(Physicist and Noble Prize winner. 1879-1955). Typed Letter Signed, in German to Chaim Tchernowitz

EINSTEIN, ALBERT

18th September

Princeton

1939

In support of Tchernowitz’s Hebrew journal, Bitzaron. “Fostering the spirit and educating to moral responsibility are the eternal goal of Jewish striving. May your publication contribute to this - reviving Jewish tradition and spreading new light.”

See EJ, Vol. XV, col. 884 (illustration of Chaim Tchernowitz together with Albert Einstein)

Prof. Chaim Tchernowitz (1871-1949) was a somewhat unique mixture of the old and the new. In his earliest incarnation, he officiated as rabbi of Odessa, a city with decidedly modernist leanings. In that capacity, he implemented an “eiruv” to permit carrying on the Sabbath, to which end he published a lengthy responsum complete with a map of the city. In Odessa, he also served as “rosh yeshivah” of a progressivist institution, whose faculty included the rabbinic scholar Simcha Assaf (Osofsky), the historian Prof. Joseph Klausner, the poet Chaim Nachman Bialik, and others. It was in his next, German phase, that Tchernowitz befriended world-famous physicist Prof. Albert Einstein. In his memoirs, Tchernowitz recalls his first sight of the genius Einstein on his balcony “pacing back and forth like a caged lion, rapt in thought.” in his final, American phase, Tchernowitz, settled in New York, becoming the “brains” of the Jewish Institute of Religion. Under the pseudonym “Rav Tza’ir” (Young Rabbi), Tchernowitz penned major studies of the historical development of Jewish law, “Toldot ha-Halacha” and “Toldot ha-Poskim,” which though flawed, won the recognition of the scholars of the day. In 1940 Tchernowitz founded the Hebrew periodical Bitzaron