“This book gives a new….how do they say it….dimension to Einstein’s character.”
-- Thomas Pynchon
“Albert Einstein is all-too often depicted as a naif about politics; he was anything but that. He followed international and national politics assiduously, corresponded with leaders and ordinary people, and brought a passionate moral stance to the whole -- fighting anti-semitism, racism, fascism, and nationalism. In this volume, Fred Jerome has assembled a myriad of documents bearing on Einstein's views of Zionism. Telegrams, letters, magazine articles, interviews--all contribute to a dense and heartfelt analysis of what it would mean to avoid the pitfalls of dogmatic nationalism, and to create a Jewish homeland utterly respectful of Palestinian rights and equality. Of course Einstein's physics speaks to us still; astonishingly, we can still learn from his moral-political reflections.”
-- Peter Galison
Joseph Pellegrino University Professor
Harvard University
For more quotes go to Reviews
I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. …the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power….I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain – especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks…
-- Einstein speech in New York, 1938.
For more Einstein quotes go to About the Book
Einstein on Israel and Zionism focuses on correcting a widely accepted story – that Einstein was a major supporter, a “champion” of the state of Israel – a story told and retold primarily by the mainstream media.
While Einstein was a secular Jew and a Cultural Zionist – he supported the establishment of Jewish cultural centers within Palestine and elsewhere – he opposed the establishment of a Jewish state with borders and an army, and he never wavered from arguing forcefully for equal rights and equal power for the Arabs whom he called “kinfolk” of the Jews.
-- From the bookjacket