The Fiscal Physicist

by Eliezer Segal

An iconic cartoon from Gary Larson’s beloved “Far Side” strip displays a lab-coated scientist with unruly hair and a bushy moustache standing before a blackboard filled with elaborate mathematical equations—culminating in a dollar sign. The caption reads:, “Einstein discovers that time is actually money.”

As it happens, there was one area of the great physicist’s career in which the value of money was a major concern—and that was in his fund-raising activity on behalf of the Zionist movement.

To be sure, Einstein had little interest in or knowledge of Jewish culture or religion (aside from a passing infatuation with traditional observance as twelve-year-old), and he remained unsympathetic to most manifestations of nationalism. As early as 1896 he renounced his German citizenship. 

He was alert to the dangerous mushrooming of anti-semitism following Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I, a debacle that many blamed on betrayal by the Jews. The hostility was not confined to the vulgar mobs, but was very evident in academic circles where it created obstacles to Einstein’s professional advancement and to the reception of his scientific theories. Against this backdrop, he was persuaded by the Zionist argument that the most pragmatic policy for securing the survival of the Jews as an ethnic group was by creating a safe homeland (not necessarily a nation-state) for them. Although he never acquired formal membership in the Zionist organization, he certainly regarded the Zionist program as a more realistic solution than the futile efforts by many of his Jewish colleagues to assimilate into European society. He envisaged Zionism as a national movement that would lack the chauvinism that he disdained in European nationalisms. 

The project that particularly attracted his enthusiasm was that of establishing a Hebrew university in Jerusalem that would serve as an intellectual hub for the Jewish population in Palestine, provide employment for scholars who were being excluded from European institutes and be a showcase for Jewish achievements in scientific and humanistic scholarship (including academic Jewish Studies). 

Einstein’s involvement with the University project coincided with his emergence as an international celebrity when his theories about relativity and gravitation, were confirmed by astronomical observations of a solar eclipse in May 1919. 

In Spring of 1921, a proposed lecture tour of American universities was aborted, evidently to his relief, due to the excessive honoraria he was demanding (partly to pay for an expensive divorce settlement), Shortly afterwards, Einstein consented to another U.S. tour that would include some stops at universities—only this one was to be a fund-raiser on behalf of the Zionist movement in the company of another respected Zionist scientist, the chemist Dr. Chaim Weizmann. In order to join that tour he had to cancel his scheduled participation in the important Solvay physics congress in Brussels. After expressing his initial discomfort at this mercenary exploitation of his celebrity status, he consented nonetheless—uncharacteristically—to submit to the directives of the movement to which he had now committed himself.

The excursion through the American “Dollaria” (as he referred to it derisively) was permeated throughout by conflicting and competing interests; such as whether the funds were to be collected primarily for the Hebrew University (as Einstein would have preferred) or for the more general needs of Palestinian settlement (as others expected). Issues of that sort exacerbated a conflict between the two strong-willed Zionist leaders: the European Weizmann and his American counterpart Louis Brandeis, each with a distinctive vision of how the movement should be directed. The rivalry between Weizmann and Brandeis became acrimonious, as Brandeis accused Weizmann of siphoning off university donations to other projects. 

Einstein was well aware that by participating in the American tour he was serving as window-dressing for the collection of donations, but stated that he was pleased to do so in order to help the plight of persecuted Jews and for the sake of the Zionists “who have to beg for dollars for the educational institutions in Jerusalem, for which I must serve as famed bigwig and decoy.” Although he was also interested in cultivating contacts with American scientists, he generally gave priority to his fund-raising activities. For that purpose it was more important to direct his time and energies toward wealthy benefactors than to brilliant scholars. 

When Judah Magnes, who would later serve as the Hebrew University’s president, tried to organize a meeting of intellectuals to discuss the creation of the new university, Einstein made it clear that he had no time for theoretical discussions, and would only participate if they invited influential persons who could be solicited for donations. Magnes elected to forego that meeting.

The impact of Einstein’s visit on the American populace, and especially the Jews, has been compared aptly to that of a rock star. Many thousands thronged into the streets to view the motorcade carrying the legendary genius—though his hosts, suspicious of his independent spirit, allowed him few opportunities to address his admirers at any length. In addition to the standard New York thoroughfares along which heroes were customarily paraded, Einstein’s cortege was diverted through the immigrant tenements of the city’s Lower East Side where the lower-class Jews were unrestrained in cheering for this quintessential symbol of their ethnic pride at a time when they were being subjected to hatred or ridicule.

In his determination to protect the resources of the Jerusalem university, the physicist convened (to the apparent frustration of Weizmann) a meeting of potential donors for that specific cause. By isolating this educational project he wished to attract contributors who were not otherwise sympathetic to the Zionist objectives; and he made special efforts to invite several such figures to the organizing meeting at the Hotel Commodore. Perhaps as a result of the squabbling between Weizmann and Brandeis, Einstein did not achieve the desired response, and it is not certain whether that meeting ever took place.

In his subsequent assessment of his American tour, the physicist noted frankly the lessons he had learned about success and failure in the precarious world of Jewish philanthropy.

As it turned out, the simple Jewish masses proved themselves unstinting in their enthusiasm to make financial sacrifices for a worthy purpose. So too, the American Jewish Physicians Committee contributed with outstanding generosity to the establishment of the proposed medical faculty. There was however considerable disappointment when it came to the non-Zionist Jewish millionaires who were arguably the main target of Einstein’s fund-raising efforts. They could not be roused to lend their support even to an ostensibly non-political institute that was to be devoted to research and education.

Indeed, Einstein had to learn that there is no unified field theory that can predict how people will respond to appeals for support, There are numerous economic, psychological, ideological and religious factors that influence their generosity—and the results can be subject to surprising degrees of relativity.

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• First Publication:
  • The Jewish Free Press, Calgary, May 17, 2019, p. 9.

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  The Jewish Free Press, Calgary, May 17, 2019, p. 9.
• For further reading:
  • Ashkenazi, Ofer. “Zionism and Violence in Albert Einstein’s Political Outlook.” Journal of Jewish Studies 63, no. 2 (2012): 331–355. 
  • Berlin, Isaiah. “Einstein and Israel.” In Personal Impressions, edited by Henry Hardy, Third Edition., 66–77. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014.
  • Goldstein, Niv. “Albert Einstein’s Early Zionist Involvement, 1918‒1920.” Israel Affairs 23, no. 4 (2017): 613–625. 
  • Gutfreund, Hanoch. “How Albert Einstein Helped Shape The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.” HuffPost(blog), 2015. 
  • Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.
  • ———. “How Einstein Divided America’s Jews.” The Atlantic Monthly 304, no. 5 (2009): 70–74.
  • Jerome, Fred. Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas about the Middle East. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009.
  • Parzen, Herbert. The Hebrew University, 1925-1935. New York: Ktav, 1974.
  • Rosenkranz, Ze’ev. Einstein before Israel: Zionist Icon or Iconoclast?Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
  • Rowe, David E., and Robert J. Schulmann. Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

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My email address is: [email protected]

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