D O C U M E N T 1 5 4 M A R C H 1 9 2 8 1 5 9 154. From Chaim Weizmann [London,] 13 March 1928 Dear Professor Einstein, I returned to Paris the evening before last and am leaving early tomorrow morn- ing for America.[1] I had hoped to find here your comments concerning the latest developments in the university affair,[2] but since these have not yet arrived, I would like to tell you briefly how things seem to me to stand and my opinion as to what else must be done. From Dr. Magnes’s letter forwarded to you, you have seen that under the pres- sure of your letter he has accepted the recommendation to appoint an academic head.[3] He made no statement concerning your further recommendation that a per- manent committee of the academic council be created that would advise and sup- port the academic head in Jerusalem.[4] I believe that you see this recommendation as essential, as I also do, and I would consider it very desirable that you refer to it in your official statement about Magnes’s letter, which you will no doubt send me. Since the reception of this letter from Dr. Magnes two further telegrams from him have come in that have somewhat puzzled me. In the first, which Leo Kohn already sent to you along with our telegraphic reply, he suggests the appointment of Landau as academic head.[5] In the second, of which I am enclosing a copy, he refers to the necessity of proceeding carefully in the matter of the appointment of the academic head, in particular by taking into account the university’s difficult fi- nancial situation. Unfortunately, on the basis of experience up to this point, I cannot help gaining the impression that inherent in both telegrams, but especially the last one, is the tendency to weaken the agreement to the appointment of an academic head declared in that letter. In my opinion—and I believe it is also yours—the appointment of Landau would be the ideal way to blunt the point of the whole recommendation to appoint an academic head. But the reference to insufficient fi- nances is Dr. Magnes’s typical way of reacting to a proposal that does not suit him. I consider the appointment of this academic head so essential that the money for it must be allocated even if other lines in the budget have to be reduced or new de- velopments halted. According to everything I hear from Jerusalem, the university is presently in such a state of neglect that if we do not immediately send there a
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