Editing Albert Einstein (section)

=== Personal views ===
==== Political views ====
{{Main|Political views of Albert Einstein}}
[[File:Einstein Apr.1921 SS Rotterdam 32099.jpg|alt=Casual group shot of four men and two women standing on a brick pavement.|thumb|Albert Einstein and [[Elsa Einstein]] arriving in New York in 1921. Accompanying them are Zionist leaders [[Chaim Weizmann]] (future president of Israel), Weizmann's wife [[Vera Weizmann]], [[Menahem Ussishkin]], and Ben-Zion Mossinson.]]

In 1918, Einstein was one of the signatories of the founding proclamation of the [[German Democratic Party]], a liberal party.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tobies |first=Renate |url={{Google books|EDm0eQqFUQ4C|page=116|plainurl=yes}} |title=Iris Runge – A Life at the Crossroads of Mathematics, Science, and Industry |publisher=Birkhèauser |year=2012 |isbn=978-3034802512 |location=Basel |pages=116}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gimbel |first=Steven |url={{Google books|HvTOBwAAQBAJ|page=111|plainurl=yes}} |title=Einstein - His Space and Times |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0300196719 |location=New Haven |pages=111}}</ref> Later in his life, Einstein's political view was in favor of [[socialism]] and critical of capitalism, which he detailed in his essays such as "[[Why Socialism?]]".<ref>Einstein (1949), pp. 9–15.</ref><ref name="LXsUJ" /> His opinions on the [[Bolsheviks]] also changed with time. In 1925, he criticized them for not having a "well-regulated system of government" and called their rule a "regime of terror and a tragedy in human history". He later adopted a more moderated view, criticizing their methods but praising them, which is shown by his 1929 remark on [[Vladimir Lenin]]:
{{blockquote|In Lenin I honor a man, who in total sacrifice of his own person has committed his entire energy to realizing social justice. I do not find his methods advisable. One thing is certain, however: men like him are the guardians and renewers of mankind's conscience.{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2013|pp=[{{GBurl|id=_X1dAAAAQBAJ|pg=413}} 412, 413]}}}}
Einstein offered and was called on to give judgments and opinions on matters often unrelated to theoretical physics or mathematics.{{Sfnp|Clark|1971}} He strongly advocated the idea of a democratic [[global government]] that would check the power of nation-states in the framework of a world federation.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=487, 494, 550}} He wrote {{qi|I advocate world government because I am convinced that there is no other possible way of eliminating the most terrible danger in which man has ever found himself.}}<ref>Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 4 (February 1948), No. 2 35–37: 'A Reply to the Soviet Scientists, December 1947'</ref> The FBI created a secret dossier on Einstein in 1932; by the time of his death, it was 1,427 pages long.<ref name="ixWWZ" />

Einstein was deeply impressed by [[Mahatma Gandhi]], with whom he corresponded. He described Gandhi as {{qi|a role model for the generations to come}}.<ref name="Albano-Müller"/> The initial connection was established on 27 September 1931, when [[Wilfrid Israel]] took his Indian guest [[V. A. Sundaram]] to meet his friend Einstein at his summer home in the town of Caputh. Sundaram was Gandhi's disciple and special envoy, whom Wilfrid Israel met while visiting India and visiting the Indian leader's home in 1925. During the visit, Einstein wrote a short letter to Gandhi that was delivered to him through his envoy, and Gandhi responded quickly with his own letter. Although in the end Einstein and Gandhi were unable to meet as they had hoped, the direct connection between them was established through Wilfrid Israel.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://streams.gandhiserve.org/einstein.html| title = Einstein's letter and Gandhi's answer| access-date = 22 August 2021| archive-date = 9 June 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140609031152/http://streams.gandhiserve.org/einstein.html| url-status = live}}, gandhiserve.org</ref>

==== Relationship with Zionism ====
{{Main|Political views of Albert Einstein#Zionism}}
Einstein was a figurehead leader in the establishment of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]],<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/science/brace-yourself-here-comes-einsteins-year.html|title=Brace Yourself! Here Comes Einstein's Year|quote=Hebrew University ... which he helped found|author=Dennis Overbye|date=25 January 2005|access-date=27 October 2020|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030232656/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/science/brace-yourself-here-comes-einsteins-year.html|url-status=live}}</ref> which opened in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://en.huji.ac.il/history |website=Hebrew University}}</ref> Earlier, in 1921, he was asked by the biochemist and president of the [[World Zionist Organization]], [[Chaim Weizmann]], to help raise funds for the planned university.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=290}} He made suggestions for the creation of an Institute of Agriculture, a Chemical Institute and an Institute of Microbiology in order to fight the various ongoing epidemics such as [[malaria]], which he called an "evil" that was undermining a third of the country's development.{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2007|p=161}} He also promoted the establishment of an Oriental Studies Institute, to include language courses given in both [[Hebrew]] and [[Arabic]].{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2007|p=158}}

Einstein was not a [[nationalist]] and opposed the creation of an independent Jewish state.{{sfnp|Rowe|Schulmann|2007|p=33}} He felt that the waves of arriving Jews of the [[Aliyah]] could live alongside existing Arabs in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. The state of [[Israel]] was established without his help in 1948; Einstein was limited to a marginal role in the [[Zionism|Zionist movement]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Ze'ev |last=Rosenkranz |date=2011 |title=Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon Or Iconoclast? |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=4–5 |isbn=978-0-691-14412-2}}</ref> Upon the death of Israeli president Weizmann in November 1952, Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] offered Einstein the largely ceremonial position of [[President of Israel]] at the urging of [[Ezriel Carlebach]].<ref name="Time" /><ref name="Msb2q" /> The offer was presented by Israel's ambassador in Washington, [[Abba Eban]], who explained that the offer {{qi|embodies the deepest respect which the Jewish people can repose in any of its sons}}. Einstein wrote that he was "deeply moved", but "at once saddened and ashamed" that he could not accept it.{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=522}}

==== Religious and philosophical views ====
{{Main|Religious and philosophical views of Albert Einstein}}
[[File:03 ALBERT EINSTEIN.ogg|thumb|Opening of Einstein's speech (11 April 1943) for the United Jewish Appeal (recording by Radio Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina)
----
{{qi|Ladies (coughs) and gentlemen, our age is proud of the progress it has made in man's intellectual development. The search and striving for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of man's qualities{{nbs}}...}}]]
Per [[Lee Smolin]], {{qi|I believe what allowed Einstein to achieve so much was primarily a moral quality. He simply cared far more than most of his colleagues that the laws of physics have to explain everything in nature coherently and consistently.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=549–550}} Einstein expounded his spiritual outlook in a wide array of writings and interviews.<ref name="018QJ" /> He said he had sympathy for the impersonal [[pantheistic]] God of [[Spinozism|Baruch Spinoza's philosophy]].{{Sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=[{{GBurl|id=G_iziBAPXtEC|p=325}} 325]}} He did not believe in a [[personal god]] who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2000|p=218}} He clarified, however, that {{qi|I am not an atheist}},{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=390}} preferring to call himself an agnostic,{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2010|p=[{{GBurl|id=G_iziBAPXtEC|p=340}} 340]}}<ref name="flickr2687"/> or a {{qi|deeply religious nonbeliever}}.{{Sfnp|Calaprice|2000|p=218}} He wrote that {{qi|A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=550–551}}

Einstein was primarily affiliated with non-religious [[Secular humanist|humanist]] and [[Ethical Culture]] groups in both the UK and US. He served on the advisory board of the [[First Humanist Society of New York]],<ref name="mKToJ"/> and was an honorary associate of the [[Rationalist Association]], which publishes ''[[New Humanist]]'' in Britain. For the 75th anniversary of the [[New York Society for Ethical Culture]], he stated that the idea of Ethical Culture embodied his personal conception of what is most valuable and enduring in religious idealism. He observed, {{qi|Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity.}}<ref>Einstein (1995), p. 62.{{GBurl|id=9fJkBqwDD3sC|p=62}}</ref>

In a German-language letter to philosopher [[Eric Gutkind]], dated 3 January 1954, Einstein wrote:
{{quote|[[God (word)|The word God]] is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. ... For me the [[Jewish religion]] like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the [[Jewish people]] to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. ... I cannot see anything '[[Jews as the chosen people|chosen]]' about them.<ref name="xI99y"/>}}

Einstein had been sympathetic toward vegetarianism for a long time. In a letter in 1930 to Hermann Huth, vice-president of the [[ProVeg Deutschland#History|German Vegetarian Federation (Deutsche Vegetarier-Bund)]], he wrote:
{{quote|Although I have been prevented by outward circumstances from observing a strictly vegetarian diet, I have long been an adherent to the cause in principle. Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ivu.org/history/northam20a/einstein.html
| title=Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
| publisher=International Vegetarian Union
}}</ref>}}
He became a vegetarian himself only during the last part of his life. In March 1954 he wrote in a letter: {{qi|So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It almost seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore.}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://aretheyvegan.com/alberteinstein/
| title=Was Albert Einstein vegan?
| website=AreTheyVegan.com
| date=27 March 2020
}}</ref>

==== Love of music ====
[[File:Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski Albert Einstein beim Geigenspiel 1927.jpg|thumb|Einstein playing the violin, 1927|upright=1.05]]
Einstein developed an appreciation for music at an early age. In his late journals he wrote:

{{blockquote|If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music{{nbs}}... I get most joy in life out of music.<ref name="BQH5A"/><ref name="aBOjz"/>}}

His mother played the piano reasonably well and wanted her son to learn the violin, not only to instill in him a love of music but also to help him assimilate into [[German culture]]. According to conductor [[Leon Botstein]], Einstein began playing when he was 5. However, he did not enjoy it at that age.<ref name="Botstein"/>

When he turned 13, he discovered [[Mozart]]'s [[Mozart violin sonatas|violin sonatas]], whereupon he became enamored of Mozart's compositions and studied music more willingly. Einstein taught himself to play without "ever practicing systematically". He said that {{qi|love is a better teacher than a sense of duty}}.<ref name="Botstein"/> At the age of 17, he was heard by a school examiner in Aarau while playing [[Beethoven]]'s [[Beethoven's violin sonatas (disambiguation)<!-- intentional -->|violin sonatas]]. The examiner stated afterward that his playing was {{qi|remarkable and revealing of 'great insight'}}. What struck the examiner, writes Botstein, was that Einstein {{qi|displayed a deep love of the music, a quality that was and remains in short supply. Music possessed an unusual meaning for this student.}}<ref name="Botstein"/> 

Music took on a pivotal and permanent role in Einstein's life from that period on. Although the idea of becoming a professional musician himself was not on his mind at any time, among those with whom Einstein played [[chamber music]] were a few professionals, including Kurt Appelbaum, and he performed for private audiences and friends. Chamber music had also become a regular part of his social life while living in Bern, Zurich, and Berlin, where he played with Max Planck and his son, among others. He is sometimes erroneously credited as the editor of the 1937 edition of the [[Köchel catalog]] of Mozart's work; that edition was prepared by [[Alfred Einstein]], who may have been a distant relation.<ref name="kGuWC"/><ref name="OIn6p"/> Mozart was a special favorite; he said that "Mozart's music is so pure it seems to have been ever-present in the universe." He prefered [[Bach]] to Beethoven: "Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach."{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=38}}

In 1931, while engaged in research at the California Institute of Technology, he visited the Zoellner family conservatory in Los Angeles, where he played some of Beethoven and Mozart's works with members of the [[Zoellner Quartet]].<ref name="Times"/><ref name="RR"/> Near the end of his life, when the young [[Juilliard Quartet]] visited him in Princeton, he played his violin with them, and the quartet was {{qi|impressed by Einstein's level of coordination and intonation}}.<ref name="Botstein"/>