Einstein Letter Sells For $14,000

A letter from Albert Einstein to a Jewish businessman in New York has sold for big bucks at auction.

Einstein wrote the letter to Hyman Zinn on June 10, 1939 to laud his efforts to help Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The letter sold for $14,000 at a West Los Angeles auction house.

“We [Jews] have no other means of self-defense than our solidarity and our knowledge that the cause for which we are suffering is a momentous and sacred cause,” Einstein wrote.

Comments

[DAE]

08:00 PM on 10/18/2011

It must be remembered that after the War Einstein wanted Israel to be a secular state with equal rights for both Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

[Rabbi Michael M Cohen]

01:26 PM on 10/17/2011

Actually Einstein was the poster child for Zionism most of his life. That is not to say he had his own critique of Zionism. For further exploration of this and other issues about Einstein read Einstein's Rabbi: A Story of Science and the Soul www.eainsteinsrabbi.com

[DAE]

08:05 PM on 10/18/2011

He was actually a great critic of the type of Zionism practiced by Israel after its establishment. Read, Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East by Fred Jerome http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Israel-Zionism-Provocative-Middle/dp/B0048EL87S/ref

[Varys]

01:04 AM on 10/17/2011

And then there's this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/15/peopleinscience.controversiesinscience

[Seawolf56]

11:30 AM on 10/16/2011

Einstein was a brilliant man and very anti ZIONIST. Like I said brilliant

[Json]

07:09 PM on 10/13/2011

'i' before 'e', except after 'c'. Einstein screwed it up twice.Some genius!

Lighten up, everyone. :)

[NunyaBus99]

11:19 PM on 10/16/2011

Actually that is an English exception not a German one. :) So no screw up. lol

[ZMP]

12:57 PM on 10/13/2011

favorite one

[methodman]

10:01 AM on 10/13/2011

I am in the midst of reading "Albert Einstein" The World as I see it. Citidel Press. It is a published series of his letters between 1914 and 1933 and I believe his thoughts concerning Jews are published in this book.

[MIKEinNYC]

08:15 AM on 10/13/2011

It's not the content, it's that it's from Einstein. If it was a menu or a credit card receipt, or a cancelled check or anything signed by The Man it'd sell for big bucks.

You don't have to be an Einstein to figure that out.

[phyrro]

02:24 AM on 10/13/2011

Why is this a big story?. Babe Ruth's autograph sells for a lot more than that. A piece of toast with the supposed image of the Virgin Mary sold for twice that. If there is any story here at all it is why do we value a baseball icon's signature or a piece of toast more than a letter by a true genius?. Of course I think paying for any memento is ridiculus.

[oldharleyguy]

12:51 AM on 10/13/2011

much like kurt vonnegut, i believe albert einstein was a "humanist".

[Jeff Rosenbury]

07:28 AM on 10/17/2011

I have no idea what that means or why you believe it. Was he a religious humanist? He certainly seems to have had faith in God.

[Realrelief01]

12:42 AM on 10/13/2011

I wonder how much the Solyndra laon papers with President Obama's signiture will go for?

[darkmark]

01:34 AM on 10/13/2011

no more than the papers with cheney and bushes names on them. wake up.

[rsgreyfox1]

02:18 AM on 10/13/2011

Darkmark...
Excellent retort.

[rsgreyfox1]

01:46 AM on 10/13/2011

The limited mentality always has to incite and make everything political right???
Not enough political boards to fill your needs???
Does it make you feel important ..sparky?

[godsgifttonature]

11:51 PM on 10/12/2011

Wrong goofballs, Einstein knew that the universe was created by GOD but believed God abandoned it and did not govern in the lives of humans. His scientific research has led him to this conclusion. However it doesn't take a genius scientist to know that the universe was created by God only common sense!

However this letter seems to change his stance on that with the holocaust/Nazi regime happening to his people. He seems to believe something higher is happening here.

[TheCycad]

12:49 AM on 10/13/2011

Wrong.

[darkmark]

01:36 AM on 10/13/2011

dogsgifttonature still locked up in that angry god stuff.

[ResistImperialism]

11:24 PM on 10/12/2011

Thats interesting, because Einstein later regretted Zionism and did not want to support the idea of Israel, and what it would mean to the indigenous population of Palestine.

[myopinion2]

12:27 PM on 10/13/2011

Completely untrue. He spoke out against the Irgun and Stern gang, but remained a supporter of Israel.

[GraphicMatt]

12:44 PM on 10/13/2011

This article isn't about Israel or Zionism though. You do know that not all Jews are Israeli or Zionists right?

[Jake Thomas]

04:01 AM on 10/14/2011

What? Are you kidding? This is like six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I suppose the next thing out of your mouth is going to be is that some Jews don't eat Kosher.

[jimall3]

10:40 PM on 10/12/2011

Ahhhh! Another piece of the puzzle. In exchange for working on the development of Nuclear weapons, Einsteen traded with the USA to arm Israel and help it become a Jewish religious state.

God.

[myopinion2]

12:28 PM on 10/13/2011

Brought to you by the fabricator of fractered fairy tales.

[fworfe]

09:45 PM on 10/12/2011

It has been said that Albert Einstein was agnostic if not atheistic, but some of his statements do not bear that out.
And the letter excerpt in this article would seem to belie agnosticism as well.
Considering the profundity and scope of Einstein's mind, I've always been mystified by this question.
Anyone have an authoritative, more conclusive source or comment on this?

[Ed Baggett]

10:29 PM on 10/12/2011

So what....what difference would it make whether he's a believer or non-believer ? Maybe genius IQ's prefer not to believe, because they know religion is nonsense.....

[jimall3]

10:42 PM on 10/12/2011

He was no more an atheist than Simon Weisenthal in that he sees Jews as a race of people who are apart from the general population and that it should remain that way. He may not have believed in God be sure believed in the enthnocentrism of his race. Clearly. He put it in writing!