Why did Albert Einstein refuse to become president?

2022-10-03 19:44:18Histori SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Albert Einstein

Andrei Tapalaga – History of Yesterday

Albert Einstein, a genius in the field of physics, was also a politician who addressed important issues such as denouncing Nazism and supporting Israel.

His brilliant mind has found extraordinary solutions to improve relations in every part of the world, however, politicians have not approved his theories.

Because of the outcome of World War II for his people (the Jewish community), he felt the desire to protest himself as a Jew and take control of this community as well as the state of Israel.

Albert Einstein was an intellectual, he never wanted power, as the only power he sought was knowledge. Before immigrating to the United States in 1936, he was threatened with death by Hitler himself, so he knew he had no choice but to flee the country.

Politics in Israel after World War II

Most of the Jews who escaped the concentration camps at the end of World War II immigrated to Israel because they knew they would find safety and comfort despite the potential conflicts within Palestine. Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, was the one who convinced the US government to recognize the new state, being elected to office on February 16, 1949.

He fulfilled this duty until his death in 1952, when David Ben Gurion, the prime minister at the time, announced that he would nominate Albert Einstein for the role of president.

David Ben Gurion said that Albert Einstein was the greatest Jew in the world, therefore he should be President of Israel. On November 16, 1952, Gurion wrote a letter to the Israeli embassy in Washington.

The head of this embassy at the time was Abba Ebn, an acquaintance of Gurion's, who had asked him to find out if Einstein would be interested in becoming President of Israel. In this case, he would have to immediately immigrate to Israel to acquire his Israeli citizenship before officially becoming a candidate.

On November 18, 1952, Einstein wrote a letter directly to Gurion in which he stated for various reasons why he rejected this offer. In the letter he mentioned that he was deeply moved to receive this offer, but, at the same time, ashamed that he would not accept it.

His reason was that he devoted his whole life to science and had never held an official position, therefore he felt that his skills were not adequate for the role of President.

Here is the letter he wrote:

"I am deeply moved by the offer of the State of Israel and at the same time sad and ashamed because I cannot accept it. All my life I have had to deal with objective things, so I lack both the natural ability and the experience to exercise official duties.

Only considering these reasons, I am not the right one to perform the official duties.

I am all the more saddened by these circumstances as my relationship with the Jewish people has become the strongest human bond I have since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world."

However, it has long been speculated that the reason for the rejection was due to the physicist's doubt about the territorial separation of the Jews from the Arabs. Albert Einstein was a pacifist, and in that sense, his vision would be different from that of the people he should have led.

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