hitherto I have always found something to regret in the Jewish soul, and that is the forgetfulness of its own people -- forgetfulness of its being, almost. Today I have been made happy by the sight of the Jewish people learning to recognize themselves and to make themselves recognized as a force in the world. This is a great age, the age of liberation of the Jewish soul, and it has been accomplished through the Zionist movement, so that no one in the world will be able to destroy it.

Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971) pg. 393

Einstein is named first "honorary citizen" of Tel Aviv

I have already had the privilege of of receiving honorary citizenship of the City of New York, but I am tenfold happier to be a citizen of this beautiful Jewish town

Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971) pg. 394

February 8 diary entry on Tel Aviv:

The accomplishments of the Jews in just a few years in this city arouses the highest admiration.. An incredibly active people, our Jews...


He next visits a kibbutz, where he has a humorous miscommunication with a female kibbutznik. He asks young woman about the relationship between the sexes. When she blushes he clarifies:

We physicists understand by the word relationship something rather simple, namely: How many men are there and how many women?

Denis Brian pg 145


In Rishon LeZion Einstein promises to...

...rouse the Jewish world and tell them of the strength that has been invested here [adding that until his last hour he would] work for our settlement and for our country.

Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971) pg 394-5


Touring the Mount of Olives with Attorney General Norman Bentwich, Einstein remarks:The Jews had produced no genius of rank in the nineteenth century save a mathematician - Jacoby - and Heine...The National Home in Palestine could release and foster their genius. For 2,000 years their common bond had been then the past, the carefully guarded tradition. Now they had a new bond, the active cooperation in building up a country.

Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971) pg. 395


On religious Jews praying at the Wall:

deplorable sight of people with a past but without a present

Hoffmann pg. 152

February 13
Invited by Ussishkin to relocate to Jerusalem, Einstein declines. He writes in his diary:

The heart says yes, but the mind says no.

Hoffman, Einstein and Zionism" in General Relativity, peg 241


Departing Palestine asked what advice he had to improve conditions? Answer to Weizmann:

Collect more money.

Denis Brian 145

The Einsteins leave Palestine mid February.
Final impression summed up in a letter to Maurice Solvine:

We like our brethren in Palestine very much as peasants, workers and as citizens... On the whole, the country is not very fertile. It will become a moral center, but will not be able to take in a large proportion of the Jewish people. I am convinced, however, that the colonization will succeed.

Einstein to Maurice Solovine, 1923, in Lettres a Maurice Solovine (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1956), peg 4


GERMANY:

February

Einsteins return to Berlin
from far East and Palestine journey, stopping first for a three week visit to Spain.

  

November 8-9
A young demagogue leads thuggish followers in failed "Beer Hall Putsch"
An attempt to overthrow democratic government.  He uses his time in jail to write a manifesto: My Struggle (Mein Kampf) outlining plans to eradicate Jews

1924-1926 THE FOURTH ALIYA

A fourth wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine is the direct result of an economic crisis and new anti-Jewish policies in Poland . Most of the immigrants are middle class - shopkeepers and tradesmen. Unlike their predecessors they gravitate to cities , not agricultural settlements. With the modest sums of capital they bring this wave establishes small businesses and workshops.


Einstein addresses a Jewish students conference, Berlin

Einstein edits Hebrew University's first publication of physics papers

 

TURKISH REPUBLIC:

Kemal Ataturk leads Turkish government, the successor to the defeated Ottoman empire.

Ataturk modernizes the Turkish alphabet

Attaturk abolishes the Caliphate, part of his program to remake Turkey as a modern state.
Restoring the caliphate abolished by Western-leaning modernizers is the the goal of modern-day jihadists.

USA:

America closes doors to immigration
As anti-Semitism rises in Poland, a new wave of Jewish immigrants arrive, less idealistic. Quick growth of Zionist urban centers, especially Tel Aviv.

1925

SOUTH AMERICA: 24 March
Einstein arrives in Buenos Aires
At start of trip to South America. Contacts in Uruguay play a role in Einstein's later fundraising to purchase arms for Israel's defense in its War of Independence.

Einstein welcomed in Uruguay
This visit will play an important part in Einstein's effort to help Palestinian Jews fight for independence. link
 


PALESTINE
:

Revisionist Zionists organize
under Vladimir Jabotinsky to vigorously fight Great Britain for Jewish statehood in all original Mandatory Palestine, including Eastern Palestine Mandate in which British have established Abdullah as King.

Einstein was implacably opposed to Revisionist Zionism, calling it an embodiment of "harmful forces". (see 1934)

Ze'ev Jabotinsky in WWI British uniform

 

Histadrut founded (Zionist Labor Federation)
Einstein consistently approved of Jewish Labor organizations and believed the Palestinian Jewish working class would be in the vanguard of peacemaking with the Arabs.

Humanitarian Zionism

A Jew who strives to impregnate his spirit with humanitarian ideals can declare himself a Zionist without contradiction. What one must be thankful for to Zionism is that it is the only movement that has given Jews a justified pride.

Judische Rundschau 30 , 129

Hebrew University opens. Einstein joins Board of Governors, is founding chairman of its Academic Committee.

Opening Hebrew University
Weizmann, Balfour, British High Commissioner Samuels

The First Board of Governors of the University,
chaired by Dr. Weizmann includes Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, Harry Sacher and Felix M. Warburg


Einstein's Mission Statement
for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

The opening of our Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, at Jerusalem, is an event which should not only fill us with just pride, but should also inspire us to serious reflection... We aim at creating a people of workers... and we desire that the treasures of culture should be accessible to our laboring class... it devolves upon the University to create something unique in order to serve the specific needs of the forms of life developed by our people in Palestine.
March 1925



Judah Magnus appointed Hebrew University Chancellor
The confirmed pacifist would seem a natural ally with Einstein, but academic politics made them adversaries

Years of policy differences commence between University's Chancellor, Judah L. Magnes and Einstein which will lead to Einstein's resignation from the Board in 1928 (though his commitment to the Hebrew University will remain.)

Einstein accepts membership on Hebrew University's Board of Governors
(He resigns in 1928 following disagreements with Judah Magnus.)

Einstein: Forever grateful to Zionist leaders
for creating a "moral homeland"

[Jews ought to] regain without ridiculous arrogance the essence of the human values they represent ...

Zionism can help awaken them [Jews]... to know themselves less poorly and to become brave...

Zionism is on its way to create in Palestine a center of Jewish spiritual life. For this one should forever be grateful to its leaders. The existence of this moral homeland will, I hope, successfully give a plus of vitality to a people that has not yet deserved to die out ...

I believe I can maintain that Zionism, an apparent nationalistic movement, has in final analysis significant merit for humanity at large.

Judishe Rundschau 30, 129, 1925 in Abraham Pais, Einstein Lived Here, Clarendon Press, Oxford U Press, 1994, peg 164

AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC:

14 th Zionist Congress Opens in Vienna Concert Hall as Nazi crowds taunt arrivals

Weizmann and his wife rode through taunting crowds, accompanied by a police escort from their hotel to the conference hall. The hall itself was protected by groups from the Jewish youth federations, and other groups of students and workers.


Despite a five-year war, despite the terrible post-war period, despite emergencies and deaths, this plan [to create a University in Jerusalem] was carried out, and if the torch which was ignited in Jerusalem is carried forward, as the hearts of all humanity pray, to be one in love and aspirations, then the fourteenth congress will take a place of honor in our movement. So I hope that this, our fourteenth Congress, will also be blessed with success and that its deliberations lay the path forward to become a free people among free peoples, for our own happiness and the welfare of all mankind.

Weizmann address to 14th Zionist Congress

Weizmann argues for "genuine friendship and cooperation with the Arabs"


Palestine must be built without violating the legitimate interests of the Arabs... 600,000 Arabs live there, who, before the sense of justice of the world, have exactly the same right to their homes in Palestine as we have to our National Home.

Weizmann address to 14th Zionist Congress

 

ARABIAN PENINSULA:

Hashemites lose control of Arabian to ibn-Saud clan backed by Wahabis
King Ali bin al-Hussein, eldest brother of Abdullah and Faisal, loses the throne of the Kingdom of the Hijaz to Abdel Aziz bin Saud of Najd. Leads to the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and brings to an end over one thousand years of Hashemite rule in Mecca.

1926

Brit Shalom (Peace Covenant) founded
Centered among Hebrew University faculty, its platform -- influenced by the views of Ahad Ha'am, Chaim Weizmann and Martin Buber -- combines Zionism with plans for a binational state. Accordingly, it is willing to forego political independence and accept a future state where Jews are a minority. Most of the Yishuv leadership regards it as subversive, if not treasonous. Among high profile professorial membership: Hugo Bergmann>, Ernst Simon and Gershom Scholem.

Brit Shalom binationalists willing to forgo indpendent state, seek to negotiate with Arab nationalists
Judah Mannus secretly meets with George Antonius, Nuri al-Sa'id, St. John Philby (a Muslim convert). They insist on limiting Jewish immigration and land purchase. They further refuse to publicly acknowledge talks had even taken place.

Meanwhile, the Mufti party leader: "We must drive them [Jews] out or be driven out by them."

Magnus: "The finger of scorn had been pointed at me (by other Zionists for seeking rapproachment] because not one Arab stood up." Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy pg. 437-438

No to Exclusionism, Yes to Zionism

Generally speaking, it does not accord with my ideal that communities bound together by the bond of race or tradition should make special efforts to cultivate and emphasis their separateness. In so far, however, as a given community is attacked as such, it is bound to defend itself as such ...Corporate action is needed to save the individual..It is for me beyond any shadow of a doubt that in the present circumstances the rebuilding of Palestine is the only object which has a sufficiently strong appeal to stimulate the Jews to effective corporate action. It is the immortal service of Herzl that he was the first to see this clearly and draw the right practical conclusions. For this reason 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 idea.

from a 1926 essay reproduced as "Assimilation and Nationalism, section V" in Einstein, About Zionism, MacMillan (1931)


April 12 , 1926 to the physicist Paul Ehrenfest Einstein writes:

I do believe that in time this endeavor will grow into something splendid; and, Jewish saint that I am, my heart rejoices

April 12 , 1926 Letter to Ehrenfest:

Einstein gives measured support to idea of providing asylum to Jews in Russia

Yes to settling some Jews in Russia,
but Palestine is the goal

Although I believe that it is only in Palestine that work of a lasting value can be achieved and that everything that is done in the Diaspora countries is only a palliative,  I nevertheless [support the Russian project] because it will mean a strengthening of the Jewish people...

Abraham Pais, Einstein Lived Here, Clarendon Press, Oxford U Press, 1994, peg 242



TRANS-JORDAn:
British power behind the Hashemite throne
British citizen appointed to "guide" Emir Abdullah on Defense, Foreign Affairs

EGYPT:

 

"Allah is our goal;
the Messenger is our model;
the Koran is our constitution;
jihad is our means; and
martyrdom in the way of Allah
is our aspiration."

 

Hasan al-Banna, the first modern "radical Islamist"
Al-Qaeda and Hamas both declare themselves to be branches of the Muslim Brotherhood he founded in 1926.
Twenty years later a Muslim Brotherhood cell was established in Jerusalem. Mufti Amin al-Husseini was named its leader in absentia -- at the time he was an escaped, wanted war criminal. Einstein's characterization of the Mufti spreading "his evil influence" was to be greatly magnified in WWII.

 

PALESTINE:
Fifth Aliya 1929 - 1939

 

Zionist leaders continuing purchasing land from friendly sheiks

"[E]very acre of land acquired by the Jews has been bought at a price fixed by buyer and seller" source

Hebrew University medical tent
Einstein was convinced Arabs "could only benefit" from improved health care, sanitation, and other material advances instituted by the Zionist enterprise

ELSEWHERE IN MIDEAST:

Kirkuk, Kurdish region of Iraq - Oil discovered

 


GERMANY:

April 13
Einstein hires Helen Dukas to be his secretary
Einstein's wife Elsa asks Rosa Dukas, her hometown friend and colleague in the Jewish Orphan Aid Society to recommend a secretary for Albert. Rosa's sister Helen takes the job for the next 27 years, becoming a member of, and eventually running the Einstein household (and establishing his archives).

Zionist "Pro-Palestine Committee" in Germany
1929
EINSTEIN'S ZIONIST VOICE FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
USA:
July 1
Enforcement of the the US Immigration Act of 1924 begins
Restrictive immigration law set quotas at only 2 percent of nationalities existing in the US in 1920. Japanese immigration is completely suspended. Similarly restrictive immigration in other countries will leave European Jews no escape from Nazism.
GERMANY:
Einstein continues to speak out for pacifism. Addressing a Jewish group in Berlin:

Jews' Duty: Fight for Peace

It is the duty of us Jews to put at the disposal of the world our several-thousand-years-old sorrowful experience and, true to the ethical traditions of our fathers, become soldiers in the fight for peace, united with the noblest elements in all cultural and religious circles.
Philipp Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, Knopf (1947); peg 156


Homeland's Loss Internalized

How many non-Jews [and he could easily have included Jews, as well- adds Banesh Hoffman] have any insight into the spiritual suffering and distortion, the degradation and the moral disintegration engendered by the mere fact of homelessness of a gifted and sensitive people?
Banesh Hoffman, Einstein and Zionism in General Relativity and Gravitation: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference, Tel Aviv University; Wiley, New York (1975) p. 234
March 13
Einstein's 50th birthday
Among many congratulatory letters is one from Dr. Max Talmey of New York. As a poor medical student (then named Max Talmud) he ate dinner with the Einstein's each Thursday and introduced ten-year-old Albert to science and philosophy. link

SWITZERLAND:

July 28 - Aug 11
Einstein attends 16th Zionist Congress, in Zurich

He teases his friends that while in Zurich he is staying with his ex-wife Mileva.

 

Arthur Ruppin and Chaim Weizmann in Zurich at the 16th Zionist Congress. Einstein also attended.

 


The main agenda item: enlarging the Jewish Agency to include "non-Zionists"

-- delegates chosen from around the world responsible for supporting construction of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, in contrast to the "Zionist" delegates chosen from within the ranks of the Zionist Organization.

Einstein speaks of "the brave and dedicated minority who call themselves Zionists".
He goes on to say, "we others..." Still residing in Britain, Chaim Weizmann was among the others.
[ Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971) pg 401] Einstein joins in a standing ovation when Weizmann declares