(dr)
Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921
The famous scientist was invited in 1952 to succeed Chaim Weizmann and be the second president of the Jewish state, but refused the offer.
In 1949, with the state of newly created Israel, Chaim Weizmann was chosen president of the new country, for his dedication to the Zionist cause.
This is a more symbolic and ceremonial position than executive, because Israel is a parliamentary republic, with the prime minister as head of government.
In 1952, at 77, Weizmann morreu. Israel needed a new president.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs then advanced with names of celebrated Jews who could occupy the chair and stimulate immigration to the young country.
Thus, the government of the Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion decided to invite, once again, a scientist to the position – and looked right away to the most famous of them: The German physicist Albert Einstein.
The Ambassador of Israel in the United States, Abba in the EUthen wrote a letter on behalf of Ben-Gurion to the famous physicist, who lived in the US since 1933, the year that Adolf Hitler climbed to power and began the persecution of Jews in Germany.
“Israel is a small state in physical dimensions,” the letter said. “But it can achieve greatness as it exemplifies the highest spiritual and intellectual traditions that the Jewish people have established through their best hearts and minds, both in antiquity and in modern times.”
The ambassador also stressed that Einstein I wouldn’t need to abdicate of your scientific career. But he should exchange New Jersey, where he lived and worked at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Princeton for Israel.
Einstein, then 73 years old, nIt was convinced. He responded courtesy and was happy for the invitation, but did not want to embark on the adventure.
The scientist argued that did not have the skills required for the positionaccording to Ze’ev Rosenkranz, curator of the Einstein Archive of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the book The Einstein Scrapbookwhich contains correspondence and personal photographs of the physicist.
“I am deeply moved by the offer of our state of Israel and, at the same time, sad and embarrassed for not being able to accept it“Answered Einstein.
“Throughout my life, I dealt with objective issues, so I care about both natural aptitude and experience to properly deal with people and perform official functions,” he explained.
“Just for these reasons, I would be inappropriate to fulfill the duties of this high position. I am even more distressed by these circumstances because my relationship with the Jewish people It is my strongest human bondsince I became full awareness of our precarious situation between the nations of the world. ”
According to Alice Calaprice, author of several books about the scientist, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion was relieved with the refusal.
“He feared the frankness of Einstein in the face of policies that could go against their conscience, ”he wrote in An Einstein Encyclopedia.
The Prime Minister vented to his chief of staff, Yitzak navonwho would become president of Israel from 1978 to 1983: “Tell me what to do if he says ‘yes’. I had to offer him the position because It would be impossible not to offer. But if he accepts, We will have problems“.
Thus, Einstein did not accept being president of Israel – a position that would come at the time to be occupied by Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
