Albert Einstein said his “life is divided between equations and politics.” Yet his views on Israel and Zionism were concealed and distorted for decades. Fred Jerome disproves the widely promoted story that Einstein was a “champion” of the State of Israel.
A secular Jew, Einstein had mixed feelings about Zionism. Targeted by Germany’s virulent antisemitism, he supported the goal of a Jewish “homeland” in Palestine—or elsewhere. But he also demanded equal rights and equal power for Palestinian Arabs. He envisioned a nonreligious state, home to Jews and Palestinians alike.
Drawing exhaustively from letters and statements, some of which had never before appeared in English, Fred Jerome presents and contextualizes Einstein’s writings on Palestine from 1919 until his death in 1955.
Had the warnings of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers been heeded, generations of death and destruction in Palestine might have been avoided.
NEW TO THIS EDITION
Fred Jerome reveals details of the 1948 Stern Gang assassination of the UN Security Council Peacemaker, Count Bernadotte.
Fred Jerome (1939-2020) was a journalist, science writer, activist, and author of several books including The Einstein File, The FBI’s Secret War on the World’s Most Famous Scientist (Baraka Books, 2018) and Einstein on Race and Racism. His investigative reports or op-ed pieces appeared in dozens of publications including Newsweek, The New York Times and The Link. As a reporter in the South during the early 1960s, he covered the explosive civil rights movement. He also taught at Columbia Journalism School, NYU and numerous other New York-area Universities.
Reviews and Praise
“Adds a new . . . how do they say it . . . dimension to Einstein's character.” Thomas Pynchon
“Fred Jerome’s Einstein on Israel and Zionism is a valuable and timely contribution. Einstein’s views of Zionisme were prescient.” Sivan S. Schweber, Author of Einstein and Oppenheimer and In the Shadow of the Bomb
“Reading the newly revealed correspondence in Fred Jerome’s book makes it clear that Einstein was a social commentator and humanitarian with a worldview worthy of his scientific genius. It’s a pity that the Zionist movement as embodied in the State of Israel took a direction so divergent from the path advocated by the Jewish people’s greatest intellect.” Michael Palumbo, author of The Palestinian Catastrophe and Imperial Israel
"Albert Einstein is all-too often depicted as a naïf about politics; he was anything but that. He followed international and national politics assiduously, corresponded with leaders and ordinary people, and brought a passionate moral stance to the whole, fighting antisemitism, racism, fascism, and nationalism. In this volume, Fred Jerome has assembled a myriad of documents bearing on Einstein's views of Zionism. Telegrams, letters, magazine articles, interviews, all contribute to a dense and heartfelt analysis of what it would mean to avoid the pitfalls of dogmatic nationalism, and to create a Jewish homeland utterly respectful of Palestinian rights and equality. Of course, Einstein's physics speaks to us still; astonishingly, we can still learn from his moral-political reflections." Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps and Image and Logic
“Einstein on Israel and Zionism is a welcome and necessary contribution to the discussions about the Middle East crisis. You do not have to be a genius in order to understand the gravity of the situation, but it is essential to listen to one, especially if his name was Einstein. His thoughts make for fascinating reading, allow us new insights into the mind of one of the 20th centurys greatest thinkers and remind us that it is never too late." Avraham Burg, author of The Holocaust is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes
*ABOUT THE FIRST EDITION
St. Martin's Press published the first edition of Einstein on Israel and Zionism. Soon out of print, it was never reprinted and never made into an ebook. As a result, it is very hard to find. Baraka Books is thrilled to bring out this new enriched edition and is very grateful to Fred Jerome's widow, Jocelyn Jerome, who granted us the right to bring out a new edition.
