I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 6 l i i i on the board of governors. He also reiterated his doubt as to whether Magnes should remain head of the university (Doc. 202). Weizmann subsequently informed Einstein of the outcome of the London meet- ing. The board had decided in favor of the Brodetsky report’s recommendations and accepted the principles contained in Einstein’s letter. Magnes and Warburg supported the appointment of Brodetsky as academic head, but only for a limited term and with restricted authority. However, senior faculty members opposed the board’s decision. A special committee to examine the university’s academic ad- ministration with Einstein as chairman was proposed (Doc. 215). In response, Einstein expressed his strong dismay with the meeting’s outcome and informed Weizmann of his resignation from all matters pertaining to the university: “I have decided to withdraw completely de facto from involvement in this whole enter- prise. Contrary to my original intention, I will abstain from officially resigning from the board and the academic council.” He stressed he did not wish to contribute to the university’s failure or discredit it in the eyes of the public (Doc. 221). A week later, he requested that Weizmann strike his name off the official list of members of the board and the academic council (Doc. 227). He wanted to avoid making “a noisy exit from the board and the academic council, in order not to provide the Goyim and the anti-Zionists with ammunition.” But he still intended to dissuade anyone from joining the university (Doc. 231). Extant sources indicate that Einstein refrained from corresponding about the university during the second half of 1928 and early 1929. He rejected attempts by Weizmann and Brodetsky to visit and convince him to reconsider his decision. Nevertheless, the university apparent- ly still figured as an important enterprise for him. In response to the institution’s birthday greetings in March 1929, he wrote: “deeply moved thanking the wayward child of his love with sincere wishes” (Doc. 473). The following month, he men- tioned to Brodetsky that even if he did not live to see his resignations reversed, he would “not cease to see the matter of the Jerusalem university as a matter of the heart” (Doc. 488). Beyond the Hebrew University, Einstein also related to more general Zionist issues during this period. In January 1929, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency asked him to comment on the current campaign of the United Palestine Appeal, which, for the first time, saw coordinated efforts by Zionists and non-Zionists. Stressing the importance of Palestine for the Jewish Diaspora, but also revealing his opinion that the country was still underdeveloped, he compared world Jewry to “a headless animal.” Einstein felt the current head—Palestine—was “too small, thin, and weak.” He therefore appealed for the restoration of “a full-sized head” through fund-raising efforts (Doc. 379). For the twenty-fifth anniversary of Theodor Herzl’s death in April 1929, he expressed his admiration for the founder of political Zionism (Doc. 493).