It was shortly before Albert Einstein submitted to the Prussian Academy of Sciences his newest discovery of the identity of the laws of gravitation and electro-magnetism. The great event had already cast its shadow before it. Again, as in 1919 when Einstein's prediction, that rays of starlight passing close to the sun will be found deflected, was verified, and his Theory of Relativity confirmed the entire world was stirred by interest and curiosity.
Reporters and correspondents of newspaper throughout the world were conducting a regular siege upon the modest and defenseless scientist. What did it matter to them that neither they nor their readers could possibly understand his formula and deductions? They begged for interviews, they demanded elucidations, they clamored for his latest treatise in order to cable it -- Greek and all -- to America. The wizard had waved his wand again and, without comprehending his magic, the world was stirred by a new vision of the marvelous.
It was then that Albert Einstein issued a statement. Instead, however, of speaking of his new discovery, he spoke of his people -- the Jewish people -- of their problems and hopes. In this statement, given to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Einstein said:
"Jewry is like an organism which was beheaded 2,000 years ago. Jerusalem with its Temple was its head. It was God's miracle that it remained alive for so long a period without a head. A second miracle occurred when the body, grown formless, decided several scores of years ago that it must have a head, and has already formed a little head in Palestine. However, this head is still too small, and too weak for such a huge body. See to it that it grows into a full-sized head as befits the body."
Thus, the man whose vision embraces the sweep of stars and universes, whose keen gaze has penetrated into some of their deepest secrets, proclaims the hope and faith which is the daily food of his spirit. Not even Ein-
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stein the cosmic scientist can suppress Einstein the Jew and the Zionist. He dreams dreams and he sees visions. And perhaps the most ardent of his dreams, the most glowing of his vision, is the dream and the vision of his people restored to a wholesome and creative life in Palestine.
In his hour of world triumph, he chooses, with apparent irrelevancy, to proclaim his kinship with the Jewish people and his allegiance to its highest aspirations. When, in 1921, Einstein visited this country, he was also much more ready to talk of Zionism and Palestine than of his scientific achievements. Is there not in this proud proclamation of his Jewishness an indirect, perhaps unconscious, rebuke against those Jews who nervously cover up their Jewishness as soon as the world has given them a little recognition?
And now comes the announcement that this meek and retiring searcher of truth, this mild and gentle brooder over the secrets of heaven and earth, who fears and dislikes publicity, has nevertheless consented that his Fiftieth Anniversary should be publicly observed the world over by the Jewish National Fund.
All Jews, and certainly all Zionists, will participate in the celebration of the event with happiness and pride. The pride is entirely pardonable. What people would not feel its stature exalted if it gave an Einstein to the world? For Einstein is not only the fascinating legend, the fabulous necromancer, which he is to the popular fancy, the supermind who has risen above time and space, who stands on the threshold of penetrating the ultimate mystery of existence. Einstein is more. Einstein has received the acclaim and the homage of the scientific world, which has classed him with the foremost pathfinders in the sphere of human knowledge. The leading scientists have paid chivalrous tribute to the special character of his discoveries and to the revolutionary implications of his Theory of Relativity. Sir Joseph J. Thomson, President of the Royal Society of England, one of the greatest living physicists, said in 1919, shortly after Einstein's prediction had been verified by observations made by two British scientist expeditions during an eclipse of the sun:
"If his theory is right, it makes us take an entirely new view of gravitation. If it is sustained that Einstein's reasoning holds good -- and it has sustained two very severe tests in connection with the perihelion of Mercury and the present eclipse -- then it is the result of one of the highest achievements in human thought."
Another world-famous scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, wrote of Einstein's discovery:
"Einstein's theory will dominate all higher physics and the next generation of mathematical physicists will have a terrible time of it. Sooner or later the Einstein physics cannot fail to influence every intelligent man."
The outstanding physicist, Prof. Planck, who in 1920 was awarded the Nobel Prize, has said of Einstein's theory:
"It surpasses in boldness everything previously suggested in speculative natural philosophy and even in the philosophical theories of knowledge. Non-Euclidean geometry is child's play in comparison. The revolution introduced into the physical conception of the
(cont.)
world by this theory is only to be compared in extent and depth with that brought by the Copernican system of the Universe."
The Jews of America have good reason, therefore, to celebrate with pride and joy the Fiftieth Anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein, the peerless scientist, the noble spirit, the great Jew, the champion of his people's restoration in Palestine. In accord with his wishes, the observances will be held under the sponsorship of the Jewish National Fund, the basic instrument of the restoration, the redeemer of Palestine's soil for the Jewish people.
The scientific mind is primarily the realistic type of mind. Einstein cannot help recognizing the fundamental reality of the rebirth of the Jewish people: the soil of Palestine. The greatest scientific minds have also been touched with the urge and passion of idealism. The Jewish National Fund makes a particular appeal to the gift of idealism in the mind of Einstein.
Those Jews to whom the progress of Jewish destiny is indissolubly linked with Palestine require no sanction for a conviction that moves them with the force of a primal instinct. Nevertheless, there is something reassuring and uplifting about the adhesion of a spirit like Einstein's to that conviction. The restoration of the Jewish people becomes, as it were, a note in the cosmic harmony; it rises above all particularism to universal proportions. Einstein, moreover, is moved by a fervent social idealism which, though embracing humanity in its scope, is nourished by the vital idealistic impulse that animates the Jewish restoration in Palestine. And of this idealism the chief repository is the Jewish National Fund.
A tangible mode for the expression of our admiration and affection for Albert Einstein has been sought and found in the opportunity afforded by the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund. It has become a noble custom to inscribe in this Book the names of those whom we esteem and cherish. Such an inscription confers a distinguished honor upon him whose name is entered, and, at the same time, the National Fund is provided with additional means to bring nearer its great goal, the redemption of the soil of Palestine as the inalienable possession of the Jewish people.
As a part, therefore, of the observance of Einstein's Fiftieth Anniversary, groups and individuals throughout America will inscribe his name in the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund. It is proposed to present Prof. Einstein with an artistically bound volume of the certificates of inscription, an "Einstein Golden Book." The Jewish National Fund is persuaded that no more appropriate and welcome token of affection and esteem could be presented to Albert Einstein by the Jews of America.
The worth of a people may be measured by the stature and achievements of its greatest sons. The vitality and solidarity of a people are revealed by its readiness to give honor and recognition to its great sons. In honoring Albert Einstein the Jewish people honors itself.
Albert Einstein Jubilee Committee
111 Fifth Avenue, New York
Albert Einstein: Biography
Born at Ulm, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg in 1879, Albert Einstein spent his boyhood in Munich, and when, in 1894, his family migrated to Italy, Albert continued his education in Switzerland of which country he eventually became a citizen. It is amusing how, in later years, when Einstein became one of the most famous of living personages, the newspapers vied with each in confusing his racial origin. In an article in the London Times, Einstein discusses this matter in a rather whimsical manner:
"The description of me and my circumstances in the Times shows an amusing feat of imagination on the part of the writer. By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, I am today called in Germany a German man of science and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. . . . If I should come to regarded as a bete noire, the descriptions of me will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans, and a German man of science for the English."
Einstein's first scientific monographs made such an impression that in 1909 he was made extraordinary professor of mathematical physics at the University of Zurich. His reputation continued to grow until, in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the World War, he was called to the Royal Academy for Research in Berlin to succeed the celebrated Dutch physicist Van't Hoff. This post gave him the leisure and means to carry on his research. He had announced his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, and in 1915 came the publication of his General Theory of Relativity. He has made important contributions to atomic as well as celestial physics. Einstein is a member of many scientific societies and the recipient of degrees from many universities in different countries.
Einstein visited the United States in 1921 as one of the members of the Zionist Commission which included also Dr. Chaim Weizmann and M. M. Ussishkin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jewish National Fund in Palestine. He has also visited Palestine where he lectured in the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus.
and Its
GOLDEN BOOK
The Objects of the Jewish National Fund
1. To acquire the land in Palestine with the voluntary contributions of the Jewish people, such land to be the inalienable property of the Jewish people.
2. To lease the land exclusively on hereditary leasehold for cultivation or building thereon.
3. To facilitate the settlement of working farmers.
4. To ensure the cultivation of the lands by Jews.
5. To ensure the right use of the soil.
6. To check speculation in land values.
The Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund
This book is the modern counterpart of the registers in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, wherein the names of the builders of the Second Jewish Commonwealth are chronicled.
Since 1905, when the Golden Book was opened as the Honor Roll of the Third Jewish Commonwealth, over 10,000 entries have commemorated the names of Zionist leaders and workers, Gentile friends of Zionism, leading Jewish poets, writers, artists and philanthropists.
Individuals, families and communities have used the Golden Book as a means of paying tributes of honor and affection to those whom they desired to honor. Notable occasions in private and public life have been similarly recorded.
The contributions of $100 to the Jewish National Fund secures the inscription in the Golden Book of the name or event to be commemorated. In this way, each entry carries with it the redemption of five dunams of land as a national possession.
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