Einstein Letters On Israel And God Hit Auction Block
Image by getty images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Five letters written by Albert Einstein to quantum physicist David Bohm covering topics including God, McCarthyism and the new state of Israel will be auctioned off next week.
The letters will be sold in a live auction with participation online by the Winner’s auction house in Jerusalem.
They were put up for sale by the estate of David Bohm’s widow, who died a year ago. The letters were written between 1951 and 1954, are in good shape, and were personally signed by Einstein. The bidding for at least one of the letters opens at $8,000. The entire collection is expected to sell for about $20,000.
Bohm was working at the University of Sao Paulo, and living in Brazil in 1951, where he fled after refusing to testify about his alleged links to the Communist Party to the House Un-American Activities Committee. He told Einstein, who he met when they were both working at Princeton, how unhappy he was in Brazil.
“Israel is intellectually active and interesting but has very narrow possibilities,” Einstein wrote. “And to go there with the intention to leave on the first occasion would be regrettable.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
