Why Einstein refused to be Israel’s president?

Prior to nominating Davi Ben Gourion to be Israeli president, the Zionist council approached Dr Albert Einstein for the job, which he turned down. Now we know why. It seems that one year before his death, Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize Winner, wrote a letter spelling out his beliefs. In the letter to be auctioned soon, Einstein wrote "For me, the Jewish religion like all other religions, is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. Addressing the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Einstein wrote that "the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them." Source: Foxnews.com, 13.05.06
Comment: One wonders what Einstein would have written seeing Israel controlling America and carrying out Nazi type atrocities.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

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Einstein was infallible like the Pope, for you, wasnt he, Adnan? No greater and no wiser man ever lived than Einstein? You seem to think so. He was even greater than Mohammed, isnt that so, Adnan?

If Einstein said it about the sex life of Gophers you would accept it as almost as true as the Koran. If Einstein said Rock and Roll was the only musice worth listening to, you would go with that. Einstein could not be wrong.

Since Einstein was not a practicing Jew he was still a Jew, eh? And as a Jew he was so much smarter than everybody, or was that just his genetics? Are Jews automatically superior, Adnan. Einstein was a jew, should we regard him as an authority on all subjects? What was his field, Adnan?

He was also a towering genius about flower arranging too? And was he a gifted Dancer as well? Wasnt there ANYTHING, Einstein wasnt an authority on?

How about religion? He was an authority about religion ? No? then why are you wasting our time?

he had an OPINION, Adnan. And his opinion was an opinion. What's your opinion worth? opinions are a lot like assholes, everybody has one. You just showed us yours.

Einstein's opinion was as good as Yolees, or mine, or yours. No more and no less.

In his field, Einstein was a genius. On religion he just had opinions.

Controlling America? And carrying out Nazi-like atrocities. Adnan, its because you are an Arab that you hold opinions like that. You are a cultural loser. And you know down deep that nothing in your culture will be worth a damn dime in another century.

And that's why you are so wiggy and whiny now.(Excited, eccentric, or crazy, especially in reaction to something:To complain or protest in a childish fashion.
To produce a sustained noise of relatively high pitch:), You can smell "loser" all over yourself. Its called being an Arab, Adnan. A whiny little Arab who cant compete.
take your Nazi atrocitys and suck it.

You wanted to humble America in blood? Good luck with that, camel turd.(A piece of excrement.)

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Einstein year
This year marks not only 50 years since the death of Albert Einstein (18 April, 1955) but, more importantly, 100 years since 1905 – the year in which he made three major separate contributions to the birth of modern physics. GEOFF JONES, below, describes his scientific impact while SENAN (page 24) reviews a recently published collection of the physicist’s political writings.

ALBERT EINSTEIN is the only physicist whose picture everyone recognises. But the image of Einstein that everyone recognises – the white-haired patriarch, brilliant but completely impractical; the Zionist who opposed the Israeli state; the pacifist who called for the building of the atomic bomb – is far from the truth.

A picture of Einstein in 1905 is very different – young, slightly dangerous looking, ready to dive headfirst into the physical and philosophical ferment of the start of the 20th century. After graduation, Einstein had refused to fit into the suffocating mould of academic life in German universities. Instead, he got a job in the Swiss patent office which gave him the space to do what he was best at – thinking. Einstein’s great strength was his ability to think through the physical basis of a problem before attempting to cast it into a theory.



Bohr stated categorically that causality – that one cause produces one unique effect – had to be thrown away and replaced by a statistical view of the world where only the probabilities have any meaning. Nothing exists ‘beneath’ the experimental results. Einstein refused to accept this with his famous saying: ‘The Good Lord does not play dice!’




A socialist scientist
Albert Einstein
Edited by Jim Green (part of the Rebel Lives series)
pacifism, nationalism and fascism; world government; human rights; the Jews and Israel; capitalism and socialism.

The collection includes Einstein’s famous ‘Why Socialism?’, which originally appeared in the first issue of the left publication, Monthly Review, in 1949. This article shows the scientist’s affiliation with socialism.


He is arguably the most-celebrated scientist of the last century, considered to be the most well-known person in the world. Yet his political life and opinions have been kept hidden. Furthermore, they have been twisted to serve the interests of capitalism. As Einstein said: "My opinion of the human race is high enough that I believe this bogey [patriotism and war] would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the peoples not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interest acting through the schools and the press". (The World As I See It, 1931)

Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879 to a middle-class family, he was educated in Munich and then Switzerland. Einstein rejected the authoritarian education system in Germany, and was unable to get into university. His first marriage was a struggle in poverty to support his family. Then 1905 changed everything. Academic acclaim and positions came once he had published his major works.

Science is not something extraordinary, and scientists are not superhuman. Science is also a social expression – a kind of art. Einstein seems to have understood its social role.

The year 1905 was a breakthrough in many aspects. Not only Einstein but also many scientists came with great discoveries and inventions. Prior to 1905, Isaac Newton’s laws dominated the scientific world. (Karl Marx expressed dissatisfaction with the rigid scientific explanations of his time.) Science needed more creative theories to enable humanity to understand the wealth of data available at this historical juncture.

Also, prior to that revolutionary year, the working class was going through massive changes all over Europe and the world. Einstein was affected by this mood of change.

The strong working-class movement at that time was involved in deep political and philosophical discussion on the need and possibility for social change.


Einstein was an anti-war scientist from the start, writing, "As long as sovereign nations possess great power war is inevitable". Before the first world war he was part of the Bund Neues Vaterland (New Fatherland League) which opposed the conflict. He also spoke out against the second world war.

In 1952 he refused an offer to become Israel’s president. He also refused an offer from Joseph Stalin to live in Russia. In Einstein’s reply to Stalin he asked why there was discrimination against scientists who were Jews. He consistently spoke in support of a world government and planned economy. This terrified the capitalist establishment.

Einstein changed his nationality according to his needs. Twice he denounced his German nationality and, by the time he died, had been a citizen of three countries. He was a member of Chinese, black and Asian associations. In 1933, Einstein and his second wife, Elsa, went to live in the US. While all new immigrants to the US were expected to be patriotic, he wrote: "And all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism – how passionately I hate them".

Many believe that Einstein is the father of the atomic bomb. On the contrary, he fought vehemently against its development. It is true that Einstein’s letter to US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, in 1939, kick-started the Manhattan project. However, he did not help to develop that project. In 1955, Bernard Russell and Einstein, together with many leading scientists, wrote a manifesto for nuclear disarmament. Einstein wrote: "I do not consider myself the father of the release of atomic energy. My part in it was quite indirect. I did not, in fact, foresee that it would be released in my time". (Atomic War or Peace, 1945)

He spoke on behalf of and helped many socialists. During the McCarthy era he fought against the witch-hunt. Senator Joseph McCarthy considered Einstein an enemy of America. The notorious head of the FBI, J Edgar Hoover, initiated an investigation which collected more than 2,000 pages of information on him. Many methods were used to try and discredit him, including attempts to prove his theories were bogus.

Despite all this, he continued to speak up for socialists and others condemned by the US administration’s authoritarian efforts. He argued for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 as spies. He protested against the arrest of Communist Party leaders. He was a good friend of left-wing activist and singer Paul Robeson.

In the 1950s he wrote to a friend that the "US is no longer a free country". He wrote: "If a visitor should come to this country from another planet, would he not find it strange that in this country so much power is permitted to private corporations without their having commensurate responsibility? I say this to stress that the US government must keep the control of atomic energy, not because socialism is necessarily desirable, but because atomic energy was developed by the government, and it would be unthinkable to turn over this property of the people to any individuals or groups of individuals". (Atomic War or Peace)