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He was able to make his rumpled-genius image as famous as Chaplin did the little tramp. He was kindly yet aloof, brilliant yet baffled. He floated<br />
around with a distracted air and a wry sensibility. He exuded honesty to a fault, was sometimes but not always as naïve as he seemed, cared<br />
passionately about humanity and sometimes about people. He would fix his gaze on cosmic truths and global issues, which allowed him to seem<br />
detached from the here and now. This role he played was not far from the truth, but he enjoyed playing it to the hilt, knowing that it was such a great<br />
role.<br />
He had also, by then, adapted willingly to the role Elsa played, that of a wife who could be both doting and demanding, protective yet afflicted with<br />
occasional social aspirations. They had grown comfortable together, after some rough patches. “I manage him,” she said proudly, “but I never let<br />
him know that I manage him.” 10<br />
Actually, he knew, and he found it mildly amusing. He surrendered, for example, to Elsa’s nagging that he smoked too much and on Thanksgiving<br />
bet her that he would be able to abstain from his pipe until the new year. When Elsa boasted of this at a dinner party, Einstein grumbled, “You see, I<br />
am no longer a slave to my pipe, but I am a slave to that woman.” Einstein kept his word, but “he got up at daylight on New Year’s morning, and he<br />
hasn’t had his pipe out of his mouth since except to eat and sleep,” Elsa told neighbors a few days after the deal was over. 11<br />
The greatest source of friction for Einstein came from Flexner’s desire to protect him from publicity. Einstein was, as always, less fastidious<br />
about this than were his friends, patrons, and self-appointed protectors. An occasional flash of the limelight made his eyes twinkle. More important,<br />
he was willing and even eager to endure such indignities if he could use his fame to raise money and sympathy for the worsening plight of<br />
European Jews.<br />
Such political activism made Einstein’s penchant for publicity even more disconcerting to Flexner, an old-line and assimilated American Jew. It<br />
might provoke anti-Semitism, he thought, especially in Princeton, where the Institute was luring Jewish scholars into an environment that was, to say<br />
the least, socially wary of them. 12<br />
Flexner was particularly upset when Einstein, quite charmingly, agreed one Saturday to meet at his home with a group of boys from a Newark<br />
school who had named their science club after him. Elsa baked cookies, and when the discussion turned to Jewish political leaders, she noted, “I<br />
don’t think there is any anti-Semitism in this country.” Einstein agreed. It would have amounted to no more than a sweet visit, except that the adviser<br />
who accompanied the boys wrote a colorful account, focusing on Einstein’s thoughts about the plight of Jews, that was bannered atop the front<br />
page of the Newark Sunday Ledger. 13<br />
Flexner was furious. “I simply want to protect him,” he wrote in a sharp letter to Elsa, and he sent the Newark article to her with a stern note<br />
attached. “This is exactly the sort of thing that seems to me absolutely unworthy of Professor Einstein,” he scolded. “It will hurt him in the esteem of<br />
his colleagues, for they will believe that he seeks such publicity, and I do not see how they can be convinced that such is not the case.” 14<br />
Flexner went on to ask Elsa to dissuade her husband from being featured at a scheduled musical recital in Manhattan, which he had already<br />
accepted, that was to raise money for Jewish refugees. But like her husband, Elsa was not totally averse to publicity, nor to helping Jewish causes,<br />
and she resented Flexner’s attempts at control. So she replied with a very frank refusal.<br />
That provoked Flexner to send an astonishingly blunt letter the next day, which he noted he had discussed with the president of Princeton<br />
University. Echoing the sentiments of some of Einstein’s European friends, including the Borns, Flexner warned Elsa that if Jews got too much<br />
publicity it would stoke anti-Semitism:<br />
It is perfectly possible to create anti-Semitic feeling in the United States. There is no danger that any such feeling would be created except by<br />
the Jews themselves. There are already signs which are unmistakable that anti-Semitism has increased in America. It is because I am myself<br />
a Jew and because I wish to help oppressed Jews in Germany that my efforts, though continuous and in a measure successful, are absolutely<br />
quiet and anonymous . . . The questions involved are the dignity of your husband and the Institute according to the highest American standards<br />
and the most effective way of helping the Jewish race in America and in Europe. 15<br />
That same day, Flexner wrote Einstein directly to make the case that Jews like themselves should keep a low profile because a penchant for<br />
publicity could arouse anti-Semitism. “I have felt this from the moment that Hitler began his anti-Jewish policy, and I have acted accordingly,” he<br />
wrote.“There have been indications in American universities that Jewish students and Jewish professors will suffer unless the utmost caution is<br />
used.” 16<br />
Not surprisingly, Einstein went ahead with his planned benefit recital in Manhattan, for which 264 guests paid $25 apiece to attend. It featured<br />
Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D-minor and Mozart’s G Major Quartet. It was even opened to the press. “He became so absorbed in the<br />
music,”Time magazine reported, “that with a far-away look he was still plucking at the strings when the performance was all over.” 17<br />
In his attempt to prevent such events, Flexner had begun intercepting Einstein’s mail and declining invitations on his behalf. The stage was thus<br />
set for a showdown when Rabbi Stephen Wise of New York decided it would be a good idea to get Einstein invited to visit President Franklin<br />
Roosevelt, which Wise hoped would focus attention on Germany’s treatment of Jews. “F.D.R. has not lifted a finger on behalf of the Jews of<br />
Germany, and this would be little enough,” Wise wrote a friend. 18<br />
The result was a telephone call from Roosevelt’s social secretary, Colonel Marvin MacIntyre, inviting Einstein to the White House. When Flexner<br />
found out, he was furious. He called the White House and gave a stern lecture to the somewhat surprised Colonel MacIntyre. All invitations must go<br />
through him, Flexner said, and on Einstein’s behalf he declined.<br />
For good measure, Flexner proceeded to write an official letter to the president. “I felt myself compelled this afternoon to explain to your<br />
secretary,” Flexner said, “that Professor Einstein had come to Princeton for the purpose of carrying out his scientific work in seclusion and that it<br />
was absolutely impossible to make any exception which would inevitably bring him into public notice.”<br />
Einstein knew none of this until Henry Morgenthau, a prominent Jewish leader who was about to become treasury secretary, inquired about the<br />
apparent snub. Dismayed to discover Flexner’s presumption, Einstein wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, his political soul mate. “You can hardly imagine<br />
of what great interest it would have been for me to meet the man who is tackling with gigantic energy the greatest and most difficult problem of our<br />
time,” he wrote. “However, as a matter of fact, no invitation whatever has reached me.”<br />
Eleanor Roosevelt answered personally and politely. The confusion came, she explained, because Flexner had been so adamant in his phone<br />
call to the White House. “I hope you and Mrs. Einstein will come sometime soon,” she added. Elsa responded graciously. “First excuse my poor<br />
English please,” she wrote. “Dr. Einstein and myself accept with feelings of gratitude your very kind invitation.”<br />
He and Elsa arrived at the White House on January 24, 1934, had dinner, and spent the night. The president was able to converse with them in<br />
passable German. Among other things, they discussed Roosevelt’s marine prints and Einstein’s love for sailing. The next morning, Einstein wrote<br />
an eight-line piece of doggerel on a White House note card to Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians marking his visit, but he made no public<br />
statements. 19