I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 2 x x x i
Einstein replied the very same day (Doc. 88). He clarified that he had received
Weizmann’s invitation already a few weeks earlier, prior to the most recent political
crises. He was traveling only to lend his name as advertisement in a fund-raising
campaign, and reiterated that, despite his internationalist sympathies, he felt com-
pelled to intervene as much as was “in his power” on behalf of his “persecuted and
morally oppressed” fellow Jews. He had lately seen “innumerable” instances of
“perfidious and loveless” handling of “splendid young Jews” and lamented that of-
ficials sought to curtail their educational prospects. He forcefully stressed that his
decision was in fact an act of “loyalty” rather than perfidy.
Haber’s accusation of “disloyalty” begged for rebuttal: Einstein listed the many
invitations to prestigious academic positions he had received from abroad over the
years, all of which he had rejected out of allegiance to his colleagues. But Haber’s
argument of the necessity of showing loyalty to the German state was against his
principles as a pacifist, Einstein wrote, and would not sway him. He would not
change his plans but agreed to cancel his lecture in Manchester if the murky polit-
ical situation persisted. As far as the Solvay Congress was concerned, he had
forgone participating only “with a heavy heart,” even though their colleague
Walther Nernst, one of the organizers of the first Solvay Congress in 1911, had
been “furious” that Einstein, the only scientist invited from Germany, had agreed
to participate.
The emphatic tenor of his reply reveals not only how intensely Einstein identi-
fied with the plight of young Jewish academics, but also a palpable frustration at
his long-standing friend’s
rebuke.[17]
Recent instances of anti-Semitism against
Einstein had increased his Jewish self-awareness: he specifically mentioned to
Haber his clash with the anti-relativists at Bad Nauheim, the refusal of Gustav
Roethe, secretary of the Prussian Academy, to express solidarity with Einstein
against the
anti-relativists,[18]
and the aversion of fellow academy member Ulrich
von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff to sign a petition because Einstein had already
signed
it.[19]
Einstein also felt the need to placate his longtime friend Maurice Solovine, who
was a critic of Zionism (Doc. 93). As to how Zionism, qua nationalism, could be
reconciled with internationalism, Einstein wrote that, though not a nationalist him-
self, he was expecting that Jews would be prevented from the “vanity of power” by
the small size and dependency of a Jewish settlement in Palestine. At least outward-
ly, Einstein was undertaking the tour in the “Zionists’” interest, not in his own, he
wrote (Doc. 100).
On 21 March, Einstein and his wife Elsa left Berlin by train for the port of Rot-
terdam, where they boarded ship two days later. On 24 March, Chaim Weizmann
and his wife Vera, together with Menachem Ussishkin, a member of the Zionist