D O C U M E N T 1 2 8 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 8 1 3 9 academic who really had the trust of the board of trustees and the academic council, who had provisional decision-making power regarding all academic questions, and whose primary task would be to see to it that the board of trustees’ decisions that concern the university’s future development are also properly carried out. Perhaps it would also be good to create, as proposed in the report, a small permanent com- mittee of the academic council that met every three months or so, remained in con- stant contact with developments in Palestine, and was always able to advise the academic head and support him through its authority.[9] The essential point seems to me to be that a capable man be resident on site. Perhaps it would also be good if a finance committee of the board of trustees were formed, to get an exact insight into the actual financial situation regarding the goal toward endowments and indi- vidual donations so the influence of the board of trustees could take a more effec- tive form.With reference to Dr. Magnes’s letter, I note also that nothing is further from my mind than to belittle Dr. Magnes’s services with regard to fund-raising [10] I merely ask that the board of trustees be given true control over the university’s development and that the academic council be made the decisive authority in aca- demic matters, with the former being informed with absolute precision and at first hand as to the purpose for which each individual sum has been allocated, and that it also be guaranteed the right to negotiate directly regarding expenditures and pos- sibly also to reject expenditures that seem to it undesirable because of the condi- tions connected with them. As things currently stand, the board of trustees is leading merely a sham existence. Whether such a reform would actually be effective and whether, if it is under- taken, it would be correctly carried out, I cannot judge. My view, as set forth at the outset, is skeptical, on the basis of experience up to this point but if an attempt to move in the direction indicated were to be made, I would in any case feel obliged to take no public action, at least until, say, within a year, it has become clear whether such a solution really improves the situation. But if the introduction of such an attempt is rejected or obstructed, then I would consider it my duty to dis- solve my connections with the university definitively and publicly. It would be much better for us to delay for another generation the founding of a Hebrew Uni- versity than to found a bungled university under pressure from outside conditions. Your A. Einstein P.S. I ask you to send Mr. F. Warburg and Dr. Magnes each a copy of this letter, and I grant you the right to make any use of it that you may deem suitable.[11] Your A. E.