Albert Einstein with The Institute for background.gardenstatelegacy.com/files/Its_All_Relative_Forgosh_GSL... · 2017-03-11 · of relativity. Einstein, who was on a lecture tour

It’s All Relative | Linda B. Forgosh www.GardenStateLegacy.com Issue 35 March 2017

Albert Einstein with The Institute forAdvanced Study's Fuld Hall in thebackground. Photo by Alan Richard

On March 11, 1944, flags in Newark, New Jersey, werelowered to half-mast to mark the passing of “firstcitizen,” and “adopted son,” Louis Bamberger, one of

America’s great merchant princes. Bamberger, founder andowner of L. Bamberger & Co., New Jersey’s largestdepartment store, had died peacefully in his sleep at ageeighty-eight. The next morning, a private service was heldfor family and close friends at Bamberger’s home in South

Orange. Among those present was AlbertEinstein, who had become friendly withBamberger after joining the faculty of theInstitute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton,an institution created and wholly funded byBamberger.

The newly established institute had gotten offto a good start by offering the position of headmathematician for its School of Mathematics tothe world-renown scientist, whose acceptance ofthe post brought him to Princeton in 1933 wherehe remained until his death in 1955. From themoment Albert Einstein set foot on the campus ofthe newly established institute (October 17, 1933)both the Institute’s and Princeton’s place in thehistory of post-doctoral education were secured.

Thus begins the story of how world’s most famous scientist,Albert Einstein and department store owner, Louis Bambergerbecame fast friends.

Einstein was no stranger to Princeton. In 1921, the year hewas awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, he visited theuniversity’s campus for three days to accept an honorarydegree and to deliver five Stafford Little lectures on the theoryof relativity. Einstein, who was on a lecture tour of the UnitedStates to raise funds for the Jewish National Fund, had takentime out of his busy schedule to make the trip to Princeton.Among those contributing funds to sponsor Einstein’s lecturetour, but did not attend, was Louis Bamberger.

A certificate of incorporation for the Institute forAdvanced Study was issued May 20, 1930. In establishingthe principles which the IAS was to be founded, Bambergertold each trustee that “no account shall be taken, directly orindirectly, of race, religion, or sex” when determining offersfor positions at the institute. This was social justice in itspurest form and as such may have been the deciding factorin Einstein’s accepting a faculty position with them.

On October 10, 1932, the trustees of the IAS formallyapproved director Abraham Flexner’s recommendation thatEinstein be appointed its first professor of mathematics. Thestatement released to the press the following day commanded


The Institute for Advanced Study's Fuld Hall

more interest than was usually accorded an educationalinstitution, primarily because of Einstein’s name. He was, afterall, the most recognizable face of the 20th century.

News of Einstein’s appointment to the Institute reachedCambridge, Massachusetts, creating a firestorm ofcontroversy surrounding Einstein’s request for a visa to enterthe United States. A group known as the Woman PatriotCorporation in Brookline, Massachusetts, passed a

resolution opposed to the entrance of Einstein intothe United States on the grounds that he was aCommunist and a dangerous alien. The New YorkTimes poked fun at the group for suggesting that theIAS officers, including Louis Bamberger, be indictedfor conspiracy and high treason. Einstein got his visathrough the efforts of Harvard professor, FelixFrankfurter, and the Woman Patriot Corporation’sresolution was labeled “silly” by the United StatesVeterans Association. In 1935, Einstein was grantedpermanent residency in his adopted country andbecame an American citizen a few years later.

Albert and Elsa Einstein arrived in Princeton onOctober 17, 1933 after sneaking past a well-publicized reception to welcome him as he debarkedfrom his ship. Einstein had enormous fear of thecrowds that followed him everywhere he went. An

idea was hatched to slip past the committee of anti-Naziorganizer Samuel Untermeyer as well as New York’s MayorO’Brien and go directly by tug to Quarantine, and then on toPrinceton to start work the following day—one of history’s“great escapes.”

Despite the agreement Einstein made with the IAS tobecome its head mathematician, it was not easy to get himto break with Europe. The New York Times reported that“Professor Einstein has accepted professorships in Madrid,Paris, Brussels, Leyden, and Oxford. The only institution notactually mentioned was the Institute for Advanced Study.”This idea of splitting his teaching time was not new toEinstein. From 1930–1933 he went back and forth fromGermany to California to work part-time at the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology. This arrangement may have suitedEinstein but it was problematic for the IAS’ director, AbrahamFlexner, who insisted that Einstein give up his part-timeteaching position at the California Institute of Technology todevote his energies to help build the IAS’ reputation as oneof the world’s foremost research centers. Whatever plansEinstein had to keep his teaching options open—Princetonand/or CalTech—they were dashed when he learned of theappointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, at


From the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center,Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA

which time he declared he would no longer return toGermany. And he never did.

Enter Louis Bamberger. Dealing with Einstein was achallenge for Louis and his sister, Carrie Fuld, who becameinvolved in plans to accommodate Einstein’s well-knownerratic and absentminded behavior. The first plan to host theEinstein’s as guests in their home in South Orange went awrywhen the Einsteins decided to go directly to New York City, staythe night, and then board the ship for one of their last trips

abroad! Bamberger, who was inArizona—he rarely spent time incold weather climates—instructedhis housekeeper to “cater to theEinstein’s and that a car would beon hand with a chauffeur so theycould go to and from to New York oranywhere they like.” Acts ofkindness were typical ofBamberger’s way of establishingrelationships with those headmired.Nothing changed for Einstein. He

still continued to receive multipleoffers from research institutionsand universities from all over the

world. Israel even offered to make him their country’spresident. The question then becomes why did Einsteinselect Princeton and the IAS as an ideal place for him toconduct his research? For some, the reason Einstein settledon Princeton was due to the strength of his relationship withBamberger whom he knew from numerous Jewish andZionist organizations.

We can even date the year that Bamberger and Einsteinfirst became acquainted—1925. Bamberger was seventy-eight years old and Einstein was fifty when the two hadagreed to serve on the faculty of Hebrew University inJerusalem and to chair the creation of their academiccouncil. University officials looked to prominent AmericanJews to fund its operations. Bamberger donated $100,000and his partner, Felix Fuld, gave $50,000. Bamberger wasthen credited as the donor of Hebrew University’s Institute ofOriental Studies. He and Einstein served on the board of theAmerican Friends of the Hebrew University which had officesin New York City. Both their names are on the organization’sletterhead.

Worth exploring is the question what did the two menhave in common that would be the basis of a friendship.Simply put—everything.


Bamberger and Einstein were both German Jews.Bamberger’s family came from the German province ofBavaria; Einstein was born in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany.Einstein spoke German and halting English; Bamberger grewup in a German-speaking household but rarely spoke it.Whenever the IAS director wanted to be sure that Einsteinunderstood the important points of his employment, he senthis paperwork in English and German to avoid anymisunderstandings. Bamberger’s library at home contained

books written solely in English.When Einstein settled in Princeton he

was a refugee staying one step ahead of theNazi onslaught and was subject to reportsof attempts to assassinate him. Einsteindescribed himself as a “man without ahome.” Bamberger made it his business tobring his and his business partner FelixFuld’s German relatives over from Germany.He arranged for visas, got them settled,provided comfortable housing, and thengave them jobs at his store.

Einstein became an avowed and veryvocal pacifist. He never missed an

opportunity to have his political views made known. He wasby all definition, a public figure whether he wanted it or not.When he spoke about his opposition to war, the impendingNazi takeover of Germany, he did it as the world’s mostfamous scientist thereby making his every appearancenewsworthy. He spoke out in support of Jewish refugeeslocked in Europe with no means of escape.

Bamberger, in turn, served on committees, donatedsubstantial monies for displaced, needy German Jews, andpromoted efforts for Jewish War Relief. He and Einstein lenttheir names of Jewish causes, including the United JewishAppeal, for the right of the Jewish people to have a homelandin Palestine, and served together on the committee thatestablished Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Bamberger had learned compassion for his fellow manfrom his parents. Both of his parents openly supportedabolition which, during the Civil War, forced them to fleeBaltimore to avoid threats being made on their lives. Einsteinhad a similar experience. He, too, was dogged by Nazisoldiers who physically threatened to kill him. A rareinterview with Einstein’s wife, Elsa, tells a story of a womanwho knocked on the door of Einstein’s summer home inCaputh, waving a gun and demanding to know whereEinstein was. The police were alerted and were waiting atEinstein’s door the next day to intercept her before she had a


chance to shoot him.Both men were exposed to traditional Judaism. Some

labeled Einstein as a secular Jew. Bamberger’s family couldbe labeled as Reform Jews. Both men appear to havethought about religion but were content to leave it alone.

Instead, the two were members of the Ethical CultureSociety which, by definition, is a religion centered on ethics,not theology, whose mission is to encourage respect forhumanity and nature and to create a better world. Its

philosophy was more in keeping with the ideaof social justice for all men (and women)which is what Bamberger cited as his reasonfor endowing the IAS. Bamberger’s advocacyfor civil rights, gender equality, and socialjustice was decades ahead of its time. It isinteresting to note that both Einstein andBamberger were members of the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of ColoredPeople in the mid-1940s having seen theparallels between the treatment of Jews inGermany and African-Americans in theUnited States. In 1941, Bamberger wrote acheck for $1,000 and gave it to the head ofNewark’s NAACP for the purpose of retiring

the group’s mortgage on its building.Another reason Einstein and Bamberger got along was

due to the fact that both were original thinkers. Einstein wasclearly the “brains” in the mix. However, Bamberger exhibitedhis interest in science when he gave Newark Museum acollection of mechanical movements to explain basicscientific phenomena and made sure that his store wasstocked with modern labor-saving devices such as washingmachines and dishwashers. This subject of a dishwashercame up after Bamberger had passed away and a delegationfrom the Institute paid a visit to his home in search of gardentools, which were scarce during WWII, and a dishwasherwhich they wanted to commandeer for the institute’s ownkitchen. Even they were surprised that the Bamberger’sdidn’t have a dishwasher, but then again, they had two full-time housekeepers, full-time chauffeur, and a staff ofgroundskeepers that had homes on the Bamberger estate tokeep things in working order.

Where they differed was with their domesticarrangements. Louis Bamberger was an avowed bachelorwho led a very private life. He lived with his sister Carolineand her husband, Felix Fuld, in a modest Georgian brickhome on a quiet street in South Orange, New Jersey.His 35-acre estate was surrounded by a wrought-iron fence


The original IAS Board of TrusteesFrom the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center,

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA

with a guard posted at the entrance to his home to assurehis privacy. This guard house is all that is left to remind us ofBamberger’s one-time estate.

Einstein had his fair share of romances and marriages,had three children, a daughter and two sons, and even afterhis divorce from his first wife and subsequent marriage tohis cousin Elsa Lowenthal, whom Einstein wed during thesame year of his divorce, he continued to see other womenthroughout his second marriage, which ended withLowenthal’s death in 1936.

Unlike Einstein, another thing that set Louis apart was hisability to be a good negotiator. He was a well-respectedmerchant who knew how to promote his business. WhenEinstein was offered $3,000 to assume his post at the IAS,Bamberger would hear none of it. He knew Einstein’s fellowscientists were receiving $15,000 for their efforts and knewenough about human nature that once his “star” got news ofthe income disparity, no good would come of it.

Einstein was famous for being absent-minded andhaving little interest in acquiring wealth, which for someoneas famous as he, would have been easy to do. He wascontinuously besieged by requests to use his name. Howabout the offer to name a brand of cigars for him—Einstein’sRelativity Cigars? We know that Bamberger spent his entirecareer looking at his store’s bottom line. This made sense. Aretail business that makes a profit can hire employees andpromote its goods and thereby fuel the economy. Neitherwas interested in money for money’s sake. InsteadBamberger used his wealth to found and fund the socialservice agencies and institutions that he felt would better thelives of Newark’s residents and beyond.

However, Einstein went to the extreme when it came tokeeping an eye on his finances. He left balancing thehousehold budget to his wife, Elsa. She knew her customerand periodically would open Einstein’s books knowing thatshe would find checks given to him for his speakingengagements. Bamberger knew this and made it hisbusiness to keep an eye on Einstein’s income from theinstitute. It was Bamberger who devised the institute’s policyfor salaries paid to its workers and pensions for its retirees.The IAS had a mandatory retirement age of 65. That figureapplied to everybody but Einstein and one other professor,Oswald Veblen. They could work until 70. Bamberger stillwasn’t happy with the terms so issued instructions thatEinstein could work for as long as he wanted and even ifBamberger were not alive, would receive the same benefitsgoing forward.

In the end, and saving the best for last, what really bound


Einstein wasfamous for being

absent-mindedand having little

interest inacquiringwealth...

Bamberger knewthis and made it

his business tokeep an eye on

Einstein’s incomefrom the institute

them together was their mutual love of music. Einstein wasfamous for playing the violin which, when asked to play, did sowith great enthusiasm. Numerous photographs show Einsteincarrying his violin. He played it at fund raising dinners to raisemoney for German scientists who were struggling to get outof Nazi Germany. He also held on to it “for dear life” as it wasnot unusual to have some Einstein enthusiast lunge at him tograb it. This was a man who had paid dearly for reconfiguringthe way scientists, through his Theory of Relativity, thoughtabout the way the universe operated.

For Bamberger, music (classical music) was somethingto be appreciated and shared. At home he listened toconcerts broadcast from Carnegie Hall over his state-of-the-art Capehart radio. At the forefront of radio technology,Bamberger founded and funded the first radio station in anAmerican department store, WOR. At Bamberger’s request,WOR played concert music on its station. He also kept boxseats at Carnegie Hall, the New York Metropolitan Opera, andthe New York Philharmonic. Much to the audience’s delight,the Einstein’s, who were regularly invited to join him, got athrill from seeing the great scientist seated in Bamberger’sbox while he kept time with the music.

It is hard to imagine that two men so enmeshed in thepublic spotlight wouldn’t want to disentangle themselvesfrom the constant attention each received. Bamberger wasdescribed as “a legend in his time,” while Einstein continuedto wonder “why is it that nobody understands me andeverybody likes me?”

Bamberger lived to age eighty-eight; Einstein died atseventy-six. Both men appeared to be philosophical aboutdeath. After suffering a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm,Einstein refused treatment arguing that he wanted to end hislife “elegantly.” Bamberger retreated from the public eye andspent his final days seated in his favorite chair, blanket on hisknees, waiting for family members to drop by. He went tobed one evening claiming he had a cold and the followingmorning was discovered by his housekeeper who alertedMrs. Fuld that her brother had died.

Both had rejected the idea of any public accolades tomark their passing. No headstones and no publicmonuments. Instead Albert Einstein and Louis Bambergerchose to be cremated.

For those who might be tempted to spend a day visitingthe Institute’s campus the address is appropriately 1Einstein Drive. It is here that memories of Louis Bambergerand his remarkable philanthropic legacy come alive.


Einstein wasfamous forplaying theviolin...He

played it at fundraising dinners to

raise money forGerman scientists

who werestruggling to get

out of NaziGermany.

Documents

Albert Einstein with The Institute for background.gardenstatelegacy.com/files/Its_All_Relative_Forgosh_GSL... · 2017-03-11 · of relativity. Einstein, who was on a lecture tour