Albert Einstein was born to a German Jewish family; he studied in Munich, Germany, then in Zurich, Switzerland, where he received his doctorate.

From 1909, he taught and participated in scientific research at Universities and Academies throughout Europe. In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel prize for physics.

When Hitler rises to power, Einstein leaves Europe and settles in the United States with his second wife. There he serves as professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton until his death in 1955, at the age of 76.

Einstein made crucial contributions to modern physics. In 1905, When still only 26 and working in the patent office in Berne, he publishes a number of important papers:

• A mathematical analysis of Brownian Motion (the movement of particles in liquid or gas);
• An explanation of the photo-electric effect in terms of light as a shower of particles. This research was to bring him the Nobel Prize and was an important step in the development of the quantum theory which, paradoxically, Einstein denied all his life; as he used to say: ” God does not play dice with the world”.
• But, especially, Einstein establishes the connection between energy, the mass of matter and the speed of light, according to his famous equation and in contradiction to the prevailing law for the preservation of mass. His special theory of relativity shows that, approaching the speed of light, time, space, mass and energy are only different aspects of each others.

In 1915, he expanded this to the general theory of relativity which also incorporates the influence of gravitation and was scientifically confirmed at the time of the eclipse of the sun in 1919.

Who was the man Einstein?
A modest and informal person who enjoyed walking in the countryside and spent much time at his favorite hobby – playing the violin.

He was a pacifist; but nevertheless warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt against the danger of a German nuclear monopoly, a danger that influenced the U.S. government to develop the atom bomb.

Einstein was a proud Jew and from the 1920’s was active in behalf of Zionism, especially for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as we can see in this archive document.

He rejected a proposal from David Ben-Gurion that he become President of the State of Israel. The contrary would have been surprising!