D O C U M E N T S 8 6 , 8 7 M A R C H 1 9 2 1 6 9
I am sorry that I did not give you my booklet to translate as
well.[12]
But how should
I have arranged it? If I can do anything at all to lead to the arrest of that rotten Fabre,
I will gladly do so. Write to me here. I will have it forwarded to me, if it is still
worthwhile; perhaps it will still work out before the trip. I am leaving from here on
March
21.[13]
In the Leyden speech, do leave out the formal
addresses[14]
—do as
you think best.
Cordial greetings, yours,
A. Einstein.
86. To Malwin Warschauer
[Berlin,] 8 March 1921
Highly esteemed Doctor,
I very much admired the skill with which you pressed poor me, unversed in the
art of oration, in such a kindly
way.[1]
But I must stand by my point
stiff-necked.[2]
The community is an organization for the exercise of ritualistic forms that are
remote from my opinions. I must take it for what it is today and not for what one
might perhaps wish to see it transformed into. When I want to drive into town, I do
not lay myself down in bed in the hope that it will grow wheels and become an auto-
mobile.
If this attitude of mine is an uncomfortable disgrace in your eyes, I gladly vow
to smooth it over busily with all kinds of efforts in the interest of individual Jews
and Jewish communities.
In this sense, I send you my compliments with kind regards, yours,
Albert Einstein.
87. From Fritz Haber[1]
Dahlem, Berlin, 8 Faradayweg, 9 March 1921
Dear Albert Einstein,
Our many years of friendship compel me to write you today.
I am told that you are soon departing for the United States on behalf of efforts
to establish a Zionist university in Jerusalem and that you are undertaking this trip
in the company of English supporters of this idea and are afterwards also going to
stay in England at the invitation of the government over
there.[2]
From the papers I
found out in addition that this plan prevents you from attending the Solvay confer-
ence in Brussels, to which you have been invited as the only representative of our
country.[3]