EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Typed letter signed ("A. Einstein") to Changsoon Kim, Princeton, 13 February 1945.

One page, 214 x 278mm., on Institute for Advanced Study letterhead (lightly toned with mailing folds, pinholes at the corners, stains from a staple at upper-left).

Respectfully declining an offer to chair the Honorary Scholars Committee of the Korean American Cultural Association. In response to a prior letter from his correspondent, Einstein writes that he feels "not justified to accept the chairmanship...but I shall gladly be willing to become a member of it". The Korean American Cultural Association, founded by Dr. Kim in 1939 and based in Honolulu since 1940, undertook a variety of activities on the dissemination of information about Korea, including the establishment of numerous scholarships. However, while the organization declared itself to be non-political, the KACA did vouch for cultural progressiveness, and many of its higher members occupied left-of-center positions. This led to the FBI holding a five-hundred-page file on Kim's suspected communist connections until 1952. Einstein was also under FBI investigation for his activist views, and his involvement with the KACA's Honorary Scholars Committee was reported by an informant, according to declassified documents.