D O C U M E N T 1 2 3 A P R I L 1 9 2 1 1 6 5
[2]Magnes’s involvement in plans for the establishment of the Hebrew University dated back to
1913, when he and Chaim Weizmann influenced the Eleventh Zionist Congress in Vienna to adopt a
resolution instructing the Zionist Actions Committee to “undertake the prepatory work necessary for
the foundation of a Hebrew University in Jerusalem” (see Biale 1987, p. 129, and Goren 2000, p.
374). For Magnes’s negative assessment of these plans a few months prior to the arrival of the dele-
gation, see his correspondence with the New York physician Henry G. Wincor (see IsJeCAHJP, Judah
L. Magnes Papers, P3/36).
[3]Solomon Ginzberg.
123. From Charles D. Walcott[1]
Washington, D.C., April 18, 1921
Dear Dr. Einstein:
I was glad to receive your letter of April 15, making a favorable response to my
invitation to attend the meetings of the National Academy. Mr. Gano
Dunn[2]
tele-
graphs that he met you personally and informed you of our desire to present you a
brief address of welcome on Tuesday, April 26, at about 12:30 o’clock, just prior
to the adjournment of the morning session. Learning that you do not speak English
fluently, I venture to send you the text of what I shall say on behalf of the Academy,
so that you may the more readily respond. Not over five or ten minutes need be de-
voted to this ceremony.
I am very glad to know that Mr. Dunn also asked and obtained your consent to
address the Academy briefly at the dinner on Tuesday evening. We shall look for-
ward to this.
I take the pleasure in extending an invitation to your interpreter to accompany
you at all the occasions named in my letter of invitation.
Very truly yours,
Charles D. Walcott,
President.
Dr. Einstein!
It is a happy privilege to greet you on behalf of the National Academy of Scienc-
es. The Academy rejoices to bring its tribute of homage to the brilliant and pene-
trating mind which has so greatly enriched the philosophy of ultimate truth. We
congratulate you on the universal appreciation of your investigations which has
outrun and overleaped the limitations and barriers associated with nationalities and
with the times. To men everywhere your name, in association with the abstruse sub-
ject of your investigations, has become a household word. We welcome you to our
scientific meetings and especially to the social hours which intervene, during
which the members of the Academy hope to have the pleasure of meeting and
learning to know you as a friend.