| Einstein in America
- The Rise of Nazism - The White Paper |
| "We
Must Strive For a Just and Lasting Compromise with the Arab People
Despite the Great Wrong That Has Been Done Us " |
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1930 Young Zionists draining
Hula Swamp
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Einstein: "When one travels through the country, as I had
the good fortune to do a few years ago, and sees young pioneers,
men and women of magnificent intellectual and moral calibre,
breaking stones and building roads under the blazing rays of the
Palestinian sun; when one sees flourishing agricultural settlement,
shooting up from the long-deserted soil under the intensive efforts
of the Jewish settlers...what observer, whatever his origin or faith,
can fail to be seized by the magic of such amazing achievement and
of such almost superhuman devotion?" 1929
Letter
to Manchester Guardian
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1930
Arab protest against Jewish immigration
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March 31
British
investigate previous year's riots, recommend actions
On March 31, 1930 Britain's Shaw Commission issues its report on the 1929
anti-Jewish riots by Palestinian Arabs.
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Left:
Sir Walther Shaw, Right: Sir John Hope-Simpson
Shaw investigated the 1929 riots, Hope-Simpson made recommendations
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Conclusion of Shaw Report: "racial
animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon the disappointment
of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic
future."
Discontent fueled by the rise of a landless class of Arab
peasants, widespread Arab fear that continued Jewish immigration would
result in a Jewish-dominated Palestine.
Recommendations: British obligations
to the Arab community should be more precisely defined, Jewish immigration
should be brought directly under British control, cease evicting Arab
tenants following land transfers.
Hope-Simpson: Suspend
Jewish immigration until new agricultural methods make absorption
of immigrants less burdensome on Arab peasants
Jewish leaders respond:
Hope-Simpson ignores capacity for growth in the industrial sector. (Hope-Simpson
saw no future for industry in Palestine.) Also, since Zionist ethic requires
self-labor, blocking Jewish immigration won't effect Arab labor
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GERMANY:
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January
Einstein writes to a Palestinian
Arab newspaper: |
Einstein:
Arabs Stand Only
to
Gain from Zionism
One who, like myself, has cherished
for many years the conviction that the humanity of the future
must be built up on an intimate community of the nations, and
that aggressive nationalism must be conquered, can see a future
for Palestine only on the basis of peaceful cooperation between
the two peoples who are at home in the country. For this reason
I should have expected that the great Arab people will show
a truer appreciation of the need which the Jews feel to rebuild
their national home in the ancient seat of Judaism; I should
have expected that by common effort ways and means would be
found to render possible an extensive Jewish settlement in the
country.
I am convinced that the devotion
of the Jewish people to Palestine will benefit all the inhabitants
of the country, not only materially, but also culturally and
nationally. I believe that the Arab renaissance in the vast
expanse of territory now occupied by the Arabs stands only to
gain from Jewish sympathy. I should welcome the creation of
an opportunity for absolutely free and frank discussion of these
possibilities, for I believe that the two great Semitic peoples,
each of which has in its way contributed something of lasting
value to the civilisation of the West, may have a great future
in common, and that instead of facing each other with barren
enmity and mutual distrust, they should support each other's
national and cultural endeavours, and should seek the possibility
of sympathetic co-operation. I think that those who are not
actively engaged in politics should above all contribute to
the creation of this atmosphere
of confidence.
I
deplore the tragic events of last August not only because they
revealed human nature in its lowest aspects, but also because
they have estranged the two peoples and have made it temporarily
more difficult for them to approach one another. But come together
they must, in spite of all
from a January
28, 1930 letter to Falastin newspaper reproduced as "Jew
and Arab, section III", in Einstein, About Zionism,
MacMillan (1931)
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January 29, 1930
Einstein plays violin at a Welfare
Concert for the Youth Department of the Jewish Community
Berlin's Neue Synagoge located at 30 Oranienburger Strasse. The
program includes arias sung by tenor Hermann Jadlowker and the Adagio
in B-minor for two violins by Johann Sebastian Bach, played by Einstein
and the violist Alfred Lewandowski.
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Einstein was seen in a kippah
only very occasionally when attending a lecture or charity
event at a synagogue, such as the public concert in which he performed
with opera singer Hermann Jadlowker at the New Synagogue of Berlin
(January 29, 1930) to benefit the Jewish Welfare and Jewish Youth
Welfare Offices. Photo: (© Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS)
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As much as I feel myself to be a Jew, I stand aloof from the traditional religious rites
Letter to the Jewish Community of Berlin Dec. 22, 1920 cited in Jurgen Neffe pg 317
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Einstein's Plan
for a Binational State
Sir:
Your letter has given me great pleasure. It shows me that there
is good will on your side, too, for solving the present difficulties
in a manner worthy of both our nations...
What makes the present position so bad
is that Jews and Arabs confront each other as opponents before
the mandatory power. This state of affairs is unworthy of both
nations...
I will now tell you how I think the present
difficulties might be remedied...
A privy council is to be formed to which
the Jews and Arabs shall each send four representatives, who must
be independent of all political parties:--
Each group to be composed as follows:--
A doctor, elected by the Medical Association
A lawyer, elected by the lawyers.
A working men's representative, elected
by the trade unions.
An ecclesiastic, elected by the ecclesiastics.
These eight people are to meet once a
week. They undertake not to espouse the sectional interests of
their profession or nation but conscientiously and to the best
of their power to aim at the welfare of the country. Their deliberations
shall be secret and they are strictly forbidden to give any information
about them, even in private. When a decision has been reached
in any subject in which not less than three members on each side
concur, it may be published, but only in the name of the whole
Council. If a member dissents he may retire from the Council.,
but he is not thereby released from the obligation to secrecy.
I one of the elective bodies above specified is dissatisfied with
a resolution of the Council, it may replace its representative
with another.
Even if this "Privy Council"
has no definite powers, it may nevertheless bring about the gradual
composition of differences, and secure a united representation
of the common interests of the country before the mandatory power,
clear of the dust of ephemeral politics.
1930 March 15 correspondence reproduced as
"Letter to an Arab" from Mein Weltbild in Einstein,
Albert, Ideas and Opinions Crown (1954) pg172-174
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Einstein: Substance,
not Quantity
of Zionist Effort is Key
It does not
matter how many Jews are in Palestine but it does matter what
they produce there. That should be something the Jews of the whole
world can point to as ideal creative work and with which they
can identify themselves.
September 1930 address to the First International
Congress of Palestine Workers, held in Berlin
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| ENGLAND: |
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September
Selections
from Einstein's Zionist speeches collected, published
and letters are collected for publication by Macmillan Company. Sir Leon
Simon translates into English and writes the introduction. (Sir Leon also
translated Plato into Hebrew, Ahad Ha'am into English and even had a hand
in drafting the Balfour Declaration link,
)
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Is Palestine intended
to become wholly a Jewish land, in the sense that only its
Jewish inhabitants will control its destinies (in so far as
the destinies of any small country can be controlled by its
inhabitants) and any will have only such rights as the Jews
see fit to allow them? If that position is unthinkable while
the Jews are in a minority, would it be possible if they become
a majority? Justice and common sense seem to dictate
a negative answer to these questions.
The two national groups which are recognized as belonging
to Palestine, the Jewish and the Arab, ought to develop side
by side on a basis of equality. There ought to be no possibility
of the domination of Arab by Jew or of the exclusion of Jew
by Arab ....rather paradoxically, one of the effects of Jewish
national aspirations has been to stimulate a Palestinian Arab
nationalism which scarcely existed before; and the spokesmen
of this nationalism, unwilling to admit a Jewish claim even
to equal rights in the country, are naturally anxious to persuade
themselves and the world that the Jewish claim is not for
equal rights, but for predominance. That idea, again, though
flatly at variance with official Zionist declarations, has
derived some colour from the exuberances of less responsible
Zionists...
Professor Einstein...is impelled to Zionism by his
acute consciousness of the excessive price at which
the blessings of assimilation are bought...The price is loss
of solidarity, of moral independence and of self-respect.
These, in his view, can be regained only if assimilated Jews
find some common task, of absolute human value, to which they
can bend their corporate energies as Jews. Such a task is
to be found in the restoration of Jewish national life in
Palestine, which involves the regeneration of Palestine itself
and its transformation into a living and productive country.
The fact that this regenerated Palestine will offer a home
of
refuge for many oppressed Jews is of secondary importance.
What matters most is the new moral freedom and health which
Jewry will gain through devotion to an ideal at once Jewish
and broadly human, and through the gradual emergence in Palestine
of a civilization at once Jewish and modern.
Jewish nationalism is justified, even to a mind so
essentially internationalist as Professor Einstein's,
because without it the survival of the Jew is neither worthwhile
nor ultimately possible. But, as might be expected, there
is in Professor Einstein's nationalism no room for any kind
of aggressiveness or chauvinism. For him the domination
of Jew over Arab in Palestine, or the perpetuation of a state
of mutual hostility between the two peoples, would mean the
failure of Zionism.
from the introduction by Leon
Simon to Einstein, About Zionism, Speeches
and Letters Macmillan, New York (1931) pp.21-25
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October
White Paper by Sidney Webb (as Lord Passfield),
the new Colonial Secretary.
Acting on the Shaw Commission recommendations and Hope-Simpson
findings
Jewish emigration cut,
land purchases restricted.
Protests in US rejuvenate US Zionist movement.
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Lord Passfield
and his "White Paper"
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December 1930
Einstein sets sail
back to US for first trip to West
Heading back to Caltech (Californai Institute of Technology in Pasedena,
California) via Panama Canal with stop in New York. Come spring he will
return to his duties in Berlin.
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Einstein blasts new British
restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine
while returning to US aboard the SS Belgenland
Left: SS Belgenland, Right: Einsteins arrive in New York
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At sea, Einstein learns of
new British "White Paper" closing Palestine to Jewish immigration:
Einstein slams British change in interview with shipboard reporters: |
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Jewish National
Home an "Absolute Necessity"
We
Jews are everywhere subject to attacks and humiliations that
result from the exaggeration of nationalism and racial vanity,
which, in most European countries, expresses itself in the
form of aggressive anti-Semitism.
The Jewish national home is
not a luxury but an absolute necessity for the Jewish people.
Therefore the reply of the Jews to the present difficulties
must be a determination to redouble their efforts in Palestine
NYT
Dec 3, 1930 Cited in Denis Brian pg 202-203
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USA:
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Arrives in New York
for five days:
He tells a New York pacifist group. "If only
2% refused to fight,", governments
would be powerless to make war.
Addresses Hanukkah mass rally in Madison Garden.
Journalist George Sylvester Viereck interviews Einstein
"Glimpses
of the Great", Saturday Evening Post: October, 26th 1929. The Curtis
Publishing Company, Reconstructed by Denis Brian
(Viereck
was a fascinating character, a philo-semitic essayist and poet who became
a propagandist for the Third Reich.)
Einstein said of Viereck: "When I
met you, I knew I could talk to you freely without he inhibitions which
make the contact with others so difficult. I look upon you not as a German
nor as an American, but as a Jew."
Tom Reiss, The First Conservative,
The New Yorker, Oct 24, 2005 pg. 42.
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John-Alexis Viereck
Interviews Einstein
reconstructed by Denis Brian
Nationalism
is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.
Then how do you justify your Jewish
nationalism?
I support Zionism although it is
a national experiment, because it gives Jews a common interest.
This nationalism is no threat to other peoples. Zion is too small
to develop imperialistic designs.
You don't believe in assimilation?
We Jews have been too eager to
sacrifice our idiosyncrasies to conform. Other groups and nations
cultivate their individual traditions. Why should we sacrifice
ours? To deprive every ethnic group of its special traditions
is to convert the world into a huge Ford plant. I believe in standardizing
automobiles, but not human beings.
Denis Brian pg185-186
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1930 A stop at the Grand Canyon
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Einstein addresses college
Zionists
At request of Zelig Harris, future husband of
his future assistant Bruria
Kaufman, Einstein broadcasts speech to the
young Zionists group Avukah (Torch) ["We were generally
allied on campus issues with the anti-Stalinist Left" -former editor
of Avukah student newspaper) . Harris founded the first US university
linguistics department, at University of Pennsylvania.
The three
points of our program were to build a "non-minority Jewish
center in Palestine, to fight fascism, and to foster a democratic
American Jewish community. This program represented a somewhat
off-center Zionism. The term non-minority was meant to leave
room to for a binational state of Jews and Arabs. In those
days we believed it possible for the two nations to share
power, with neither being in the minority in a political or
cultural sense. Our notion was that if both nations were guaranteed
equal political rights, the Arab majority of Palestine would
allow unrestricted Jewish immigration. At a time when Jews
were being hunted down by the Nazis [the author is recollecting
a period a few years later than this entry], when the doors
of the United States and other Western countries were closed
to Jewish refugees, and when Palestine itself had been closed
to Jewish immigration by the British, unrestricted immigration
was the minimal demand of every Zionist group, even one as
eccentric as ours.
Socialism to Sociology By Nathan Glazer
http://www.pbs.org/arguing/nyintellectuals_glazer_2.html
This is essentially Einstein's opinion,
too (for instance)
until he is forced to abandon
the hope that a binational state could work.
Zelig Harris and Bruria Kaufman will
be among Einstein's Zionist co-signers of a scathing denunciation of Menachem
Begin's bid for political legitimacy following Israel's independence.
link
Einstein to Zionist
Youth: We Must Benefit Arabs, Too
Undoubtedly
certain statements and measures, taken and pronounced by British
officials [restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine] have been
just subject for criticism. We can not, however, be satisfied
with this, but we must learn the lesson of what has recently happened.
In the first place, we must pay great attention to our relations
with the Arab people. By cultivating these relations we shall
be able to avoid a development in the future of those dangerous
tensions, which can be exploited for the purpose of provoking
hostile action against us. We can very well attain this end, because
our upbuilding of Palestine has been so conducted and must be
so conducted that it also serves the real interests of the Arab
population…..”
Radio broadcast to Avukah
(a collegiate Zionist group) cited by
“Inside Albert Einstein’s Zionist Brain,”
by Robert Barsky(Talk given at a Faculty Seminar,
Tuesday, March 23, 2004 link
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December 30
Arrives San Diego
Hosted by Robert Millikan, he views Mt. Wilson Observatory telescopes
with Edwin Hubble and Richard Tolman. Einstein announces he's abandoning
his "cosmological constant" [an attachment to the General Theory
of Relativity that predicts light accelerates at the edges of the universe.
Despite Einstein's frustration that its pursuit had been a blind alley,
the phenomenon has since been observed at the outermost galaxies] (Parker
pg. 230).
Einstein lunches with
Charlie Chaplin - at Einstein's request.
Einstein subsequently accompanies him at premier of City Lights.
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1931 With Charlie Chaplin at
opening of City Lights
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1931
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March
Einstein returns to
Germany from California
Nazi threat worsening. After lectures in England Einstein returns to Germany.
Spends time mostly at vacation home in Caputh. Supports many pacifist
and human rights causes, some of which are Communist fronts. He gets labeled
Communist, and later insists he is not:
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[I] would like to state that I have never
favored communism and do not favor it now.
(Brian, Einstein: A
Life pg 249 )
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Einstein Co-Signs
Protest Against
Soviet Suppression of Hebrew Language
We,
European intellectuals, friends and supporters of every means
which could lead away from capitalist economic chaos and its catastrophes
of bloody wars, desire by our signatures to make the Russian Government
take note that, concerning the Hebrew language and its persecution,
we can neither approve the stand of the Jewish Section; nor understand
why the Government should consider itself bound insolubly to this
section of the communist party. The Jewish people cannot and will
never renounce the revival of its great cultural legacy-one of
the greatest languages- which has been given to Human Spirit imperishable
values, and, further, continues to give them in the form of modern
Hebrew poetry and philosophy.
Besides
Einstein, signers include writers Selma Lagerlof, Thomas Mann,
Stefan Zwieg, Franz Werfel and Arnold Zweig, pianist Arthur Schnable,
painter Max Liebermann, and French statesman Edouard Herriot.
From the archives of Jacob Klatzkin
link
in 1935 Einstein will write a forward
to Zionist philosopher Klatzin's pamphlet Die Judenfrage der
Gegenwart.
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Spring
Norman Bentwich visits
Einstein in Berlin,
On his way back to England after resigning as Attorney-General for Palestine
- having found the position impossible in the wake of the riots, Bentwich
stops to see Einstein in Berlin. They had met during Einstein's 1923
tour of Palestine; Einstein played violin in a Mozart quintet at Bentwich's
Jerusalem home. (Bentwich would retire from Civil Service soon after
and return to Palestine to take a Professorship at Hebrew University).
Recalling his Berlin visit Bentwich later recorded
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[The] conviction
was expressed emphatically by Albert Einstein... He would not
remain associated, he said, with the Zionist movement unless it
tried to make peace with the Arabs in deed as well as in word.
The Jews should form committees with the Arab peasants and workers,
and not try to negotiate only with the leaders.
Ronald W. Clark, Einstein:
The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971)
pg. 397
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Norman Bentwich (1938 photo)
Former British Attorney General for Mandatory Palestine played
string quartets with Einstein during Einstein's 1923 tour
of Zionist accomplishments.
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February
British reverse White Paper restrictions. Jews again permitted to emigrate,
buy land in Palestine
Letter from PM Ramsey MacDonald to Chaim Weizmann (the "Black Letter"
per Arabs) reverses former policy.
Irgun splits from Haganah. Dissident
militia initially called Haganah 'B'
Seeking a more decisive use of force to forestall
Arab attacks by assuring punishing reprisals, and to force British out
of Palestine, the Haganah commander of Jerusalem breaks from the mainstream
Jewish militia. The new combat organization also want a non-socialist
alternative to mainstream Zionism.
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April,1931 , Avraham Tehomi founds
Irgun Tzvai Leumi (National Military Organization)
. He had been active in Odessa Jewish Self Defense against
pogroms and was dissatisfied with the official policy of 'restraint'.
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December
Mufti holds World
Islamic Conference in Jerusalem
He distributes obviously faked photos of Jews attacking the Dome of the
Rock with machine guns. The forgeries are rejected by attendees, some
of whom protest the Mufti.
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1931:
Pan Islamic Conference-Jerusalem
Called by the Mufti to strengthen Muslim claims on Jerusalem
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1931:
Pan Islamic Conference-Jerusalem
caption coming
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1931:
Pan Islamic Conference, Jerusalem
caption coming
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Louis French Report
British development director publishes report on Palestinian
Arabs who lost their land
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December 1931- March 1932
Einstein returns
to US for second trip to California
There in February he is introduced to Abraham Flexner
who outlines his project for a new research institute in New Jersey
Einstein: Zionism's
foremost challenge is a " just solution to Arab-Jewish conflict"
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Einstein:
Splendid successful constructive work
by united energies
of the Jewish people
We have also
successfully stood the severe test to which the events of the
last few years have subjected us. Ceaseless work, supported by
a noble purpose, is leading slowly but surely to success. The
latest pronouncements of the British government indicate a return
to a just judgment of our case...
Ten years ago, when I first had the pleasure
of addressing you on behalf of the Zionist cause, almost all of
our hopes were still fixed on the future. Today we can look back
on these ten years with joy; for in that time the united energies
of the Jewish people have accomplished a piece of splendidly successful
constructive work in Palestine, which certainly exceeds anything
we dared then to hope for.
Still, a just solution to Arab-Jewish conflict is Zionism's
foremost challenge
But we must never
forget what this crisis has taught us -- namely, that the establishment
of satisfactory relations between Jews and the Arabs
is not England's affair, but our's.
We -- that is to say, the Arabs and ourselves--have got to agree
on the main outlines of an advantageous partnership which shall
satisfy the needs of both nations. A just solution of this problem
and one worthy of both nations is an end no less worthy of our
efforts than the promotion of the work of reconstruction itself.
speech published in 1934 in Mien
Weltbild reproduced as Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine
I in Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions
Crown (1954) pg 176-177
That same year:
It is for
us to solve the problem of living side by side with our brother
the Arab
A
decade or two ago a group of far-sighted men, among whom the unforgettable
Herzl stood out above the rest, came to the conclusion that we
needed a spiritual center in order to preserve our sense of solidarity
in difficult times. Thus arose the idea of Zionism and the work
of settlement in Palestine, the successful realization of which
we have been permitted to witness, at least in its highly promising
beginnings.
I have had the privilege of seeing, to
my great joy and satisfaction, how much this achievement has contributed
to the convalescence of the Jewish people; for the Jews are exposed,
as a minority among the nations, not merely to external danger,
but also to internal ones of a psychological nature.
The crisis which the work of construction
has had to face in the last few years has lain heavy upon us and
is not yet completely surmounted. But most recent reports show
that the world, and especially the British government, is disposed
to recognize the great things which lie behind our struggle for
the Zionist ideal...
The crisis has also purified our attitude
to the question of Palestine, purged it of the dross of nationalism.
It has been clearly proclaimed that we are not seeking to create
a political society, but that our aim is, in accordance with the
old tradition of Jewry, a cultural one in the widest sense of
the world. That being so, it is for us to solve the problem of
living side by side with our brother the Arab in an open, generous,
and worthy manner. We have here an opportunity of showing what
we have learned in the thousands of years
of our martyrdom. If we chose the right path, we shall succeed
and give the rest of the world a fine example.
Whatever we do for Palestine, we do it
for the honor and well-being of the whole Jewish people.
speech published in 1934 in Mien Weltbild
reproduced as Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine II in Einstein,
Albert, Ideas and Opinions Crown (1954) pg 177-178
On another occasion that same year he addressed some comments
to a gathering of Jewish youth:
Do
not be discouraged by the difficulties which confront us in Palestine.
Such things serve to test the will to live of our community.
Certain proceedings and pronouncements
of the English administration have been justly criticized. We
must not, however, let the matter rest at that, but draw what
lessons we can from the experience.
We need to pay great attention
to our relations with the Arabs. By cultivating these carefully
we shall be able in the future to prevent things from becoming
so dangerously strained that people can take advantage of them
to provoke acts of hostility. This goal is perfectly within our
reach, because our work of construction has been, and must continue
to be, carried out in such a manner as to safeguard the real interests
of the Arab population also.
speech published in 1934 in Mien Weltbild
reproduced as Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine III in
Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions Crown
(1954) pg 178-179
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Our
Palestine struggle is for Jews everywhere
not just those who settle in the homeland
A decade or
two ago a group of far-sighted me, among whom the unforgettable
Herzl stood out above the rest, came to the conclusion that we
needed a spiritual center in order to preserve our sense of solidarity
in difficult times. Thus arose the idea of Zionism and the work
of settlement in Palestine, the successful realization of which
we have been permitted to witness, at least in its highly promising
beginnings.
I have had the privilege of seeing, to
my great joy and satisfaction, how much this achievement has contributed
to the convalescence of the Jewish people; for the Jews are exposed,
as a minority among the nations, not merely to external danger,
but also to internal ones of a psychological nature.
The crisis which the work of construction
has had to face in the last few years has lain heavy upon us and
is not yet completely surmounted. But most recent reports show
that the world, and especially the British government, is disposed
to recognize the great things which lie behind our struggle for
the Zionist ideal...
The crisis has also purified our attitude
to the question of Palestine, purged it of the dross of nationalism.
It has been clearly proclaimed that we are not seeking to create
a political society, but that our aim is, in accordance with the
old tradition of Jewry, a cultural one in the widest sense of
the world. That being so, it is for us to solve the problem of
living side by side with our brother the Arab in an open, generous,
and worthy manner. We have here an opportunity of showing what
we have learned in the thousands of years of our martyrdom. If
we chose the right path, we shall succeed and give the rest of
the world a fine example.
Whatever we do for Palestine, we do it
for the honor and well-being of the whole Jewish people.
speech published in 1934 in Mien
Weltbild reproduced as Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine
II in Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions
Crown (1954) pg 177-178
On
another occasion that same year he addressed some comments to
a gathering of Jewish youth:
The difficulties
test our will
But good relations with
Arabs are within reach
Do not be
discouraged by the difficulties which confront us in Palestine.
Such things serve to test the will to live of our community.
Certain proceedings and pronouncements
of the English administration have been justly criticized. We
must not, however, let the matter rest at that, but draw what
lessons we can from the experience.
We need to pay great attention to our relations
with the Arabs. By cultivating these carefully we shall be able
in the future to prevent things from becoming so dangerously strained
that people can take advantage of them to provoke acts of hostility.
This goal is perfectly within our reach, because our work of construction
has been, and must continue to be, carried out in such a manner
as to safeguard the real interests of the Arab population also.
speech published in 1934 in Mien Weltbild
reproduced as Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine III in
Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions Crown
(1954) pg 178-179
An appeal to the Jews of Hungary on
behalf of Keren HaYesod.
Zionism
will unite, normalize Jews and make all proud
Palestine
will be a center of culture for all Jews, a refuge for the most
grievously oppressed, a field of action for the best among us,
a unifying ideal, and a means of attaining health for the Jews
of the whole world.
speech published in 1934 in Mein Weltbild
reproduced as Jewish Recovery in Einstein, Albert, Ideas
and Opinions Crown (1954) pg 184
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| BASLE, SWITZERLAND: |
17th Zionist Congress: anti-British feeling leads
Chaim Weizmann to resign.
But Zionists reject Jabotinsky's call for a Jewish State
on both sides of Jordan |
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Ze'ev Jabotinsky tears up his
World Zionist Organization membership card after 17th Zionist Congress
rejects his demand that the British honor original mandate terms
of "look[ing] favourably" on a Jewish homeland in Palestine
- (both sides of the Jordan River) and that the Zionist Movement
immediately declare political independence in entire area.
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Einstein
endorses Poalei Tzion :
Arab,
Jewish workers best hope
Good Relations
with Arabs is Zionism's Chief Task
Among Zionist
organizations "Working Palestine" is the one whose
work is ...transforming deserts into flourishing settlements
by the labor of their hands...They are ...educated, intellectually
vigorous free men from whose peaceful struggle with a neglected
soil the whole Jewish nation are the gainers...
It is, moreover, this working class alone
that has the power to establish healthy relations with the Arabs,
which is the most important political task of Zionism... Therefore,
to support Working Palestine is...to promote a humane and worthy
policy in Palestine.
speech published in 1934 in Mein Weltbild
reproduced as Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine I in
Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions Crown
(1954) pg 176-177
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PALESTINE:
Arab
and Jewish workers stand together in strike against British government
employer
As if to underscore Einstein's assertion that Jewish and Arab workers
could best reconcile, truck drivers successful strike against British
motor tax (imposed on private owner-operators in order to protect government
rail monopoly). Other joint strikes: petroleum industry, cigarette factories,
bakeries, postal service and railways. Histadrut incorporates Arab workers
into its Arab division.
The hand of [the Mufti]
was visible." [ Ilan Pappe,
A Histoy of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples
Brit Po'alei Eretz Yisrael(2004) pg 114
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1931
Rageb Nashashibi
Mayor of Jerusalem (1920-1934) lifetime opponent of the al-Husseini
clan. In 1934 he started Hizb al Difa al Watani National
Defense Party
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1931
Adel Zu'aiter founds Mu'aridun (Opposition) Party, opposing
al-Husseini family and favoring Nashashabi clan
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.
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They set up formal political parties, reflecting
family-clan and regional loyalties rather than ideological differences
1932 Istaqlal Party (pan-Arab)
1935 Al Hizb al Arabi al Falistini Palestine Political Parrty
(Husseini)
Also, Christian-Muslim divide
|
| 1932 |
|
GERMANY (WEIMAR REPUBLIC)
|
Youth
Aliya Organization founded
Later
nominated by Einstein for a Nobel Peace Prize (link),
the program resettles and trains Jewish youth in Palestine. |
| USA: |
|
February
Einstein contributes article to NAACP newspaper,
The Crisis
Just as his primary Zionist concern is the inner equalibrium it will afford
individual Jews, Einstein sees the African-American struggle as, most
importantly, bringing about "emancipation of the soul" of Black
people.
Einstein applies his Zionist insight to
US Civil Rights struggle:
"Emancipation of the soul" is goal of both
It seems
to be a universal fact that minorities, especially when their
individuals are recognizable because of physical differences,
are treated by the majorities among whom they live as inferiors.
The tragic part of such a fate, however, lies not only in the
automatically realized disadvantages suffered by these minorities
in economic and social relations, but also in the fact that
those who meet such treatment themselves for the most part acquiesce
in this prejudiced estimate because of the suggestive influence
of the majority, and come to regard people like themselves as
inferior.
This second and more important aspect of the evil can be met
through closer union and conscious educational enlightenment
among the minority, and so an emancipation of the soul of the
minority may be attained. The determined effort of the American
Negroes in this direction deserves every recognition and assistance.
Letter to NAACP journal,Abraham
Pais, Einstein Lived Here, Clarendon Press,
Oxford U Press, 1994, pg 186
(Einstein joined the Princeton chapter of NAACP)
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ENGLAND:
May 30
While
at Oxford Einstein is recruited to Princeton's new Institute
for Advanced Studies.
He accepts an offer from the Institutes founder Abraham Flexner.to conduct
his own research with no administrative or teaching responsibilities.
("What could be wiser than to give people who can think the leisure
in which to do it?" - economist Walther Stewart's 1939 observation
to founding director Flexner) Einstein is to begin October 1933. He obtains
US visa over objections of The Women's Patriotic Corporation, who denounce
him as pacifist and communist.
Flexner believes he
"will contrive to manage" Einstein once he arrives at Princeton.
Instead, Einstein will help lead a faculty rebellion to oust the overly-controlling
Flexner. His replacement, Frank Ayelotte will go on to serve on the joint
Anglo-American Committe on Palestine determining policy towards Holocaust
refugees' immigration to Palestine. link
(George Dyson, Helen Dukas, Einstein's
Compass, in My Einstein, John Brockman, editor)
Einstein bids farewell to son Eduard. The boy has been diagnosed schizophrenic.
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|
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Einstein with Abraham Flexner,
founding director of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies,
and unidentified woman (1939 photo)
Flexner's brother Bernard was a member of the Zionist delegation
to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.
|
The Woman Patriot attacks
Einstein
Conservative US organization opposes entry visa for Einstein as a security
risk, largely because he doesn't support organised religion. FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover starts a file on Einstein.
|
| In Los Angelos Einstein says: |
Einstein: Zionism
Offers Test Case of Jewish Morality
The
Zionist goal gives us an actual opportunity to put into practice,
through a viable solution to the Jewish-Arab problem, those principles
of tolerance and justice that we owe primarily to our prophets.
I am convinced that the living transmission of these principle
is the most important thing in Judaism.
(Hoffman article
pg. 242)
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|
| |
PALESTINE: |
Brit
Shalom (Covenant of Peace) formed
Its goal: Jewish-Arab coexistence. Led by Dr. Magnes, President
of Hebrew University, philosophers Martin Buber and Hugo Bergmann (known
to Einstein from his Prague days) and Norman Bentwich, a former attorney
General for Mandatory Palestine who entertained Einstein during Einsteins'
Palestine tour. Named Professor of International
Peace at Hebrew University, Bentwich's
first lecture is disrupted by Revisionist right-wing Jewish students shouting,
"Go talk peace to the Mufti, not to us." |
|
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Judah Magnus, Hebrew U chancellor,
peacenik - yet constant irritant to Einstein, for reasons of academic
politics
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GERMANY:
Month
Nazi party wins stunning election
victory
xxxxx
December 10
Einstein: I am for Zionism
I am for Zionism. It is certain that the Jews share a destiny and are in
urgent need of mutual support.
Letter to Eduard Freed July 11, 1932 quoted in Jurgen Neffe, Einstein A Biography Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York 2005 tranlation 2007 by
S helley Frisch pg.320
|
|
Einsteins depart for US
Presumably for a three month visit, but they bring 30 pieces of luggage. Before leaving hoome in Caputh Einsteien tells Elsa, "Look around. You'll never see it again." (Pais, Einstein Lived Here, pg 190) |
| 1933 |
|
|
| NAZI GERMANY: |
|
March 23
Hitler consolidates dictatorial powers.
April 1
One week after coming to power Hitler orders
a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores.
Good Germans Don't Buy from Jews
Anti-semitic frenzy
begins:
Jewish academics dismissed from positions, professionals barred from practicing
and hounded into destitution.
(Emergency Committee in Aid of Foreign Scholars is formed in US to assist
fired academics. Einstein will become deeply involved with it by the end
of the decade. One of it's executives will recruit Einstein to Princeton)
Nazis confiscate Einstein's
bank account, house.
SS reportedly plan to hold hostage Einstein's step-daughters Ilse and
Margot. Ilse and husband escape to Paris with most of Einstein's papers.
"Not yet hanged"
So reads the caption under Einstein's page one photo in a German magazine
cover story of the regime's "top enemies".
Einstein's"Jewish
theories" are among the books burned.
|
 |
 |
|
Einstein's "Jewish theories" burned,
along with works by other unacceptable authors. Tens of
thousands cheer as students toss "degenerate works" into
the bonfire.
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August
Haavura (Transfer)
Agreement: Controversial move saves assets of some German Jews
Jewish Agency negotiates an agreement with new regime's Finance Department.
allowing some Jews to emigrate to Palestine with some of their belongings.
About 50,000 Jews get to Palestine under the Transfer Agreement. The next
year "Youth Aliya" organizes rescue of German-Jewish teens.)
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Rabbi
Stephen Wise
Einstein's friend, the Zionist leader Stephen Wise was also a cofounder
of the NAACP. Wise helped influence Woodrow WIlson to support the
Balfour Declaration. When the Nazis came to power he tried to organize
a worldwide boycott. It was undercut three months later by the ha'avura
(transfer) agreement worked out between the German Nazi finance
Department.and the Jewish Agency. link
|
|
|
Nobel prize winning Nazi scientist Phillip
Lenard takes anti-Einstein lead
In the leading Nazi newspaper he alerts
the general public:
 |
The most important example of the dangerous
influence of Jewish circles on the study of nature has been
provided by Herr Einstein with his mathematically botched-up
theories....Even scientists who have otherwise done solid
work cannot escape the reproach that they allowed the relativity
theory to gain a foothold in Germany, because they did not
see, or did not want to see, how wrong it is, outside the
field of science also, to regard this Jew as a good German.
Philipp Frank, Einstein: His
Life and Times, Knopf (1947); pg 232
Two years later, inaugurating a new physics
institute, Phillip Lenard enlarges on this theme:
I hope that the institute may stand
as a battle flag against the Asiatic spirit in science. Our
fuehrer has eliminated this same spirit in politics and national
economy, however, with the overemphasis on Einstein, it still
holds sway. We must recognize that it is unworthy of a German
to be the intellectual follower of a Jew. Natural science,
properly called, is of completely Aryan origin, and Germans
must today also find their own way out into the unknown. Heil
Hitler!
Philipp Frank, Einstein: His
Life and Times Knopf(1947); pg 232
Eventually in a German High School textbook:
German Physics Leonard contributed a forward:
Jewish physics can best and most justly
be characterized by recalling the activity of one who is probably
its most prominent representative, the pure-blooded Jew Albert
Einstein...In contrast to... the Aryan scientist, the Jew
lacks to a striking degree any comprehension of truth.
Philipp Frank, Einstein: His
Life and Times Knopf (1947); pg 252
|
|
Phillip Leonard
Nobel Prize winner high in the Nazi science establishment
lobbied hard to keep the Nobel Prize from "the pure-blooded
Jew Albert Einstein".
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| |
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| USA: |
March 28
Einstein will not return to Berlin
He announces, resigning from Prussian academy, and again renounces his German
citizenship. |
|
BELGIUM:
Einstein returns to Europe, avoiding Germany
he lands in Belgium.
Wiezmann asks Einstein to take position
at Hebrew University. Einstein declines due to ongoing displeasure with
Hebrew U administration.
July 20
Einstein renounces pacifism,
shocking his audience. Responding to a calls for him to support Belgian
conscientious objectors, Europe's leading pacifist declares
|
Einstein Renounces
Pacifism
I
must tell you candidly: Were I a Belgian, I would not, in the
present circumstances, refuse military service; rather I would
enter such service cheerfully in the belief that I should thereby
be helping to save European civilization.
Banesh Hoffman and Helen Dukas Albert
Einstein, Creator and Rebel Viking Press/New York (1972)
Pg 169-170
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|
|
Einstein declines a position at Hebrew University
Einstein's ongoing conflict with Hebrew University
Chancellor Judah Magnus (over academic politics) leads him to decline
an offer from Chaim Weizmann.
PALESTINE: |
|
Within
weeks Mufti Amin al-Husseini meets in Jerusalem with Consul-General of
the new German government, offering his services to spread nazi ideology
to Arab world.
Arab Executive Committee
calls for strike against British
October
British forces kill Arab protestors
among the thousands who take to streets of Jaffa in protest against them.
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Arab nationalist leader Musa
Kazim al-Husseini, former Mayor of Jerusalem (center, with beard)
beaten by British police.
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Arab demonstration against
Jewish immigration is violently broken up by British force Near
Jerusalem's New Gate, October 13, 1933
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A second demonstration in Jaffa
leaves 26 Arab demonstrators, one British policeman killed. Jaffa,
October 27, 1933
|
|
Izz Al-Din
Al-Qassam urges jihad
Following massacre, Sheikh Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, who immigrated from Syria
in 1922, organizes urban slum-dwellers and rural peasants into armed force
dubbed "Black Hand". He had been preaching strict Islam with a
gun or sword in one hand, urging jihad against the Jews and urging his followers
to "shoot the Englishmen rather than polish their shoes" His name
was taken by HAMAS suicide bombers.
[Kimmerling, Baruch and Migdal, Joel, Palestinian:
The Making of a People, The Free Press (1993) pg 62] |
|
|
|
Izz
al-Din al-Qassam
Syrian Jihadist preacher settled in Haifa, whose name was taken
by Hamas suicide bomb squads nearly seventy years later.
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|
Left wing Zionist official
assassinated. Motive: Transfer
Agreement?
Haim Arlosoroff gunned down on Tel Aviv beach. Revisionist Zionists found
guilty
USA:
October 17
Einstein arrives back in New York
Flexnor meets him on behalf of the Institute of Advanced
Study. Flexnor warns Einstein that US nazis may try to kill him.
"your safety in America depends
upon silence and refraining from attendance at public functions...in
the long run your safety will depend on your discretion."
(Pais, Einstein Lived Here pg.196)
|
| 1934 |
PALESTINE: |
|
|
1934.
First "Youth Aliya" group of German Jewish refugee
children arrives in Palestine. Einstein raised money for this effort
(see below) and nominated
the organization for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954.
|
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ELSWHERE IN MIDDLE EAST:
|
|
Arab Nazi political
groups spring up
in various places, but not Palestine:
"Young Egypt" is led by Muslim Brotherhood member (and future
president) Abdul Gamal Nasser. (Their slogan, directly translated from
German: “One Folk, One Party, One Leader”).
Syria's Social Nationalist Party led by Anton Saada, "the Syrian
Fuehrer".
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Einstein with reporters Pittsburgh Carnegie Institute of Technology
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"Settlement
of German Jewish Children in Palestine":
At New York fundraising concert Einstein meets composer Arnold Schoenberg,
a fellow German refugee. Einstein pronounces Schoenberg and his music
"crazy", not necessarily meant as disparagement. (Brian
pg 257)
 |
|
Leopold Godowsky, Einstein, Arnold Schoenberg
Einstein pronounced Schoenberg's music "crazy".
Born into an orthodox Jewish family in Vienna,
Schoenberg converted to Catholicism in 1898 - a common practice
among Jews who wanted to advance professionally. In the face of
Nazi persecution Schoenberg reconfirm his Judaism in a formal religious
ceremony. Like Einstein he worked on behalf of his fellow refugees,
and became a Zionist. Poor health kept him from accepting a position
as Director of a music academy in Palestine.
Leo Baeck Institute
|
|
American Christian Committee for German Refugees after
dinner speech
Broadcast over national radio, the dinner raised funds
for non-Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany |
Einstein: Helping
All Victims of Fascism
Shows Solidarity with Humanity
It
is well known that German fascism has been particularly violent
in its attack on my Jewish brothers...The Jews of all countries
have come to the assistance of their impoverished brothers as
best they could and have also helped the non-Jewish victims
of fascism. But the combined forces of the Jewish community
have not nearly sufficed to help all the victims of Nazi terror.
Hence, the emergency among the non-Jewish emigrants... -- who
are endangered because of their previous political activities
or their refusal to comply with Nazi rules -- is often more
serious than that of the Jewish refugees...To help these victims
of fascism constitutes an act of humanity...
Abraham Pais, Einstein Lived Here,
Clarendon Press, Oxford U Press, 1994 Pg 206-207
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Einstein pretends to compose
pages on a linotype machine in publicity for The Jewish Daily Worker,
NY
|
|
| 1935 |
| NAZI GERMANY: |
|
|
1935 Hermann Goring proclaims Law for the Protection of German
Blood and Honor
The "Nuremberg Laws" stripping German Jews of all legal
rights.
Steven Speilberg Film and Video
Archive, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
|
|
| POLAND: |
|
May
Death of Polish leader
Marshal Joseph Pilsudski. Righwing Polish anti-Semites emboldened.
100s of attacks on Jews in second half of the year after passing of the
great Polish general and statesman Pilsudski. No anti-Semite, he nevertheless
had to include many ultranationalists in his government.
|
| USA:
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen
paradox paper
"Can Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical
Reality be Considered Complete?
Together with his assistant at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Nathan
Rosen, and Boris Podolsky Einstein publishes one of the most important
works of the second half of his carreer link
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Nathan Rosen (later photo) Einstein's
Princeton assistant 1934-1936 moved permanently to Israel in 1953.
He founded The Institute of Physics at the Technion, Israel's premier
technical institute (Einstein was the first President of the original
Technion Society)
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Izz
al-Din al-Qassam, killed by British
|
|
Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam is killed
by British troops.
Enters Palestinian Arab mythology as first to oppose Zionism and British
with arms. |
|
Revisionist Zionists
split off from World Zionist Organization
Jabotinsky's New Zionist Organization breaks off from the World
Zionist Movement in order to promote his program of free enterprise and
demanding Britain adhere to the terms of the Mandate: that Jewish settlement
be permitted in all of the Palestine Mandate, not just west of the Jordan
River.
Einstein quickly condemns Revisionism, praises
Socialist Zionism
Einstein: Our Goal
is Jewish-Arab Amity
We must support Socialist
Zionism,
reject Revisionist Zionism
Histadrut
[the Zionist Federation of Labor is]... the most effective check
on Revisionism, a movement which seeks to lead our youth astray
with phrases borrowed from our worst enemies...
Revisionism
is the modern embodiment of those harmful forces which Moses
with foresight sought to banish when he formulated his model
code of social law.
The secret of our apparently inexhaustible
vitality lies in our strong traditions of social justice and
of modest service to our immediate community and society as
a whole.
The Jews must beware of viewing Palestine merely as a place of
refuge.
Passover address to the National Labor Committee
for Palestine, reported in NYT, April 21, 1935.
|
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Anti-Zionist group splits off from
mainstream Orthodox religious Zionists
They object to Zionism, a secular movement. Disdaining any human intervention
to end Jewish exile form the Holy Land, they relying exclusively on miraculous
divine intervention to restore Jews to Zion. They call themselves Neturei
Karta [Guardians of the City (Jerusalem) and are today sometimes recruited
to anti-Israel demonstrations.
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Descendant of the 1935 split
A member of virulently anti-Israel Jewish sect Neturei Karta
meets with Iranian president at Holocaust deniers conference,Teheran
2006.
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