Albert Meets America: How Journalists Treated Genius during Einstein's 1921 Travels

3 Prof. Einstein Here (New York, April 2–3)

Saturday, April 2 Einstein Due Today; Leaders Await Him Mayor’s Committee to Meet Noted Scientist on HisArrival at Quarantine—Big Reception in Hoboken—City’s Official Welcome to Take Place on Tuesday and Zionist Greeting onApril 10 When Professor Albert Einstein, whose theories have evoked world-wide discussion, arrives today with Professor Chaim Weizmann, chemist and President of the World Zionist Congress, and M. M. Ussischkin, member of the International Zionist Committee, on the Rotterdam of the HollandAmerica Line, they will be greeted at quarantine by a committee appointed by Mayor Hylan.Jewish Legionnaries who fought in Palestine will march to Pier 2, Hoboken, where the Rotterdam is to dock, to take part in a reception in which it is expected that several thousand persons will participate. The committee has requested that all Jewish sections of the city be decorated in honor of the visitors. An official meeting of welcome will be held on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday. Among those who will speak are Mayor Hylan, Former Assistant Secretary of State Frank L. Polk, George W. Wickersham and Magistrate Bernard A. Rosenblatt. The American Zionist organization will tender a reception to Professor Einstein, Professor Weizmann and Mr. Ussischkin in the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday evening, April 10. Nathan Straus is Honorary Chairman and Magistrate Rosenblatt Chairman of the committee appointed by the Mayor. This committee will go down the bay this morning to greet the visitors and bring them to the 3 Prof. Einstein Here ) 14 ) Albert Meets America Hoboken piers. Among those on this committee are Arthur Brisbane, Chancellor Elmer Elsworth Brown of New York University, Judge Benjamin Cardoza, ex-Ambassador Abraham I. Elkus, James A. Foley, President F. H. LaGuardia of the Board of Aldermen, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Greenbaum, William D. Guthrie, Mrs. William R. Hearst, ex-Governor Alfred E. Smith, Samuel Koenig, Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, Dr. Bernard Flexner, Benjamin Schlesinger, Oscar S. Straus, Herman Bernstein, George Gordon Battle, Marcus Loew, Adolph Lewisohn, Senator Nathan Straus Jr., and Colonel Robert Greer Monroe. Judge Gustav Hartmann is Chairman of the Provisional Committee. The New York Times, April 2, p. 11. Prof. Einstein Here, Explains Relativity “Poet in Science”Says It Is a Theory of Space and Time, But It Baffles Reporters —Seeks Aid for Palestine—Thousands Wait Four Hours to Welcome Theorist and His Party toAmerica A man in a faded gray raincoat and a flopping black felt hat that nearly concealed the gray hair that straggled over his ears stood on the boat deck of the steamship Rotterdam yesterday, timidly facing a battery of cameramen . In one hand he clutched a shiny briar pipe and with the other clung to a precious violin. He looked like an artist—a musician. He was. But underneath his shaggy locks was a scientific mind whose deductions have staggered the ablest intellects of Europe. One of his traveling companions described him as an “intuitive physicist” whose speculative imagination is so vast that it senses great natural laws long before the reasoning faculty grasps and defines them. The man was Dr.Albert Einstein, propounder of the much-debated theory of relativity that has given the world a new conception of space, and time and the size of the universe. Dr. Einstein comes to this country as one of a group of prominent Jews, who are advocating the Zionist movement and hope to get financial aid and encouragement for the rebuilding of Palestine and the founding of a Jewish university. He is of medium height, with strong built shoulders, but an air of fragility and self-effacement. Under a high, broad forehead are large and luminous eyes, almost childlike in their simplicity and unworldliness. ThousandsWelcome Him With him as fellow-travelers were Professor Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist World Organization, discoverer of trinitrotoluol, and head of the British Admiralty laboratories during the war; Michael Ussichkin , a member of the Zionist delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and now Resident Chairman of the Zionist Commission in Palestine, and Dr. Benzion Mossinson, President of the Hebrew Teachers’Organization in Palestine. The party was welcomed at the Battery by thousands of fellow-Jews who had waited there for hours. The crowds were packed deeply along the Battery wall, waving Jewish flags of white with blue bars, wearing buttons with Zionist inscriptions, and cheering themselves hoarse as the police boat John F. Hylan drew near. The Einsteins on...