Pacifism and Zionism
For most of World War I, Einstein remained at the University
of Berlin completing, and then awaiting the confirmation of, his
general theory of relativity. However, Einstein was also a staunch
and outspoken opponent of the war. He was especially appalled
by his fellow scientists who supported the war effort of their
respective nations, including Otto Stern, Max Born, Walther Nernst,
and Marie Curie. In October 1914, two months after the start of
the war, Einstein heard news of the publication of the "Manifesto
of the 93" (also known as "An Appeal to the Cultured World"), a
document created by the German wartime propagandists to persuade the
international intellectual community that the German government's
invasion of Belgium and involvement in the war were justifiable.
The manifesto was signed by ninety-three leading German intellectuals
from various fields, including the physicist Max Planck, the painter
Max Lieberman, and the poet Gerhart Hauptmann.
When Einstein learned of this document, he joined with
a like-minded physician and friend, Georg Friedrich Nicolai, to
draft a counter-manifesto. This counter-manifesto, entitled "An
Appeal to the Cultured World," was a recommendation to avoid annexations and
to create a durable system of peace for Europe. Although Einstein
and Nicolai deliberately used general terms in order to appeal to
a broad audience, the manifesto received very few signatures. After
this failure, Einstein joined the New Fatherland League, a political
association of men of varied backgrounds who supported an early
end to the war and the establishment of an international organization
to prevent future armed conflicts.
While working in Berlin in 1915, Einstein was approached
by the Berlin Goethe League, a peaceable organization that wished
to publish the scientist's views on the war effort. In October
1915, Einstein wrote a three-page article entitled "My Opinion
of the War," in which he argued that the roots of war lie in the
aggressive biology of males. Once again, he rejected all kinds
of war and urged the creation of an international political order
to promote peace. In the 1920s, he was invited to join the League
of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, an international
intellectual union founded by the French philosopher Henri Bergson.
Although he was distrustful of the organization's bureaucracy,
Einstein regularly attended the commission's meetings from 1924
to 1927. He remained a staunch pacifist, highly critical of nationalism
and committed to the idea of a single world government free of
a military. Throughout the 1920s, he participated in numerous peace
campaigns and wrote articles on international peace and disarmament.
By the late 1920s, disappointed by the League of Nations' failure
to enforce disarmament and proscribe war, Einstein had became even more
outspoken in his international pacifism.
Another important aspect of Einstein's politics during
the 1920s was a strong belief in Zionism. Einstein was drawn to
the Zionist cause as a result of the influence of Chaim Weizmann,
a Russian Jew who had recently persuaded the British government
to issue the famous Balfour Declaration, declaring its full support
for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in
Palestine. Although Einstein disliked Zionism's nationalist aspect,
he was interested in the establishment of a Hebrew University in
Palestine. After witnessing the anti-Semitism of the European
university system, Einstein was determined to create a place where
Jews could gain an education unrestrained by prejudice. He saw
Israel as a cultural center of Jewry ratherr than a Jewish homeland
or a Jewish state.
In 1921, Einstein accepted an invitation to participate
in a fundraising tour in the United States for the Jewish Development
Fund "Keren Ha-Yesod." He traveled with the Weizmanns and his wife Elsa
and spoke passionately on behalf of the planned Hebrew University
in Jerusalem. Einstein was well received in America, especially
when he lectured on relativity. He spoke at universities in Columbia,
Cleveland, Chicago, Princeton, and several other major cities.
When the Hebrew University was finally established in 1923, Einstein
delivered the inaugural address in Jerusalem. However, he became
increasingly distressed by the way in which the University was
organized: Einstein had envisioned an academically elite institution
devoted to research of the highest scientific standards; instead,
he found that the wealthy American Jews who had funded the University
were more interested in creating a teaching institution at the
undergraduate level. In 1928, Einstein resigned from the academic
board as a sign of his disapproval.
Although he was angry at the way in which Hebrew University was
developing, Einstein attended the sixteenth Zionist Congress in Zurich
in 1929, where he spoke on behalf of the cultural unity of the
Jewish people. Soon afterwards, when the newspapers reported serious
Arab attacks on Jews in Jerusalem, Einstein called for a fair settlement
based on both Arab and Jewish interests. He appealed to Weizmann
to cooperate peacefully with the Arabs and suggested the creation
of a secret council of four Jews and four Arabs to reconcile their
differing views, an idealistic goal that was never achieved. In 1947,
when the United Nations debated the future of Palestine, Einstein
argued against the partition plan that would divide the land into
two states, Arab and Jewish. As an alternative, he advocated a military-free
zone for both peoples. In 1952, four years after Israel became
a Jewish state, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's premier, offered Einstein
the position of president of Israel. Although Einstein was deeply
moved by the offer, he explained that he did not feel that he had
the interpersonal skills for the job. Nonetheless, Einstein remained
deeply committed to the welfare of Israel and the Jewish people
for the rest of his life.
