THE SUDDENLY FAMOUS DOCTOR EINSTEIN 315identity, after science, was to be a Jew, increasingly so as the years went by. That
allegiance carried no religious connotation. In 1924 he did become a dues-paying
member of a Jewish congregation in Berlin, but only as an act of solidarity. Zion-
ism to him was above all else a form of striving for the dignity of the individual.
He never joined the Zionist organization.
There was one person who more than anyone else contributed to Einstein's
awakening: Kurt Blumenfeld, from 1910 to 1914 secretary general of the Exec-
utive of World Zionist Organizations, which then had its seat in Berlin, and from
1924 to 1933 president of the Union of German Zionists. Ben Gurion called him
the greatest moral revolutionary in the Zionist movement. He belonged to the
seventh generation of emancipated German Jewry. In a beautiful essay, Blumen-
feld has written of his discussions with Einstein in 1919, of his efforts 'to try to
get out of a man what is hidden in him, and never to try to instill in a man what
is not in his nature' [B3]. It was Blumenfeld whom Einstein often entrusted in
later years with the preparation of statements in his name on Zionist issues. It
was also Blumenfeld who was able to convince Einstein that he ought to join
Weizmann on a visit to the United States (April 2-May 30, 1921) in order to
raise funds for the planned Hebrew University. Blumenfeld understood the man
he was dealing with. After having convinced Einstein, he wrote to Weizmann, 'As
you know, Einstein is no Zionist, and I beg you not to make any attempt to prevail
on him to join our organization.... I heard. .. that you expect Einstein to give
speeches. Please be quite careful with that. Einstein ... often says things out of
naivete which are unwelcome to us' [B4].* As to his relations with Weizmann,
Einstein once said to me, 'Meine Beziehungen zu dem Weizmann waren, wie der
Freud sagt, ambivalent.'**
The extraordinary complexity of Einstein's life in the 1920s begins to unfold,
the changes in midlife are becoming clear. Man of research, scientific administra-
tor, guest professor, active pacifist, spokesman for a moral Zionism, fund-raiser
in America. Claimed by the German establishment as one of their most prominent
members, though nominally he is Swiss.f Suspected by the establishment because
of his pacifism. Target for anti-Semitism from the right. Irritant to the German
assimilationist Jews because he'would not keep quiet about Jewish self-expres-
sion. It is not very surprising that under these circumstances Einstein occasionally
experienced difficulty in maintaining perspective, as two examples may illustrate.
One of these concerns the 1920 disturbances, the other the League of Nations.
On February 12, 1920, disturbances broke out in the course of a lecture given
by Einstein at the University of Berlin. The official reason given afterward was
that there were too few seats to accommodate everyone. In a statement to the press,
Einstein noted that there was a certain hostility directed against him which was
*Part of this letter (dated incorrectly) is reproduced in [B3J. The full text is in [B5J.
**As F. would say, my relations to W. were ambivalent.
f See especially the events surrounding the awarding of the Nobel prize to Einstein, Chapter 30.