J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22,
1904. It was the perfect time and place for the future physicist
to have entered the world: the turn of the century ushered in a
golden age of technological advances, and the power of science
seemed infinite. In the few years before and after the birth of
the twentieth century, day-to-day life changed radically. Suddenly,
buildings had electric power, people were connected by telephone
lines and radios, cars filled the roadways, and skyscrapers rose
into the sky. And New York was the center of it all.
Into this hopeful and newly electrified world, Oppenheimer
was born. His father, Julius, had fled the Old World–Europe–as
a teenager, hoping to escape the religious persecution of which,
as a Jew, he was a prime target. While anti-Semitism (prejudice
against Jews) did exist in the United States, it was not nearly
so pronounced or institutionalized as it was in Europe. Julius
joined a flood of émigrés searching for religious freedom in the
New World. Oppenheimer's mother, Ella, was also Jewish, but her
family had been in New York for generations. Julius and Ella married
in 1903, and Robert, their first son, was born a year later. They
had a second son, Frank, the younger brother to whom Oppenheimer
would remain close all his life.
Growing up, Oppenheimer lived in a swanky apartment on
New York's Upper West Side, enjoying all the benefits of a life
of privilege. The family employed a cook, servants, and a chauffeur;
family dinners were formal and even the children were required
to wear proper attire–usually, a suit and tie.
From the start, Oppenheimer seemed destined for science.
When young Robert was five years old, the Oppenheimer family went
on a trip to Germany to visit their remaining relatives there.
Oppenheimer's grandfather gave him a collection of minerals, and
Oppenheimer was immediately entranced–he became a devoted rock collector.
As soon as he got home, he began taking trips into the countryside,
searching for new specimens. At the age of eleven, Oppenheimer
joined the New York Mineralogical Club, and one year later, he made
his scientific debut there, presenting his first scientific paper.
Hoping to give him the best education possible, Oppenheimer's parents
sent him to the famous New York School for Ethical Culture, which
he attended from second grade through his graduation from high
school. The school was run by another European émigré, Felix Adler,
who believed in teaching his students science, Ancient Greek and
Roman classics, literature, and "moral law." By the time he graduated,
Oppenheimer could speak five languages and had gained a lifelong
passion for art, literature, and philosophy.
Oppenheimer was a good student–earning As in almost all
his classes–but socially, he was not quite as successful. The young scholar
was too focused on his studies and too sure of his own brilliance
to make many friends. His peers thought of him as arrogant, excessively
proper, and unpleasantly distant, and for the most part, they stayed
away. Oppenheimer did make a couple close friends. To one of them,
his high school English teacher, he once confessed, "I'm the loneliest
man in the world."
Arrogant, ambitious, and alone, Oppenheimer graduated
from high school and left New York to embark on a new challenge–Harvard
University–to begin his scientific career. Arrogant as he was, even
Oppenheimer couldn't have imagined the phenomenal success that
was to greet him in his professional life.
