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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.

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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.”

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