l x x i i I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 4 During his visit to Palestine in early 1923, Einstein had been greatly impressed with developments in the Jewish community, both in the towns and in the agricul- tural settlements.[46] He believed that relations between Jewish workers and Arab inhabitants were “friendly,” and that the existing “difficulties” were caused by the intellectuals on both sides. Firmly convinced that the Jewish settlement of Palestine “will succeed,” he considered the economic aspects of colonization of lesser impor- tance, since he saw its main role as forming a “moral and intellectual center for the Jewish people.” While Palestine would not solve the “Jewish question,” it would lead to “a revival of the soul of the Jewish people” (Einstein 1923k [Doc. 20]). He wrote to Maurice Solovine that he liked their “tribal brethren” in Palestine very much, “as farmers, as workers, and as townspeople” (Doc. 34). And he informed Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist Organisation, that he had been pleased that a “good selection” of the Jewish people were gathering there (Doc. 133). Fully aware of the diversity of opinions on Zionism among Jews, he wrote in 1925 for the inaugural issue of La Revue Juive that a “Jew who strives to imbue his intellect with the humanist ideal can declare himself a Zionist without a contradic- tion.” Zionism, for Einstein, was “only seemingly a nationalist movement” and played a “significant role for mankind” (Einstein 1925h [Doc. 438]). Throughout the period covered in this volume, Einstein was in great demand and led a hectic life. For example, having just returned from delivering the Nobel Prize lecture in Gothenburg, he described daily life as a “teeming box in which one is al- most driven insane by visits, correspondence, and the telephone” (Doc. 87). When new issues arose with the manuscript of Einstein 1916e (Vol. 6, Doc. 30), he re- marked to Elsa that it was good that his skin could not be sold during his lifetime “to make parchment out of it” (Doc. 244). In June 1923, he decided not to attend the 13th Zionist Congress in Karlsbad due to recent “excitement and disagreeable experiences,” most likely an allusion to his recent dispute with his Zurich family about the money from his Nobel Prize (see section VI above and Doc. 66), and in September lamented his status as a “supreme Jew” (“Oberjude”) (Doc. 158). But he agreed to join the Jewish Agency as long as it would not entail overseas travel (Docs. 131, 133), and also joined the Hebrew University’s board of governors (Doc. 194, Abs. 259). He envisaged the latter as consisting of scholars and admin- istrators in equal numbers, rather than of representatives of political entities. To his mind, the local Jerusalem board members could decide autonomously on minor matters (Doc. 286). In early October 1924, following his fundraising appearance in Vienna on behalf of the Palestine Foundation Fund, he denied press reports that he would be taking up an academic position at the university in Jerusalem (Doc. 334). Einstein was involved in additional projects concerning Jewish tertiary educa- tion. He continued to be apprised of developments of the Jewish university cours-