Scripto | Page Revision | Transcription

         TRANSLATION 
         December 26, 1946

Professor Albert Einstein Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey

My dear Professor Einstein:

    I regret that I am unable to send you any more than $8.00 for the noble purpose which you scientists believe will enable you to save the world,  if you could obtain a million dollars.  If I could, I would wish you success in this noble undertaking.  But I am unable to do so,  believing that even if you had a billion dollars you could not accomplish the purpose.  Before I proceed to explain the reason and offer my own plan,  I will state who I am. 

   I am 67 years old.  Up to the age of 18 I was unable to write or read.  In 1899 I was a soldier in the Russian army.  I am 43 years in this country,  40 years on a farm,  where I am at present,  writing this letter.   I sent two sons to fight for a better world for everyone. As farm boys, my sons didn't have to serve in the army.  When they asked me whether I would want them to join the armed forces, I asked them in turn what they thought of it.  They replied that if they went and came back, they would have a better world in which to live;  if they didn't come back,  others would have a better world in which to live.   I am sure that the millions of other men who fought in the war had the same thoughts. 

  Now I shall try to state why I do not believe you scientist could save the world even if you had a billion dollars.  Without going too far back, I shall recall what the scientists have done for us during the past 40 or 45 years.  You devised machinery to make it easier for us to work.  You made great progress in medicine to keep us healthier.  You invented airplanes and similarly good things.  But what was the result of all this?  The returned veterans - some of them minus a limb- are in need of machinery in order to earn a livelihood.  They have to depend upon collections by the Red Cross for the acquisition of machinery.  Those who were fortunate to return physically fit,  are without a roof over their head - all this at a time when we devastated and starved about a half of the world. 

  And what are scientists doing about it? Some 13 billion dollars have been appropriated to perfect rockets to the moon and airplanes that will fly around the world and carry a load of four tons of bombs for the destruction of the four corners of the world.   Science itself is in danger of being destroyed. 

      Respectfully yours, 
         Jacob Rod 

P. S. You may answer this letter in English. Though I am unable to write in English, I can read it.