Albert Einstein. 3 June 1934

Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Typed letter signed (‘A. Einstein’) to Hugo Bergmann, The Studio Cottage, Watch Hill, Rhode Island, 3 June 1934.

In German. One page, 278 x 216mm (paper clip stain at upper margin). With Einstein’s typed enclosure and a retained carbon copy of Bergman’s response. Provenance: by descent from Hugo Bergmann.

Proposals to save the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein encloses a highly confidential excerpt from a letter he has sent to [Raymond] Klibansky in London, whose contents may not be shared with anyone other than Bergmann’s colleagues Adler, Feketer and Epstein. The excerpt contains Einstein’s proposal that the academic affairs of the Hebrew University be entrusted to a committee comprising Bergmann and his three colleagues, which, if approved by the University Senate, will place the university’s recovery in their hands. ‘Hopefully … you will muster the tenacity and energy which are necessary to break ingrained and damaging positions of power and to bring about a healthy and joyful spirit in the University. In the future it should never again occur that capable young people are exploited by their superiors or that really valuable strengths are driven away’. Einstein also anticipates that the proposed reforms will resolve the chronic financial difficulties of the University, which are ‘most due to a legitimate lack of trust’.

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