D O C . 5 9 O N PA L E S T I N E . F I R S T V E R S I O N 4 3 5
worden ist, der von dem allgemeinen Fonds für den Aufbau des Landes vollkom-
men getrennt
ist.[10]
Für den letzteren sind in diesen Monaten dank der unermüdli-
chen Arbeit Prof. Weizmanns u. anderer zionistischer Führer in Amerika
bedeutende Summen zusammengebracht worden, insbesondere vermöge der gros-
sen Opferwilligkeit des
Mittelstandes.[11]
Ich schließe mit einem warmen Apell an
die Juden Deutschlands trotz der gegenwärtigen schweren wirtschaftlichen
Situation,[12]
nach besten Kräften für den Aufbau der jüd. Heimstätte in Palestina
beizutragen: Es handelt sich nicht um einen Akt der Wohltätigkeit, sondern um eine
alle Juden angehende Unternehmung, deren Gelingen für alle eine Quelle edelster
Befriedigung zu werden verspricht.
AD. [28 008]. The document consists of two unnumbered pages. Page numbers are here provided in
the margin in square brackets. The first two paragraphs are in Einstein’s hand. The remaining text is
in Ilse Einstein’s hand and bears her notation of Einstein’s name, title, dateline, and address at the
head of the first page, as well as an emendation in her hand in the first paragraph. A frame has been
drawn around the salutation and the salutation has been deleted, presumably also by Ilse Einstein. An
incomplete typescript [73 165] incorporating the emendation and adding another one in Ilse Einstein’s
hand is preserved. It bears the title “Rede, gehalten auf der zionistischen Versammlung am 27. Juni
1921.” The text of the typescript is published in Einstein 1934a, pp. 97–99.
[1]This document is dated on the assumption that it is a draft for a speech that was held on 27 June
(see the following document, note 1).
[2]Ilse Einstein has deleted “Erbe” and interlineated “gemeinsame Gut.”
[3]In the typescript, Ilse Einstein has interlineated the phrase “zu großen Kollektiv-Leistungen
schien” between “aber” and “das jüdische Volk,” and deleted its occurrence further on in the sentence.
The clear text is: “aber zu großen Kollektiv-Leistungen schien das jüdische Volk als Ganzes nicht
mehr die Kraft zu haben.”
[4]From this point on, the text is in Ilse Einstein’s hand. For a summary of efforts to create a
national home for the Jews in Palestine after the Balfour Declaration, issued November 1917, until
the end of World War I a year later, see Vital 1987, pp. 303–376; for a documentary account of these
efforts after the war, see Klieman 1987.
[5]Einstein’s emphasis on the cultural aspects of settlement in Palestine indicates his position in the
acrimonious debate between cultural and political Zionists that had emerged since the Balfour
Declaration. Arguing that the British mandate over Palestine marked the end of the political struggle
of the Jews, most cultural Zionists sought relatively modest funding for individual enterprises aimed
at creating and maintaining a Jewish cultural presence in Palestine. The politically committed wing
of Zionism, by contrast, pointed out that the political struggle had only begun and stressed the impor-
tance of mass colonization and ambitious supporting budgets to advance the Jewish cause there (see
Weizmann, Ch. 1977, pp. xiii–xiv, and Chaim Weizmann to Executive, Zionist Organization of Amer-
ica, 6 January 1921, in Klieman 1987, p. 126). While stressing the cultural elements of Zionism,
Einstein had lent his name to the ambitious fund-raising efforts of the political Zionists, whom he
accompanied to the United States in spring 1921. For further discussion of the debate between cultural
and political Zionists, see the editorial note, “Einstein and the Jewish Question,” p. 233.
[6]Although Einstein himself was not a Zionist, plans for a Jewish university in Jerusalem lay at
the heart of his sympathy with cultural Zionism (see Kurt Blumenfeld to Chaim Weizmann, 15 March
1921, in Blumenfeld 1976, p. 66). If the American trip, which Einstein undertook from 2 April until
30 May 1921 at the urging of the Zionist leadership, had been precipitated in large part by its financial
crisis in Palestine (see Ruppin 1985, p. 320), Einstein’s motivation in joining the delegation was an
opportunity to correct a “‘deficient spiritual balance’” among the large number of Jewish students
who were unable to gain access to higher education. Creating a Jewish university was “‘not a question
of taste but of necessity.’” See article on his speech to the Manchester University Jewish Students’
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