Relatively Speaking, Einstein Retains Universal Appeal

He's the world's most famous scientist, an instantly recognizable icon and Time magazine's "Person of the Century."

Albert Einstein once said, "I do not believe in immortality of the individual," but by all accounts the "Elvis of science" has achieved just that. His name is synonymous with "genius," his image is used to hawk everything from T-shirts to computers and, nearly 50 years after his death, biographers are still lining up to stake a claim to his rich legacy.

Lately, however, that legacy has been hitting some rough patches. Einstein's Jewish identity has been the root of two conflicts this summer: one involving an exhibit scheduled to tour China, which Israel recalled after Beijing asked that all Jewish references be removed the other involving the use of his image by DaimlerChrysler touting "German-American cooperation," which many Jewish leaders deemed inappropriate.

Even more controversial are the recent leaks regarding his private life. Over the last few years, Einstein has been accused, among other things, of being a womanizer, an indifferent father and a Communist spy. While such charges might have felled the reputation of a lesser man, Einstein remains an icon nonetheless, a figure of everlasting adoration, even idolization.

"His image is invulnerable," said Dennis Overbye, author of "Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance." "A lot has been learned about his personal life and some of it is not very savory. He wasn't very nice to his first wife, he had affairs, he ran around during his second marriage and was basically an absent father. All of this is well known and it doesn't seem to affect people's feelings for him."

Those feelings will be on display, literally, in New York in November when the Hebrew University, in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History and the Los Angeles-based Skirball Cultural Center, opens a massive exhibition on Einstein's life and work. Hanoch Gutfreund, immediate past president of Hebrew University, which oversees Einstein's estate, describes the exhibition as "an attempt to explain and demonstrate to the general public the principles of Einstein's contributions to science, while at the same time, through manuscripts and documents brought especially from Jerusalem, portray the many facets of his activities outside science."

If the expected throngs line up for the exhibit, it will be, in part, because "he's so obviously human," said Overbye, who is a science writer for The New York Times. "He wore his fame lightly. The subject matter he dealt with was so heavy and cosmic; his personal demeanor contrasted so well with the cosmic scope of the very heavy import of his work. He was friendly, humorous, cute and genuinely humble in a certain way."

It's an undying image, no matter how "uncute" recent revelations may be. At a Christie's auction a few years ago, Overbye said, a lot of Einstein's correspondence went on sale — including memos detailing his divorce from his first wife, Mileva Maric. "A lot didn't sell," Overbye said. "The things people want to own and buy are the cute Einstein we want to know. They want the letters about geometry to his son, not the letters to his wife saying that they're sleeping apart, she's going to serve him meals in his room and not speak until spoken to."

Einstein first disturbed the universe in 1905 — a year commemorated as "the miraculous year" by science buffs — when he published his theory of relativity, known to all and understood by few as E=mc2. He didn't achieve fame until 1919, however, when English scientists, studying a solar eclipse, confirmed his theories. Einstein's celebrity was immediate and lasting.

Some of that longevity lies in that "he was the right man at the right place," said Robert Schulmann, former director of the Einstein Papers Project, a 21-year-old effort to catalogue all of Einstein's writings, be they scientific, political or personal. "It was the end of the first world war, and he seemed to provide a certainty that had been lost in the war; the laws of the universe seem unchanging when everything else is going chaotic in the world."

But now, even the universe seems to have entered its post-modern phase. A research team led by Paul Davies, a professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, has concluded that billions of years ago, the speed of light was faster than today, which potentially challenges Einstein's theory. While still theoretical, Davies's findings are among the "hairline cracks in the plaster that have been appearing and, despite periodic papering-over, still show through," according to the Calgary Herald daily in Canada.

Gutfreund, a physics professor by training, dismisses the claims. "If you heard it from some reporter as something sensational, probably the person who wrote it doesn't understand what it is about," he said. "All these scandals, all the gossip, make no impact."

"When he was 26, not working at a university, in one year he made groundbreaking contributions to three fields of physics — each of which was such a significant contribution that if done by a single scientist during a life career would have guaranteed that person a place in the history of science, maybe a Nobel Prize," Gutfreund said. "A single man did all three in one year. Then he used his fame to speak up on a variety of issues of political and social significance to mankind. He was a genuinely honest man, admired by all."

Einstein championed Hebrew University, which he saw as a vital component of the establishment of the State of Israel. "According to Einstein, the university would provide the necessary arena on which the Jewish tradition of learning and the pursuit of knowledge would come into being," Gutfreund said. "On many occasions he justified and promoted these ideas as the flagship project of the Zionist effort."

Einstein's first trip to the United States, in 1921, was with Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, in order to promote the idea of the university and raise necessary funds. In 1952, then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion offered Einstein the presidency of Israel, allegedly saying, "What do we do if he accepts?"

Upon his death, the Hebrew University inherited Einstein's vast archive of personal papers, documents and photographs. They also inherited the celebrity rights, which means that through the California-based Roger Richman Agency, the university licenses the use of Einstein's widely recognized image. With almost everyone looking to bask in his reflective genius, Einstein's image now adorns everything from neckties to mouse pads to postage stamps. He's been called on as a posthumous pitchman for at least 200 products, including Apple Computers, Microsoft and IBM; Mars/Starburst candies and Oscar Mayer Foods, and Pepsi-Cola and Target. And he's been a character in more than 20 movies, including "I.Q.," "Young Einstein" and "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."

As for the DaimlerChrysler gaffe — a series of advertisements which calls the Swiss-born Einstein, who fled the Nazis in 1933, a "German" and boasts German-American cooperation — perhaps Einstein was, again, ahead of his time. In 1919 he wrote a letter to the London Times daily in 1919 stating: "Today in Germany I am called a German man of science and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bete noire, the description will be reversed, and I shall be become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English."

"He didn't achieve fame until 1919, however, when English scientists, studying a solar eclipse, confirmed his theories. Einstein's celebrity was immediate and lasting"

Paul Johnson, journalist and historian, believes "Modern Times" precisely at the time Einstein's theories were confirmed.

Sigmund Freud (not a German but a Moravian Jew)wrote Einstein lamenting on how he was not recognized as much as Einstein and how much Einstein must appreciate fame. Einstein wrote back indicating Freud might understand man and mankind better than anyone else but he didn't know him at all and thus his comments about Einstein's state-of-mind were not viable.

Someday, someone should list all those Jews who made outstanding scientific contributions that came to the USA during the National Socialist and Communist years. The upside of those years has not been appreciated by our country.

Like everyone else Einstein committed sins. He also was a vain, private man whose genius isolated him. Have patience and forbearance for his short-comings!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.