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 v
not join the community, defining his Jewishness as residing in a shared nationality
and origin, rather than in a religious conviction (Doc. 8). Malvin Warschauer, a
Berlin rabbi and Zionist, appealed to Einstein to relent, become a dues-paying
member, and thus also strengthen the Zionists within the community (Doc. 74), but
Einstein adamantly refused yet again (Doc. 86). In the aftermath, in a letter to the
German-Jewish writer Alfred Kerr, Einstein described himself jokingly as Jehova’s
“unfaithful son” (Doc. 81), while he also saw himself as a “loyal Jew” (Doc. 181),
enthusiastic about the ongoing Jewish cultural renaissance both in Germany and
the U.S., as when he heartily delighted in a theater performance of the Yiddish
“Wilnaer Truppe” in Berlin (Doc. 236).
I I
During the month of April and the first half of May 1921, Einstein delivered 17 lec-
tures on the theory of relativity to American audiences.
He had already talked about relativity earlier in the year, in Prague, Vienna, and
Dresden. In America, he delivered five lectures at the College of the City of New
York (CCNY), two to the Zionist Society of Engineers and Agriculturists in New
York, three at the University of Chicago, one at the Chicago Francis W. Parker
School, and one at Columbia University. After a brief respite, he proceeded to Prin-
ceton and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass. He
declined further invitations to the American Philosophical Society, New York Uni-
versity, the University of Pittsburgh, Yale University, the University of Wisconsin,
Howard University in Washington, D.C., Washington University in St. Louis, the
University of California, Berkeley, and Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
On his return to Europe in early June, Einstein spoke about relativity at the
University of Manchester and at King’s College in London (Vol. 7, Doc. 58), but
declined an invitation from the University of Leeds. In late October he gave another
three lectures in Bologna and one in Padova. He had been invited to Italy in mid-
January, and expected to lecture in his “Sauerkraut-Italienisch,” remarking that
Dante’s descendants would hardly recognize the language as Italian (Docs. 263 and
273). His earlier ambivalence about offers from foreign universities was again
visible when he was offered a position in Bologna: he regretted being unable to
accept, yet wrote that he would exchange Berlin for Bologna “in a blink”
(Doc. 296). An interview with the Italian daily Il Messagero is presented (Appen-
dix G) from among a number available for the year.
The Princeton University Stafford Little Lectures achieved lasting fame when a
contract to publish them with Princeton University Press eventually led Einstein to
write what became a well-known and widely read textbook on relativity theory