Collectors of original historical documents know that among the rarest and most treasured material, commanding premium purchase prices, are missives from one prominent figure to another discussing important subject matter relevant to the lives of both the writer and the recipient.
The document exhibited on the jump page of this article (inside back page) is a classic example of such a correspondence.
Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann met for the first time in 1921, when they traveled together to the United States to raise funds for the establishment of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
For Einstein, this trip was one of the high points of his affiliation with Zionism, as he was deeply moved by the enthusiastic throngs of Zionist Jews who came to greet him at every major stop during his American tour.
The establishment of Hebrew University was a cause much beloved to Einstein who in 1923, during what would be his only trip to Eretz Yisrael, delivered the university’s inaugural lecture on Har Hatzofim (Mt. Scopus) and, discussing the theory of relativity, spoke the first few sentences of his address in Hebrew.
Though he remained much involved in the university’s development and activities, including serving as a member of its Board of Governors and chair of its Academic Committee, he was steadfast in his refusal to assume a full-time professorship there, greatly disappointing Weizmann.
Einstein was among those invited by Weizmann to address the critical Sixteenth Zionist Congress, held July 28-August 10, 1929 in Zurich, at which Weizmann went on to be elected president of the World Zionist Organization. Weizmann assured Einstein that his presence would “greatly enhance the importance of the proceedings and afford considerable gratification to all supporters.”
However, in the extraordinary June 1, 1929 letter to Weizmann written in German on his personal letterhead and reprinted here, Einstein turned down the invitation on the grounds of poor health.
Unlike its predecessor, the Sixteenth Congress, a major international event that featured an impressive group of prominent Jews, met in an atmosphere of optimism concerning the improvement of the situation in Eretz Yisrael. The Congress heard reports that the economy was recovering, aliyah was increasing, and while Jewish immigration and land purchases had alarmed Arab nationalists, the reaction had generally not been violent.
Revisionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky delivered a speech that threw the Arabs into a panic when he stated unambiguously that a national home meant nothing less than a Jewish state and that a Jewish majority would be achieved in Eretz Yisrael through a massive immigration of Jews.
Against strong opposition by a vocal minority dominated by the Revisionists, the Jewish Agency was transformed into a Zionist organization for the purpose of representing the Jews in Eretz Yisrael before the British Mandatory authorities in preparation for the establishment of the national homeland as per the Balfour Declaration.
The Jewish Agency managed life in the Yishuv, worked to help Jews immigrate, acquired land, built new settlements, and helped develop the communal culture.
On Weizmann’s initiative, the new agency was structured to include non-Zionists, defined as Jews who supported the building of the national home without identifying themselves with the political aspirations of Zionism.
This letter from Einstein to Weizmann is interesting for another reason. Weizmann, of course, would serve as Israel’s first president, but what many people don’t know is that Einstein was offered the presidency after Weizmann’s death.
Newspaper reports at the time had suggested that the most likely successor to Weizmann was Joseph Sprinzak, the speaker of the Knesset then serving in an interim capacity as acting president after Weizmann’s death. However, it was clear to all that the presidency, though essentially ceremonial, needed to be occupied by a person of great stature.
