Typewritten letter personally signed by Albert Einstein, addressed to Mark Carter, Chairman of the ORT Organization, Los Angeles. Typed on the official stationery of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). California, January 21, 1931. German.
The present letter was written in the course of Albert Einstein's second visit to the United States, while he was spending time at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, where he met with physicists and astronomers to discuss topics related to his theory of relativity. At that time, Einstein was invited by Mark Carter, Chairman of ORT, Los Angeles, to attend a benefit event featuring a performance by actors belonging to the Habima Theatre. Einstein was a great admirer of Habima.
Einstein writes as follows: "The efforts of ORT for the rehabilitation of Eastern European Jewry are of the highest importance for the Jewish people as a whole. A disease is definitely being healed here, which has brought distress to our people for centuries…", and then adds that "I personally attended an unforgettable performance of ‘The Dybbuk' at the Habima Theatre and I am convinced that the high level of this play will be enthusiastically received locally as well."
The organization known as ORT – an acronym for "Общество ремесленного и земледельческого труда" ("Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades" or the "Organization for Rehabilitation through Training") – was established in Tsarist Russia in 1880 by Jewish philanthropists with the goal of providing professional training for members of struggling Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. The organization established a network of schools in the Pale of Settlement and in Russia, which, following the First World War, expanded to the West and opened branches throughout the world.
In late October, 1930, the British branch of ORT held a luncheon attended by academics, philanthropists, and rabbis. In attendance were George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, and Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Joseph Herman (Zvi) Hertz. These figures were joined by Albert Einstein, who took the opportunity to express his great regard for the ORT organization in a speech he delivered at the event: "It is no easy task for me to overcome my inclination to a life of quiet contemplation. Nevertheless, to the cry of the ORT and OSE Societies I have been unable to tum a deaf ear. For it is at the same time to the cry of our heavily burdened people that I respond."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), among the most influential of physicists of the 20th century and of all time, gave rise to the theory of relativity and helped lay the foundations for the theory of quantum mechanics. Nobel Laureate in Physics. Born to a Jewish family in Ulm in southern Germany, studied in Switzerland, and served as professor at a number of different universities. In addition to his distinguished scientific accomplishments, Einstein was deeply involved in social and political activism. Einstein's attitude to Judaism was complex; he rejected traditional orthodoxy, and insisted instead that he "believes in the God of [Baruch] Spinoza." He nevertheless fully self-identified as a Jew, went to great lengths to express his fears regarding the fate of the Jewish people, and was active on behalf of Jewish causes and Jewish organizations. In fact, in the very first political article the renowned scientist ever published, in 1919, he decries the anti-Semitism and persecution suffered by the most vulnerable of Jews in Germany, the Jewish émigrés from Eastern Europe (Ostjuden). In his book titled "Mein Weltbild" ("The World as I See It, " 1934), he cites the speech he gave in Great Britain, quoted above, wherein he praises ORT as an organization that strives to wipe out severe "social and economic handicaps" that have afflicted Jewish society as far back as the Middle Ages.
Einstein himself suffered persecution at the hands of the Nazis as soon as they came to power in Germany – on account of the pacifism he preached as well as because of his Jewishness. That same year, in 1933, he chose to renounce his German citizenship and settle permanently in the United States – with his second wife, Elsa Einstein (1876-1936) – where he was offered a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University in New Jersey. Albert Einstein remained in Princeton until his death on April 18, 1955.

[1] f., 28 cm. Good condition. Stains. Fold lines. Minor creases. Remnants of glued paper on verso.