Menu signed by Albert Einstein to be offered for sale at Somerset auction
The physicist was attending a dinner at the Savoy in London to raise money for the Joint British Committee of the Societies Ort-Oze in support of European Jewry
A menu signed by Albert Einstein at a dinner at the Savoy in London is expected to offered for auction in Somerset on 21 March.
It was signed by the physicist and others in October 1930 at an event to raise money for the Joint British Committee of the Societies Ort-Oze in support of European Jewry.
It will go under the hammer in the traditional manner at the sale of books, maps, manuscripts and photography, with bidding also enabled online.
Robert Ansell, of the auctioneer Lawrences, in Crewkerne, near Yeovil, said: “This is a great rarity, a symbol of unity from a time of increasing oppression for the Jewish people in the years approaching the Second World War.
“By mid-October 1930, the Nazi party had taken sufficient seats in the Reichstag to form the second largest voting bloc in the German Parliament, foreshadowing the escalating oppression of the Jewish people.”
He added: “Against this tide, the Joint British Committee of the Societies Ort-Oze for promoting the Economic and Physical Welfare of East-European Jewry was established. At the invitation of this cause, Albert Einstein made a trip to London as the guest of honour at a special appeal dinner at the Savoy organised by Chairman of the committee, the Rt Hon Lord Rothschild.”
At the event, Einstein spoke about the “the plight of the Jewish communities scattered throughout the world” and stressed that Jews should not have survived as a community all the centuries “if we had a bed of roses. Of that I am strongly convinced.”
George Bernard Shaw proposed a toast for Einstein, saying: “Within the last month or so, there has come to me, and come to many of you, our visitor’s profession of faith, his creed. And that has interested me very much because I must confess to you that there is not a single creed of an established church on earth at present I can subscribe to. But to our visitor’s creed I can subscribe to every single item.”
The dinner was attended by more than 370 people, with Einstein seated between HG Wells and Lord Rothschild.
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