| WWI and its Aftermath-
Relativity - Zionism -World Fame |
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| "These
and Other Happenings Have Awakened in Me the Jewish National Sentiment"
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| Einstein
is recruited to the Zionist cause |
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| 1910 |
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1910 Einstein in a Berlin
lab with Paul Ehrenfest (r).
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| Second son, Eduard, is born |
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1911
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Mileva
and Albert in 1911
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PRAGUE:
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Einsteins move to
Prague
after he accepts full professorship at Karl-Ferdinand (German) University.
As a civil servant of the Habsburg Empire he must attest to his religious
affiliation. Only after "without religion" is rejected as an unacceptable
answer does he answer in then-current term: "Mosaic" faith. |
Einstein has Zionist friends, but remains uninvolved
In Prague Einstein socializes at least one night each week with a circle of amateur musicians and intellectuals at the home of Bertha Fanta. Among the Zionist intellectuals in the group philosopher Hugo Bergmann stood out (Einstein later recalled him as the "serious saint from Prague"). Another was novelist Max Brod, who attended together with his friend Franz Kafka . |
Einstein's assessment:
[Zionists in Prague are] "a small troop of unrealistic people, harking back to the Middle Ages."
Letter to Hedwig Born, September 8, 1916 in Jurgen Neffe, Einstein A
Biography Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York 2005 tranlation 2007 by
Shelley Frisch pg. 311
.jpg)
Prague Zionists among Einstein's circle:
Novelist Max Brod (L) and philosopher Hugo Bergmann (R. shown
here years later, as a Hebrew University professor in Jerusalem).
Einstein called Bergmann "the serious saint from Prague".
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Einstein was amused to recognize himself
as the model for astronomer Johannes Keppler in Max Brod's historical
novel Tycho Brahe's Way to God.
The Zionists fail to draw in Einstein,
but he does, for the first time, appreciate the difficult position of
Jews in society: In Prague Jews regard themselves as a Germans. Czechs,
too, see them as one with the German oppressors.
But the Sudeten (Czech) Germans already
have adopted "the racist mind set that would soon sweep Germany".
They regard Jews as inferior outsiders
- This according to Philipp Frank, Einstein's successor at the university,
himself a participant in Berta Fanta soiree's -- and one of Einstein's
future biographers. [Philipp Frank, Einstein:
His Life and Times, Knopf (1947) p. 83-85]
Nevertheless, on leaving Prague Einstein
emphasized that "[i]n Prague I did
not notice any denominational prejudice, as others have surmised."
Pais, Einstein Lived Here
pg. 142
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1916 Martin Buber
The philosopher and Zionist led
an intellectual renaissance in Jewish Prague - about half the
German-speaking population, greatly influencing the intellectuals
in Einstein's social circle.
Buber, like Einstein, was a prominent Zionist
advocate of a binational Jewish-Arab state. Einstein clung to
that view in the face of opposition from even his close friends Stephen
Weiss and Chaim Weizmann, abandoning that view as impractical
only when it became hopless
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A note about
Einstein's assistant in Prague: Emil Nohel
Son of a Jewish farmer in a small Czech village
(in a district where in the 1860's it had become legal for Jews to own
land) Emil Nohel had previously been a high school physics teacher. In
that profession he inspired a previously uninterested boy to take up the
subject. That boy, Walther Kohn, won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Emil Nohel took a position in Vienna when Einstein
returned to Zurich. In 1942 Nohel was sent to Teresenstadt concentration
camp. After the rest of his family died he volunteered for deportation
to extermination camp.
WaltherKohen.jpg)
Walther Kohn
Nobel Prize winner (Physics 1998)
inspired by Einstein's Prague assistant who was murdered in a
Nazi death camp in 1942
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OTTOMAN EMPIRE, PALESTINE DISTRICT:
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Arabic newspaper
Falastin founded.
By Isa Daud al-Isa and his cousin Joseph. They are
among first to address their readers as "Palestinians". Einstein
will correspond with this newspaper in 1931 urging "sympathetic
cooperation " between Jewish and Arab nationalisms.
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1912
GERMAN EMPIRE:
April
Einstein reacquaints
with, is smitten by cousin Elsa
on a brief visit to Berlin. The divorcee has two daughters, Ilse and Margot.
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%20ELSA%20-%20SMALL.gif)
Cousin Elsa Lowenthal
Soon-to-be the second Mrs. Albert Einstein
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SWITZERLAND:
July
Albert and Mileva Einstein return to Zurich
He begins a position as full professorship at his alma
mater, the Polytechnik .
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OTTOMAN EMPIRE:
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| World Zionist Organization negotiates
with cash-strapped Ottoman government to purchase crown lands in Palestine
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| 1913 |
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SWITZERLAND:
March 14
Einstein receives 34th birthday card from
Cousin Elsa
His marriage to Mileva on the rocks, he writes back
to Elsa offering to explain Relativity to her.
Einstein is recruited,
accepts offer from University of Berlin
Delays departure until following spring.
A new theory of gravity occupies Einstein.
VIENNA:
Zionist Congress decides to found a Hebrew
University in Palestine
Chaim Weizmann heads planning commission which includes
Judah Magnes. Weizmann spurred the interest and involvement of others
-- Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Martin Buber, Achad Ha-am,
and potential faculty members.
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| 1914 |
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GERMAN EMPIRE:
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April 1
Einstein moves to Berlin
after accepting offer to join Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
As a salaried member he is at the top of his profession, famous among
physicists but still unknown to the public.
Einstein refuses an invitation from the
Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia
"I find it repugnant
to travel without necessity to a country [Russia] in which my tribesmen
are so brutally persecuted."
Einstein to Pëtr P. Lazarev, May 16,
1914, CPAE vol. 8A, p. 18.
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Two future Nobel Laureates
who took strikingly different
paths
1914 photo with Fritz
Haber in Berlin
Haber would win the 1918 Chemistry Nobel Prize for developing
synthetic ammonia. During WWI he developed gas warfare for Germany,
Einstein protested that war. Neither Haber's conversion from Judaism
nor his service to the Fatherland protected him from Nazi persecution.
He was forced from Germany in 1933. Another of his inventions,
the insecticide Zyklon B gas, was used in WWII to exterminate
Haber's Jewish relatives.
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Mileva and boys join
him in Berlin at end of month.
He is increasingly uninterested in her and Mileva grows depressed.
July 24
Einstein and Mileva
draw up separation contract
Mileva and boys return to Zurich.
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Mileva and boys
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Britain
makes contradictory promises to both Arabs and Jews
while secretly planning with France to carve up Ottoman lands.
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EUROPE:
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June 28
Austrian
Archduke Ferdinand assassinated by Serbian separatist
Austria and Germany declare war on Serbia, Russia enters
on side of Serbia, as do England and France. Germany invades Belgium on
its way to France.; Atrocity rumors spread around the world.
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Gavrilo Princip touches
off a World War
The Serbian terrorist's assassination
of the Habsburg heir portrayed in this contemporary postcard triggered
alliances unleashed a worldwide slaughter that changed the power
structure of the world.
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August
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OTTOMAN EMPIRE:
Ottoman Turkish Empire enters WWI
on side of Germany and Austria-Hungary
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German, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian
leaders on contemporary postcard celebrating the "Central
Powers", united against the "Triple Entante"
of Britain, France, and Russia
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Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman
Empire vs. Britain, France, Russia
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Zionist Movement officially takes no side
Individual Zionists enlist in countries of their
citizenship
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1915
Palestinian Jews in Ottoman army
Among the Palestinian Jews who fought in the Turkish
army was Moshe Sharret, Israel's first Foreign Minister and
Second Prime Minister
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1917
Palestinian Jews in British army
Deported to Egypt, Palestinian Jews joined the British
army and helped drive the Turks from Palestine.
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Jabotinsky
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Trumpeldor
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Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor
organized their fellow deported Palestinian Jews to fight for
Britain. At first they were permitted only to serve as a transport
unit (The Zion Mule Corps, serving at Gallipolli), later as
The First Judean combat legion.
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Arabs and Jews remaining in Palestine suffer severe economic
depression brought on by cutoff export markets.
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BRITAIN:
Chaim Weizmann, Zionist
Leader, Meets Former British Prime Minister Lord Balfour.
The Russian-born professor of Biochemistry in Manchester England has become
a leading spokesman for Zionism. Having made a crucial contribution to
the British war effort (devising a way to synthesize acetone, a TNT ingredient,
from cereals and horse chestnuts) Weizmann uses his good graces to lobby
for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
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Weizmann (L) and Balfour (r)
(later photos, at Paris Peace Conference)
Balfour asked Weizmann why, years earlier (when Balfour was Prime
Minister) Zionists' declined Britain's offer of refuge in Uganda.
"Supposing I were to offer you Paris
instead of London," Weizmann asked. "Would you take
it?"
"But, Dr. Weizmann," said Balfour,
"we have London."
"That is true, but we had Jerusalem when
London was still a marsh."
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| 1915 |
| GERMAN EMPIRE: |
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General Theory of Relativity
Einstein publishes his major work.
Pacifist Manifesto signed
by Einstein
It is drawn up to counter a nationalistic manifesto circulated earlier
by ninety prominent Germans, including Einstein's scientist friends (Paul
Ehrlich, Max Planck supported Germany's "defensive" invasion
of Belgium). With signing the counter Manifesto to Europeans Einstein
disassociates himself from German militarism. Only two others besides
Einstein sign.
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OTTOMAN EMPIRE :
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Arab nationalists call
for Arab State independent of Ottoman Empire
Al-Fatat (not to be confused with Fatah) combines with Arab
Ottoman officers to issue "Damascus Protocol"
Young Turk government
conducts genocidal massacres of Armenians
Under pretense breakaway Armenians minority are subverting war effort
by siding with Imperial Russia.
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| USA: |
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Zionism seen as
tenet of American Progressive Movement -
in that it embodies the raising up of "the little guy" . The
idea of reconstituting the Jewish homeland, however, remains a minority
stance among American Jews.)
The glorious past [of the Jews]
can really live only if it becomes part of the glorious future;
and to this end the Jewish home in Palestine is essential. We
Jews of prosperous America above all need its inspiration.
(Supreme Court Justice Louis
D. Brandeis, Menorah Journal, January 1915)
Protests against against Czarist government's
mass expulsions of Jews from border areas of Pale of Settlement, organized
by Louis Marshall
Marshall campaigns for Minority Rights
in Eastern Europe:
Protect minorities in any new states formed from territories liberated
by defeat of Ottoman Empire
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Rumania, Greece, and
Armenia
Notably, all the new countries "regarded the minorities treaties
as a gratuitous infringement upon their painfully achieved national sovereignties"
(Howard M. Sacher pg. 401-02) -- except Masaryk's Czechoslovakia.
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| 1916 |
| GERMANY: |
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Einstein asks Mileva
for divorce.
She suffers breakdown and is unable to care for boys. They are farmed
out. His sons develop hostility towards him. Youngest, Eduard, particularly
suffers severe mood swings.
Einstein's health deteriorates.
He's nursed by widowed cousin Elsa.
He suffers abdominal pains, loses 56 pounds.
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Polish Jews Flee German-Russian fighting
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| OTTOMAN EMPIRE: |
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British make pact with Sharif Hussein:
Fight with us against Turks, win independence.
If Arabs help British war aims by revolting against
Ottoman Turks, Britain will support creation of a unified independent
Arab kingdom from Syria to Yemen, with a few exceptions.
The agreement excludes
three areas:
The wilayets (Ottoman provinces) of Basra and Baghdad, the Turkish
districts of Alexandretta and Mersin, and, most importantly, ;portions
of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and
Aleppo.” The interpretation of the last section will become the
source of great controversy. The British later claimed that Palestine
was meant to be excluded from the area of Arab rule, as it is technically
located west of Damascus: for obvious reasons the Zionists took the same
position. The Arabs interpreted the letter as it reads: Lebanon, not Palestine,
is to the west of Damascus and the other areas mentioned.
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Sharif Hussein , sons Feisal
and Abdullah
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June
Sharif Hussein declares Arab independence,
opens Eastern front against Ottoman Turks
His sons, Emirs Abdullah and Feisal lead Arab Revolt
against Ottoman Turkish rule. British officer T. E. Lawrence "of
Arabia" provides English military expertise. Arabs fulfill their
part of the McMahon-Hussein Agreement
As a direct descendant of Mohammed and rightful
leader of the Islamic faith Sharif Hussein announces intent to replace
Sultan Mehmed V as Caliph -- spiritual leader of all Muslims.
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T. E. Lawrence "of Arabia"
with body guards at Aqaba
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But, secretly Britain
agrees with France to divide conquered Ottoman lands
between them. The secret agreement is called Sykes-Picot Agreement after
the British and French officials who concocted it.
Sir Mark Sykes
British partner with French counterpart George Picot. They secretly
agreed to divide Ottoman lands between French and British
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| 1917 |
| GERMANY: |
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Einstein becomes Director of
KWI
Berlin's Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute, dedicated to physics research
Einstein falls seriously ill, nursed to health by cousin
Elsa
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| BRITAIN: |
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November 2
Britain makes yet a third promise, this
one to World Jewry:The Balfour Declaration
Letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord
Rothschild commits Britain to promoting a Jewish Homeland in Palestine
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November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying
to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following
declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which
has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
"His Majesty's Government view
with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly
understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities
in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by
Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would
bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
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"H(is) M(ajesty's)
G(overnment) accepts the principle that P(alestine)
should be reconstituted as the Nat(ional) Home of the J(ewish) P(eople).
HMG will use its best efforts to secure the achievement of this object,
and will discuss the necessary methods and means with the Z(ionist)
O(rganization)." |
Draft
of Balfour Declaration
Handwritten on hotel stationery by Leon Simon,
an English Zionist leader, at a meeting on July 17, 1917, of the Zionist
Political Committee at London's Imperial Hotel.
The only known surviving handwritten draft of the declaration was
sold at auction by Southby's sold June
16, 2006.
Leon Simon will go on to translate Einstein's
Zionist writings and speeches in 1930.
A man claiming to be Sir Leon Simon's
great-grandson wrote the British newspaper Independent that
"as the great-grandson of Sir Leon Simon, let me assure you
that I believe that the world would be a far better place if the
Balfour declaration which he helped draft...had never been drafted."
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| The
czar is overthrown by striking workers, assisted by troops returned from
the demoralized front |
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Women textile workers and
their supporters March on the Tavrichan (Tauride) Palace, Petrograd,
February 27, 1917
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Alexander Kerensky (white uniform) arrives
in Moscow as head of democratic Provisional Government.
The Provisional Government
immediately abolishes the Pale of Settlement and all discriminatory
legal restrictions on Jews. |
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| Provisional Russian government continues
war against Germany |
October 25
Bolsheviks seize power from democratic Provisional government,
Bolsheviks proclaim Soviet Republic |
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Lenin
exhorts Bolsheviks to seize power from the democratic February government
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Leon Trotsky
The Bolshevik Minister of Defense, like
many revolutionaries, was born to Jewish parents but maintained
no connection to those roots.
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Nov 1917 Red Guards storm the
Kremlin
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Bolsheviks withdraw Russia from WWI
They cede vast swath of former Russian Empire to Germany
(Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)
For 6 months Germany's "Second Reich" controls
much of Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, and Ukraine.
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Russian Civil War erupts; Reds vs Whites
Chief opposition to communist "Reds"
is "White Guards": undefeated Czarist forces, monarchist officers,
Orthodox church, and Slavophilic aristocrats associated with Black Hundreds.
Whites declare Soviets a "Jewish government" (as several
prominent soviet leaders have Jewish roots).
Soviets see anti-Semitic campaign as reactionary
and launch countermeasures to weed out anti-Semitism.
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| WWI continues without Russia |
| OTTOMAN EMPIRE (WWI Eastern Front): |
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December 11
British general George Allenby takes
Jerusalem from Turks
Soon all Palestine is under British control, ending
four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule.
(Einstein came to blame Britain's subsequent 31 years of colonial "divide
and conquer" strategy -- keeping contesting populations focused on
their differences rather than uniting to throw of British rule -- - for
the failure of Jews and Arabs to settle differences.)
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1917 British General George Allenby stands
by as the new British military governor reads ... to occupied
Jerusalem's residents
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| Farther north, Emir Feisal's forces
liberate Damascus from Ottoman rule. |
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October 1918
Emir Feisal's troops enter Damascus
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Emir Feisal's mounted cavalry
pass a column of Ottoman prisoners on foot.
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Oct 3 Feisal leaves Hotel Victoria
after meeting with British General Allenby
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| USA: |
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"The 14 points", Principals to
guide WWI peace treaty: enunciated by US President Woodrow Wilson
A major theme of American President Woodrow Wilson's:
Self-determination for national groups now under imperial rule
Point XII. ... nationalities which are now under Turkish rule
should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely
unmolested opportunity of autonomous development
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US President Woodrow Wilson
He preaches"self-determination"
for peoples freed from rule of Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman
empires.
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| 1918 |
WWI ends. Postwar
Turmoil. Revolution in Germany
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Bolsheviks cede vast swath of former
Russian Empire to Germany
(Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) For 6 months Germany's "Second
Reich" controls much of Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Russia,
Romania, and Ukraine in what they term a "pro-Jewish" occupation
in hopes of winning support |
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A Jewish boy begs
water from friendly German troops in Poland
Ironically, Germany's WWI eastern front strategy was quite benign
to Jews, The Kaiser's troops were regarded as liberators from czarist
oppression. German High Command may have hoped that their noticeable
generosity would recruit support from World Jewry. Also, many patriotic
German Jews served.
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Suddenly Germany finds itself fighting
alone
After Bulgaria surrenders (September) exposing Germany's
southern flank war effort is doomed.
Turkey and Austria-Hungary surrender
German militarist government conceals the fact that the war is lost
Continues to issue victorious proclamations while secretly
trying to negotiate armistice with Allies who refuse to come to terms
with the dictatorship, demand democratic reform first
German militarists turn over government
to left-wing Social Democrats
Social Democrats sign armistice with Allies, surprising
Germany citizens who have been duped into believing they're winning the
war.
Social Democrats end up taking blame for defeat.
Red Revolution in Berlin, Munich.
Pitched street battles between various communist groups
with Friekorp combat units comprised of former front-line soldiers.
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1919 street fighting
in Berlin
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Spartakus Rebellion
copy copy copy
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A right-wing Freikorp tank in
the streets of Berlin
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Armed leftist students seize university
professors, rector, occupy the Reichstag.
Einstein presents himself to obtain his
colleagues' release.
Physicist Max Born and Max Wertheimer (founder of gestalt psychology)
accompany him.
Student guards
admit the famous pacifist's delegation (and a reporter). Inside they find
cigarette butts and an arms cache The party watches in dismay as student
radicals pass a resolution that only socialist doctrines be taught at
university, only socialist professors hired, only socialists admitted
as students. Turning to Einstein for support he instead chastises them
that freedom of thought is the lifeblood of a university and that he regretted
their vote. The students then pronounce themselves unauthorized to release
his hostage colleagues. Einstein and party go straight to the office of
Freidrich Ebert, socialist leader of government. They obtain a hand written
note to release the academics, which they take back to the students and
they honor.
(Edmund Blair Bowles, Einstein
Defiant Joseph Henry Press Washington 2004 (pg. 3-11)
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PALESTINE:
Weizmann arrives in Palestine leading
Zionist Commission
Weizmann arrives as head of official British Zionist
survey - crosses to Aqaba to meet Emir Feisal. Feisal pledges to Weizmann
(in writing) he will recognize Jewish national aims in Palestine, provided
Arab nationalist aims are achieved in Iraq and Syria. But French-British
collusion will deny Feisal his kingdom and he will feel released from
his promises to Weizmann.
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Arab-Zionist Mutual Support
Pact
Weizmann dons Arab headdress in show of solidarity between Zionist
and Arab aims. Meeting at Feisal's camp at Aqaba, they agree the
Jewish and the Arab national movements complement one another.
Feisal will send a congratulatory telegram to Weizmann at the
founding ceremony of the Hebrew Univerity shortly after.
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July 24
Hebrew University
cornerstone laid - It will be Einstein's pet project
Weizmann presides over the ceremony on Mount
Scopus on a plot of land purchased six months earlier by The Jewish National
Fund from the estate of Sir John Grey-Hill estate. In attendance (despite
still being in range of Turkish artillery): General Allenby, representatives
of France, Italy, USA, Muslim and Christian leaders. Weizmann cements
into place the first of fourteen foundation stones. Among the others who
followed suit are the Anglican bishop, representatives of the Zionist
movement, and the Mufti of Jerusalem (brother and predecessor of the mufti
who Einstein will come to see as the "source of all the trouble")..
Weizmann remarks:
"Here out of the misery and desolation
of war, is being created the firm germ of a new life. In this
university we have gone beyond restoration: we are creating, during,
the war something which is to serve as a symbol of a better future.
In the university the wandering soul of the Jew will reach its
haven."
Weizmann closes his address by reading telegrams of
congratulations from Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Minister, the
French government and the Emir Feisal, who he had recently met.
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RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR:
Antisemitic violence from all sides
Tens of thousands of Jews killed in pogrom
violence |
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EASTERN EUROPE:
This third wave of anti-Semitic violence is wider
spread and much more lethal than the outbursts in 1881 and 1903-06.
It breaks out during the civil war that follows
the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
The first attacks are perpetrated by disintegrating units of the Czarist
army.
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Imperial troops of Czar
Nicholas I
As their units crumble they attack Jews.
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The Red Army
"Strike at the Jews and the bourgeoisie" is the Red
Army's battle cry as they retreat before the German Army in Ukraine
(spring 1918). Soon reorganized, they become the Jews only protectors.
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White Russian Recruitment
Poster
By fall of 1919 units of the loose coalition of monarchists and
other anti-Bolshevik "white" forces are the chief perpetrators
of murderous attacks on Jewish communities.
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Victims of a White Army pogrom
An estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews are
killed in atrocities
throughout the former Russian Empire. The number of Jewish orphans rises
to 300,000.
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1918 Polish pogrom survivor
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| 1919 |
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Einstein in his Berlin study
in 1919, the year he was drawn to the Zionist Movement
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EASTERN EUROPE:
Eastern European nationalists rise up
to throw out Bolsheviks.
Jews seen as Bolshevik allies, become targets
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Ukrainian leader Simon Petlura
About 40% of atrocities against
Jews were committed by his troops.
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1919 Ukraine regulars under Cossack
leader the Ataman Zelioni pose with fresh Jewish victims on the
road between Bohuslav and Tarastcha (Aug 10, 1919)
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Survivors of Ukraine pogrom
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More victims of Ukraine pogroms.
Far right: Proskurov, where 1600 people are murdered in a four
hour orgy of bloodletting
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Jewish refugees crowding railroad station Polish-German border
It was their plight in Germany
that awakened Einstein to Zionism.
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Jewish self-defense,
a new phenomenon
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Funeral of a Jewish Self Defense
Commander
Among organizers of protection against pogromists were some who
immigrated to Palestine and were instrumental in setting up early
defenses of Jewish communities there.
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| GREAT BRITAIN: |
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GERMAN REPUBLIC (WEIMAR):
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Democratic German "Weimar"
Republic arises in Germany. Einstein shows solidarity
He takes German citizenship after Kaiser abdicates and defeated militarists
responsible for WWI are replaced. |
| Demonstrations, often violent, by right-
and left-wing extremists frequently disrupt the capital and its university.
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Postwar Turmoil
Red Front street battle
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Victorious Allies demand Germany's military
dictatorship cede power to civilian. It is this liberal democratic government
that actually surrenders to Allies in October and transforms Germany into
a parliamentary democracy.
German sailors mutiny after being ordered to
confront British navy, despite war's foregone conclusion. 1,000 seamen
are arrested. Revolt spreads through Germany, modeled on worker and soldier
councils in Russia's revolution one year earlier.
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Right-wing Freikorps counterrevolutionaries
take up arms to suppress German Communists
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Food shortages in Berlin, exacerbated by
a British naval blockade which continues until the Versailles conference.
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Einstein writes to Paul Ehrenfest just four months after
the war's end. In addition to violent political upheaval Berlin suffers
food shortages, exacerbated by a British naval blockade that lasts until
the Paris Peace Conference. As a professor of theoretical physics at the
University of Leiden in neutral Holland, the Vienna-born Ehrenfest has
escaped all this misery [Bertram Schwarzschild - see citation below].
Einstein: What Makes Me Happiest—
a Jewish State in Palestine
I'm very disillusioned with politics right now. Those countries
[the Allied powers] whose victory I thought, during the war, would
be by far the lesser evil, now show themselves to be an only slightly
lesser evil. On top of that, there's the thoroughly dishonorable
domestic politics: the reactionaries with all their shameful deeds
in repulsive revolutionary disguise. One doesn't know where to
look to take pleasure in human striving. What makes me happiest
is the [prospective] realization of a Jewish state in Palestine.
It seems to me that our brethren [Stammgenossenen] really
are nicer [sympathische] (at least less brutal) than these
awful [scheuslichen] Europeans. Maybe it can only get better
if the Chinese alone survive; they lump all Europeans together
as 'bandits.'
Letter to Paul Ehrenfest
March 22, 1919
Physics Today , April 2005
Translated and annotated by Bertram Schwarzschild
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Paris
Peace Conference
Victorious
Allies Meet, Determine Disposition of Central Powers' Lands
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| FORMER OTTOMAN EMPIRE: |
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Prior to Peace Conference, Arabs meet,
denounce Balfour plan
Palestinian Arab
Congress (first of seven) meet in Jerusalem
from January 27 to February 9, 1919. Organized by local Muslim and Christian
associations, its thirty participants demand independence, denounce
the Balfour Declaration. A majority seek incorporating Palestine into
an independent Syrian state, and the delegates strongly denounced French
claims to a mandate over Syria.
"Palestine is Southern Syria" not a seperate entity --
concludes fllowing General Arab Conference (including Palestinians)
meeting in Damascus to reject Balfour Plan. They insist "southern
Syria" is a part of Feisal's united Arab kingdom based in Damascus.
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"Southern Syria"
First Palestinian newspaper published, in Jerusalem
Edited by Arif al-Arif with contributions from former
Ottoman artillery officer Amin al-Husseini (who will dominate Palestinian
nationalism for next critical decades.
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| PARIS: |
Arriving for Peace Conference
Allied leaders of Britain, Italy, United States
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Former Ottoman lands in Europe
now seeking independence
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January 30, 1919
Paris Peace conference takes up issues of
former Ottoman lands
US activists press for minority rights in Eastern
European states seeking independence
Recognition of new countries made contingent on Minorities Treaties guaranteeing
rights for ethnic minorities
Independence made contingent on signing of Minorities
treaty detailing rights of minority groups (chiefly Jews and ethnic Ukrainians,
Belorussians). The treaty is regarded as undue interference and ignored.
In contrast, interwar Czechoslovakia also resented the Minorities Treaty
but complied fully. (President Masaryk played a decisive role in defending
national minority rights of Bohemian Jews.)
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Left: American Jewish Committee
arrives to press for Minorities Treaty guaranteeing rights for
minorities be written into the constitutions of new states carved
from the defeated Ottoman Empire. Einstein's friend Stephen Wise
is on the right.
Right: Tomas Masaryk, Czech leader,
the archetype of progressive , non-chauvinistic nationalism. He
admired Zionism as expressed by Ahad Ha'Am. Czech Zionists founded
Masaryk Village (Kfar Masaryk) Kibbutz, named in his honor.
Independence made contingent on signing of
Minorities Treaty detailing rights of minority groups (chiefly
Jews, ethnic Ukrainians, Belorussians). The treaty is regarded
as undue interference and ignored. In contrast, interwar Czechoslovakia
also resented the Minorities Treaty but complied fully. (President
Masaryk played a decisive role in defending national minority
rights of Bohemian Jews.)
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| LONDON: |
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January
Zionist-Arab mutual support pact signed
Emir Feisal Hussein, son of Sharif Hussein, ruler of
Mecca and leader of the Arab revolt against the Turks and Dr. Chaim Weizmann
agree that their two national aspirations complement each other.
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Feisal party arrives at Versailles
Second row, second from right: T. E. Lawrence ("of Arabia").
The Black man in the back row is Feisal's slave.
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| Feisal reconfirms alliance with
Zionists, hoping mutual pressure will help assure British compliance with
its promises. In 1944 Einstein looked back on the Feisal's approach as "perfect"
recipe for lasting peace and co-operation. |
Felix Franfurter
Zionist-Arab united front at Peace Conference bolstered by correspondence
between Emir Faisel and American Zionist Felix Frankfurter, a
future Supreme Court justice.
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A letter from his His Royal Highness
Prince Feisal Husseini, king of Syria and Iraq to Felix Frankfurter,
associate of Dr. Chaim Weizmann:
DELEGATION HEDJAZIENNE,
Paris, March 3, 1919.
DEAR MR. FRANKFURTER: I want to take
this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to
tell you what I have often been able to say to Dr. Weizmann in
Arabia and Europe.
We feel that the Arabs and
Jews are cousins in having suffered similar oppressions at the hands
of powers stronger than themselves,
and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step
towards the attainment of their national ideals together.
We Arabs, especially the educated
among us look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement.
Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals
submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organisation to Peace Conference,
and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best,
in so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we will wish
the Jews a most hearty welcome home.
With the chiefs of your movement,
especially with Dr. Weizmann, we have had and continue to have the
closest relations. He has been a great helper of our cause, and
I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to make the Jews some
return for their kindness. We are working together for a reformed
and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another.
The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement
is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for
us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without
the other.
People less informed and less responsible
than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for co-operation of
the Arabs and Zionists have been trying to exploit the local difficulties
that must necessarily arise in Palestine in the early stages of
our movements. Some of them have, I am afraid, misrepresented your
aims to the Arab peasantry, and our aims to the Jewish peasantry,
with the result that interested parties have been able to make capital
out of what they call our differences.
I wish to give you my firm conviction
that these differences are not on questions of principle, but on
matters detail such as must inevitably occur in every contact of
neighbouring peoples, and as are easily adjusted by mutual good
will. Indeed nearly all of them will disappear with fuller knowledge.
I look forward, and my people with
me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will
help us, so that the countries in which we are mutually interested
may once again take their places in the community of civilised peoples
of the world.
Believe me,
Yours sincerely,
(Sgd.) Feisal. 5th MARCH, 1919.
Felix Frankfurter's reply:
ROYAL HIGHNESS:
Allow me, on behalf of the Zionist Organisation, to acknowledge
your recent letter with deep appreciation.
Those of us who come from the United
States have already been gratified by the friendly relations and
the active co-operation maintained between you and the Zionist leaders,
particularly Dr. Weizmann. We knew it could not be otherwise; we
knew that the aspirations of the Arab and the Jewish peoples were
parallel, that each aspired to re-establish its nationality in its
own homeland, each making its own distinctive contribution to civilisation,
each seeking its own peaceful mode of life.
The Zionist leaders and the Jewish
people for whom they speak have watched with satisfaction the spiritual
vigour of the Arab movement. Themselves seeking justice, they are
anxious that the just national aims of the Arab people be confirmed
and safeguarded by the Peace Conference.
We knew from your acts and your
past utterances that the Zionist movement-in other words the national
aim of the Jewish people-had your support and the support of the
Arab people for whom you speak. These aims are now before the Peace
Conference as definite proposals by the Zionist Organisation. We
are happy indeed that you consider these proposals "moderate
and proper," and that we have in you a staunch supporter for
their realisation. For both the Arab and the Jewish peoples there
are difficulties ahead-difficulties that challenge the united statesmanship
of Arab and Jewish leaders. For it is no easy task to rebuild two
great civilisations that have been suffering oppression and misrule
for centuries. We each have our difficulties we shall work out as
friends, friends who are animated by similar purposes, seeking a
free and full development for the two neighbouring peoples. The
Arabs and Jews are neighbours in territory; we cannot but live side
by side as friends.
Very respectfully,
(Sgd.) Felix Frankfurter.
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Principal
Zionist negotiators
L: Chaim Weizmann, Professor of Chemistry , University of Manchester;
Dr. Nahum Sokolow; Dr. Yechiel Tchlenov (center), leader of the
Russian Zionists
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Among American Zionist delegation
at the conference is Bernard Flexner,
founder of the Palestine Economic Corp. for the economic
rehabilitation and development of the Jewish homeland. His brother Abraham
will found Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and offer
a position there to Einstein in 1932. (His other brother Simon started
the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.) |
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Signing Peace Treaty in Hall
of Mirrors
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Independent Poland
reunited
Defeat of Austria and Germany, two powers who had taken territory of the
Polish Kingdom a century and a half earlier |
League of Nations Created
"Mandatory powers" should
prepare "certain communities" for independence
One of those communities - Palestine |
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June 28
Covenant of League of Nations signed
"Mandate" system established for former
Ottoman lands
Article 22 of League's covenant establishes the Mandate
System, considers the
Arab lands as class "A" mandates, stating:
"Certain communities
formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage
of development where their existence as
independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to
the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory
until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of
these communities must be a principle consideration in the selection
of the Mandatory."
("Mandate system" is conceived by Jan Smuts, "a
lean and leathern South African ststesman (and the inventor of words "holistic"
amd apartheid". Michael B. Oren,
Power, Faith, and Fantasy page 381)
King-Crane Commission
President Woodrow Wilson:: What do the locals want? He sends he King-Crane
Commission to ascertain.
Wilson dispatches plumbing magnate Charles R. Cranes and Oberlin College
president Henry King to determine the wishes of the people in Anatolian
Turkey and the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
"[Woodrow Wilson] felt these
two men were particularly qualified to go to Syria because they
knew nothing about it"
(Paris Peace Conference, 1919,
Vol. 11, p. 133)]
British and French colonial interests suppressed the report.
The King-Crane report was not published officially until 1947.
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Charles Crane
He disdained 'the menace ...of the modern,
pushy Jew", defended pogroms, and held the title of "anti-Semite"
to be a "title of honor".
Michael B. Oren Power, Faith , and Fantasy Americaa, in
the Middle East, 2007
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GERMAN REPUBLIC (WEIMAR):
Jews blamed for the Fatherland's defeat in WWI
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| Stabbed in the Back! |
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Einstein's theory denounced as "Jewish
mathematics", "bolshevism in physics".
Black-shirted students break up Einstein's
lecture at University of Berlin.
Letter to Paul Ehrenfest
Anti-Semitism is strong here [in Berlin
after the war] and political reaction is violent
Letter to Paul Ehrenfest
December 1919
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| Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees
from Poland, Ukraine pogroms flee to Germany. |
German police round up Jewish refugees
(photo 1920) |
Refugees literally knock on Einstein's
door
Einstein attributes witnessing their plight as first
stirring his nationalist consciousness: |
| Einstein: "I Saw Worthy
Jews Basely Caricatured" |
Einstein:
My Main Motive
for Joining the Zionist Movement
Until
two years ago I lived in Switzerland, and during my stay there
I did not realise my Judaism. There was nothing that called forth
any Jewish sentiments in me. When I moved to Berlin all that changed.
There I witnessed the difficulties with which many young Jews
are confronted. I saw how, amid anti-Semitic surroundings, systematic
study, and with it them. road to a safe existence, was made impossible
for them.
...These Eastern-born Jews are made the scapegoat of all the ills
of present-day German political life and all the after-effects
of the war. Incitement against these unfortunate fugitives, who
have only just saved themselves from the hell which Eastern Europe
means for them today, has become an effective political weapon,
employed with success by every demagogue ...I stood up for them.
These and other
happenings have awakened in me the Jewish national sentiment...
That was the main
motive of my joining the Zionist movement.
[This essay is
continued
follwing the entry for 1921]
from essay in Judische Rundschau June
21,1921 reproduced as "Assimilation and Nationalism, section
II " in Einstein, About Zionism, MacMillan
(1931)
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"Come
on in, gentlemen. Even if Germany's sons go hungry, you
will not perish."
from the periodical
Deutsches Witzblatt 4 [Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Berlin] in W. Michael Blumenthal, The Invisible Wall, Counterpoint,
Washington DC 1998
"I saw worthy Jews basely
caricatured and the sight made my heart bleed."
from A Letter to Professor Hellpach, Minister of State in The
World as I See It
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February 14
Einstein's divorce from Mileva comes through
one month before his fortieth birthday
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| Einstein
is recruited to Zionist cause |
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Kurt Blumenfeld
The man who convinced Einstein
At the end of his life Einstein wrote to Kurt Blumenfeld: "I
thank you, even at this late hour, for having helped me become
aware of my Jewish soul. "
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Felix Rosenblueth
Prior to his Einstein's worldwide fame Rosenblueth included him
on a list of scholars he wished to interest in Zionism .
An attorney, Rosenblueth emigrated to Palestine in 1923. After
independence he served as Israel's Justice Minister from 1948-1962.
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Kurt Blumenfeld, between stints as secretary
general of of the Executive of World Zionist Organizations (1910-1914) and
president Union of German Zionists (1924-1933).
The German Zionist, first approaches Einstein in Berlin. Einstein is initially
reluctant to become involved, but then embraces Zionism. Blumenfeld wrote
of this encounter: |
Kurt Blumenfeld
On Winning Einstein to Zionism
Felix
Rosenblueth had prepared a list of scholars whom we wished to
interest in Zionism. Einstein was among them. Scientists had known
his importance for years but when we called upon him we did not
know that that his name would soon be resounding across the world.
..
I began to talk about the Jewish question.
"What has that to do with Zionism?" Einstein asked.
"The Zionism idea will give the Jew inner security. It will
remove discord. Openness and inner freedom will be the result.
These were thoughts which interested Einstein.
With extreme naivety he asked questions, and his comments on the
answers were simple and unconventional. "Is it a good idea
to eliminate the Jews from the spiritual calling to which they
are born? Is it not a retrograde step to put manual capabilities,
and above all agriculture, at the center of everything Zionism
does?...
Are not he Jews, through a religious tradition
which has evolved outside of Palestine, too much estranged from
the country and country life?...is it necessary to create a Jewish
national movement which is circumscribed by the Jewish question?"
Kurt Blumenfeld, "Einstein on Zionism"
in Jewish Frontier, (June 1939) cited in Ronald W. Clark, Einstein:
The Life and Times, World Publishing (1971) pg. 378
Blumenfeld
recalled that Einstein was eventually won over...
...only after long deliberation, when he concluded it was a movement
dedicated to winning spiritual freedom for the Jews, and that
the colonization process was free of profiteering and exploitation."
Jamie Sayen, Einstein in America
pg. 41, citing Kurt Blumenfeld, "Einstein on Zionism"
in Jewish Frontier, June 1939, p. 45
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| Several days after their initial discussion
Einstein comes to a conclusion that will stay with him throughout his life:
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ANTI-NATIONALISM, YET PRO-ZIONISM
I am against
nationalism but in favor of Zionism [Blumenfeld quotes Einstein
as having told him]. The reason has become clear to me today.
When a man has both arms and he is always saying I have a right
arm, then he is a chauvinist. However, when the right arm is missing,
then he must do something to make up for the missing limb. Therefore,
I am, as a human being, an opponent of nationalism. But as a Jew
I am from today a supporter of the Jewish Zionist efforts.
Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The
Life and Times, World Publishing
(1971) pg. 378
In this vein, in
October he writes to physicist Paul Epstein:
Zionist cause is very close to my heart….
I am very confident of the happy development of the Jewish colony
and am glad that there should be a tiny speck on this earth in
which the members of our tribe should not be aliens….
One can be internationally minded, without
renouncing interest in one's tribal comrades.
Pais pg. 314
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December 30
Einstein defends Jewish refugees from antisemitic charges
of "parasitism"
Solution to Jewish refugee problem: Palestine
Almost without
exception they were forced to flee by the horrible conditions
in Poland and to seek refuge here [in Germany] until they are
given an opportunity to emigrate elsewhere. Let us hope that many
of them will find a true homeland as free sons of the Jewish people
in the newly established Jewish Palestine.
Berliner Tagblatt, December 30, 1919 in Einstein
on Politics pg. 140
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The Einstein Legend is Born
May 29
Off Coast of West Africa
English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington observes astronomic
phenomena predicted by Relativity - confirming Einstein's theory. Headlines
in major newspapers:
Revolution in Science
New Theory of the Universe
Newtonian Ideas Overthrown
Times of London, November 7
Lights All Askew in Heavens
Men of Science More-or-Less Agog
Einstein Theory Triumphs
New York Times, November 9
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