Albert Einstein maintained a close relationship with the Jewish people and offered a well-respected voice in debates about the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel.
The German-born scientist, referred to as “the greatest Jew alive” by Israel’s first president Chaim Weizmann, remained close to the plight of the Jewish people. In response to an inquiry to become the young state’s president, Einstein declined with regret, saying “my relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world,”
according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
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While Einstein supported Zionism, he continued to call for attempts to make peace with the Arabs of Palestine.
“I am in favor of Palestine being developed as a Jewish Homeland but not as a separate State,”
Einstein said in a letter in 1946, according to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation. “It seems to me a matter for simple common sense that we cannot ask to be given the political rule over Palestine where two thirds of the population are not Jewish. What we can and should ask is a secured bi-national status in Palestine with free immigration. If we ask more we are damaging our own cause and it is difficult for me to grasp that our Zionists are taking such an intransigent position which can only impair our cause.”
Einstein traveled on behalf of Zionists to help raise money for the establishment of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, saying, “I do what I can to help those in my tribe who are treated so badly everywhere,” t
he Zionism Israel Information Center said.
The scientist was made an honorary citizen of Tel Aviv in 1923 and gave the inaugural lecture of the Hebrew University.
Einstein saw the values of Judaism as intellectual aspiration and the pursuit of social justice.
“Einstein defined Judaism as a culture with a shared historical past and common ethical values rather than as an institutionalized religion,”
according to albert-einstein.org.
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