1 9 8 D O C U M E N T 1 3 7 O C T O B E R 1 9 1 9
[5]Two months later, Einstein publicly expressed a similar sentiment, arguing that theoretical phys-
ics should be the last subject to be considered in the new university’s curriculum: “In building a house,
one does not begin with the roof” (“Man fängt doch bei dem Bau eines Hauses nicht mit dem Dache
an”; interview of 18 December in Neues Wiener Journal, 25 December 1919).
In their discussions prior to the establishment of the Hebrew University, its initiators considered
whether teaching or research should be a priority upon its opening. The first approach was represented
by Russian Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940), who saw the easing of the plight of East
European Jewish students as the main purpose of the university, and hence favored its establishment
as a teaching institution. The main proponents of the opposing approach, who advocated the estab-
lishment of research institutions prior to the introduction of teaching, were Baron Edmond de Roth-
schild (1845–1934), who feared the public and political fallout of a fully fledged university, and
Chaim Weizmann, who claimed that Palestine lacked an adequate educational infrastructure for in-
troducing teaching. There were also opposing schools of thought about which institutes should be
erected first: Weizmann preferred establishing the natural science institutes first, whereas fellow Uni-
versity Committee member Judah Leon Magnes (1877–1948) favored first setting up institutes for the
humanities and Jewish studies (Lavsky 2000, pp. 123–124).
On the same day of this letter, the German Zionist leader Julius Berger wrote to the Culture De-
partment of the Zionist Organisation in London, urging it to contact Einstein: “He is very close to our
position, is enthusiastic about the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine, and even more about the possi-
bility of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem” (“Er steht uns sehr nahe, ist begeistert von der Idee eines
Judenstaates in Palästina und noch mehr von der Möglichkeit der hebräischen Universität in Jerusa-
lem”; 15 October 1919, IsJCZA, Z3/690).
[6]Arthur Ruppin (1876–1943), former director of the Palestine Office in Jaffa, was head of the
Zionist Organisation’s office for immigration and settlement in Copenhagen (see Ruppin 1971,
pp. 159 and 178). He met with Einstein on 17 November in Berlin (see Doc. 155, note 3).
[7]See Debye 1915a and Sommerfeld 1917 for their theories of dispersion using Bohr’s model of
the atom. A weak point of their theories was the use of the (classical) rotational frequencies of the
atomic electrons, instead of the absorption and emission frequencies. See Mehra and Rechenberg
1982, pp. 632–633, for a discussion.
[8]At the session of 9 October, Peter Debye lectured on “Moleküle und Atome” to the Zurich Phys-
ical Society (see Mitteilungen der Physikalischen Gesellschaft Zürich 19 (1919): 9).
[9]In Doc. 122 Einstein mentioned that he would visit Ehrenfest.
137. From Moritz Schlick
Rostock, Orléansstr. 23 d. 15. 10. 19
Hochverehrter Herr Professor,
In diesen Tagen erhalten Sie eine Einladung der Rostocker Universität zur Teil-
nahme am fünfhundertjährigen Jubiläum, und Sie werden daraus ersehen, dass der
Universität aus mehr als einem Grunde sehr viel daran liegt, daß Sie die Feier durch
Ihre persönliche Anwesenheit
ehren.[1]
Nun hoffe ich zwar zuversichtlich, daß Sie
die Universität ohnehin nicht durch eine Absage enttäuschen würden, aber ich
möchte doch nicht versäumen, meine Bitten mit denen der Fakultät zu vereinen und
Ihnen außerdem noch zu sagen, wie sehr ich mich freuen würde, wenn Sie in dem
erhofften Falle Ihres Kommens in meinem Hause Wohnung nehmen würden. Ich