I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 4 l x x v i i and expressed his amazement at the local flora which “surpasses the dreams of 1001 Nights.” He found the “mix of races […] exquisite.” All in all, his brief visit was a “wonderful experience.” He arrived in Montevideo three days later, from where Argentinian academics accompanied him across the River Plate to Buenos Aires, where he was greeted by Jewish delegations. Immediately following his ar- rival, he noted that he was “half-dead from the unsavory riff-raff.” Einstein was to spend four weeks in Argentina. His hosts in the capital were the German-Jewish paper merchant Bruno Wassermann and his family (Doc. 455). On his second day in Buenos Aires, on 26 March, he wrote to Elsa and Margot that he felt indifferent toward the people because “what I’m doing here is probably little more than a comedy.” He found the capital to be “a barren city, from the point of view of the Romantic and the intellectual.” He found the people “gentle, doe eyed, graceful but clichéd, [inclined toward] luxury, superficiality.” The republican spirit in Argentina reminded him of the Swiss (Doc. 464). Einstein lectured first at the overcrowded Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires to a general audience that included ministers, diplomats, faculty, and students, fol- lowed by his first scientific lecture (of eight that were planned) at the University of Buenos Aires’s science faculty. During his first week, he also visited the offices of the major newspaper La Prensa, which published several of his articles, among them a popular explanation of the mechanism of the rotor ship, newly invented by the German engineer Anton Flettner (see Docs. 466, 467). He also toured the Jewish quarter and remarked: “The tragedy of the Jewish peo- ple: they lose their souls when they lose their lice.”[59] On 1 April, Einstein flew over Buenos Aires in a Junkers hydroplane, and later in the day had an audience with Argentina’s president, Marcelo T. de Alvear (Doc. 455). The Wassermann family protected Einstein from the press and the general pub- lic. Mauricio Nirenstein, administrative secretary of the University of Buenos Ai- res, also played an important role as gatekeeper. After only one week, Einstein longed to return home: “The monkey theater is uninteresting and rather strenuous.” He would not “undertake such a trip again, even if it’s more profitable it is quite a grind.” He found the country to be much like New York, “made milder through southern races […] but just as superficial and soulless. I don’t want to be here […] all in all, the only things that matter here are money and power, as in North America.” However, there were “better people among the young, as in America” (Doc. 471). Prevented from attending the inauguration of the Hebrew University in Jerusa- lem on 1 April, Einstein was the guest of honor at a celebration for the university’s opening. Organized by the local Zionist Federation at the Coliseo, the largest the- ater of Buenos Aires, on 6 April, the meeting was attended by 4,000 guests (Appendix H). On the eve of his departure from Berlin, Einstein had again in- formed Weizmann of his thoughts regarding the university. He still believed it