Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm in 1879, worked in Berlin from 1914 and won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921. Drawn to Zionism in Berlin by Kurt Blumenfeld, he saw in it a defence of Jewish dignity against antisemitism. In April 1921 he travelled to the United States with Chaim Weizmann to raise money for the planned Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In February 1923 he visited the land, gave the first scientific lecture on Mount Scopus, opening with a few words of Hebrew, visited the Technion and was made an honorary citizen of Tel Aviv. He sat on the first Board of Governors of the Hebrew University. In 1933, as the Nazis came to power, he settled in Princeton, where he died in 1955.

When President Chaim Weizmann died in November 1952, Ben-Gurion's government offered Einstein the presidency of Israel. He declined, writing that he lacked the aptitude and experience to deal with people and official functions. He left his papers to the Hebrew University, which keeps the Albert Einstein Archives.