13 Mar
2007 April-May, Arts & Culture

Einstein and His God

At home in Berlin in April 1929, Albert Einstein received an urgent telegram from Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein of New York: “Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid 50 words.” Boston Archbishop William Henry Cardinal O’Connell had derided Einstein’s famous relativity theories as “befogged speculation” conjuring “the ghastly apparition of Atheism.” An alarmed Goldstein sought to douse these rhetorical flames with reassurance from the great man himself. "I believe in Spinoza’s God,” Einstein wired back, “Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.” The rabbi might have saved himself a little money; in the end, Einstein’s reply in the original German used only 25 words. Einstein often saved ink by referring this way—a sort of philisophical shorthand—to Benedict (Baruch)...

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13 Mar
2007 April-May, Issues

Was Einstein a Jewish Saint?

As usual, Albert Einstein hadn’t dressed for the occasion. Most of the 40 or so young men waiting for him that Friday night in January at Princeton’s Murray-Dodge Hall sported the “college man’s” uniform of 1947—their best tweed sport coats and shined loafers. But their guest of honor, when he finally showed up, was wearing a baggy sweatshirt, soft-soled slippers and no socks. Einstein padded to the front of the room to give a short talk—not about the theory of relativity, special or general, or even the unified field theory he was currently working on at the nearby Institute for Advanced Study. Rather, Einstein had a few words to share about the importance of identifying as a Jew. He “stressed that it was important for Jews to be part of a Jewish community,” a student would later...

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08 Feb
2007 August-September, Arts & Culture

Bell Man

One of the last in a lineage of great Jewish violinists, this “farm boy” of the American heartland drives a Porsche and plays the world’s most famous “Jewish” violin. Joshua Bell’s tall frame tilts sideways on the sleek gray banquette of the Tamarind Tea Room, a tiny, elegant cafe near his loft in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. At the moment, Bell looks more jaded rock star than emotive violin virtuoso. He’s wearing a green thermal shirt and jeans and he seems sleepy, with a bit of bedhead in his trademark bangs. “Their teas are really good,” he offers softly, pouring himself chai from an earthenware Japanese teapot. I ask if he’s jet-lagged, knowing that he’s on the road 200 days a year performing at sold-out concerts. Bell, 39, begins to explain that, yes, he’s been “crashing” at home...

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04 Oct
2010 March-April, In the News, Israel, U.S. Politics

The Man on J Street: The Story of Jeremy Ben-Ami

The new “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby has created a storm in the Jewish world: Some credit it with opening a much-needed debate on American Middle East policy, and others accuse it of playing into the hands of Israel’s enemies. Moment tells the story of the group’s rise and of its founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami, son of an Irgun member.

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11 Dec
Latest

Donor's Woes Inducing Breach Birth(right)?

By Mandy Katz Birthright may have to cut back on the inspirational Israel tours it hosts for Jewish American teens, the Forward reports. A drop in the fortunes of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation threatens the financial viability of its majority stockholder, Sheldon Adelson, a major Birthright donor who last year was the world's richest Jew, according to Forbes. (His ranking has since slipped.) Birthright's officers contend Adelson will come through on his outstanding $20-million pledge to support this summer's tours. But if he doesn't, insiders told the Forward, participant numbers could fall from 25,000 to 5,000. Fertilizing not just the fields of Israel advocacy, Adelson in recent years has also spread his wealth in GOP funding circles, most notably by sinking at least $30 million into a now-collapsing advocacy group called Freedom's Watch. (That's where Ari Fleischer...

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10 Dec
History, Latest

Impresario for the Lost Voices of Theresienstadt

By Mandy Katz Perhaps an apt follow-up to my post Monday about a journey from the Holocaust to the Ivy League? Yesterday's Washington Post carries an inspiring obituary for 82-year-old violinist Joza Karas, one of the Christian righteous. If not already officially recognized at Yad Vashem, he should be, for dedicating much of his life to preserving the music of Theresienstadt. Many musicians and composers were among the 140,000 Jews interned at the the Nazi camp in Czech territory, where prisoners defied the machinery of death by forming orchestras and choirs, and staging plays and concerts and art exhibitions. Most of them eventually died, though: 33,000 on site, from starvation and illness, and another 90,000 after being deported to Auschwitz and elsewhere. Karas was born in Warsaw, the son of a Czech official who fought with the resistance...

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08 Dec
Archives from the past..., History, Latest

College Admissions? Of Buchenwald and Princeton

By Mandy Katz Some of his Frankfurt gymnasium teachers ended up in Buchenwald, my Tel Aviv correspondent Ernest Stock writes, but he ended up graduating from Princeton in 1949. God bless the G.I. Bill. Now a retired journalist, Ernie offers this unconventional college memoir on the website of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Having escaped the Nazis at 14 by trekking with his little sister into Spain from occupied France, Ernie was drafted into the U.S. military in 1943. On demobilizing, he scored high enough on the Army's college entrance exam to matriculate as a sophomore at Princeton in '46, at a time when that august institution admitted roughly 25 Jews each year under an unspoken "no-quota" quota system. Ernie played a central role in engineering the first meetings between Princeton's tweedy Jewish undergrads and local notable Albert Einstein....

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20 Nov
Arts & Culture, Latest

Israel Phil and Zippity Dudamel

By Mandy Katz The Israel Philharmonic must be the most relaxed symphony orchestra in the world. Really, some of these musicians literally lean back in their chairs while they play. Others sway, and I caught a trombone player whispering with the timpani guy at one point. (Those guys in the back have some really loooooong rests.) And the resulting sound? Gorgeous. So in sync was the ensemble — performing Mendelssohn and Brahms for a packed house Tuesday night at Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — that they gave the impression of playing just for the joy of it in somebody's (very large) living room. In the familiar "Italian" symphony by Mendelssohn, especially, it seemed the conductor could have walked off stage and the orchestra contentedly continued on their own. That's not to discount the influence of this...

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