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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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)

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, 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.

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.

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

ENGLAND:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

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 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.)

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.

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

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

EGYPT:

The Muslim Brotherhood is founded link
by 22 year old elementary school teacher Hasan al-Banna. The first modern radical Muslim organization, its goal is to abolish the individual states demarcated by the British and French and replace them with a restored caliphate, ruled by Islamic law. Their watchwords:

	"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.

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

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).

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