An endorsed check to the United Jewish Appeal - photo 1
An endorsed check to the United Jewish Appeal - photo 2

An endorsed check to the United Jewish Appeal

Lot 105
27.06.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
$ 4 788
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1236336
Lot 105 | An endorsed check to the United Jewish Appeal
Estimate value
$ 2 000 – 3 000
EINSTEIN, Albert. His endorsement signature in full ("Albert Einstein") on the verso of a check issued to him from Cornelius Greenway, Brooklyn, N.Y., 13 November 1950.

75 x 210mm (punch cancellation, one staple hole, effaced inscription on the verso, none impacting signature).

Einstein endorses a ten dollar check, sent to him in exchange for a religious handwritten statement, to the United Jewish Appeal. The check was drawn on Manufacturers Trust Company in Brooklyn, and signed by the noted autograph collector, Reverend Cornelius Greenway, on November 13, 1950. According to Helen Dukas's Albert Einstein: The Human Side, Greenway wrote a letter to Einstein on this date, quoting a statement that Einstein had made about the Catholic Church, shortly after the rise of Nazi Germany. Stating that he frequently uses this quote on the pulpit, Greenway asked Einstein to send a handwritten version of the religious statement. In doing so, he enclosed this check—not as a payment for the handwritten statement, but as a token of gratitude, and a gift for Einstein to use as he sees fit.

The quote Greenway requested was as follows: "Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came to Germany I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in those days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to the individual writers who, as literary guides of Germany, had written much and often concerning the place of freedom in modern life; but they, too, were mute. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise wholeheartedly."

Einstein's response the next day expresses his gratitude for the letter, though expresses his embarrassment that "the wording of the statement you have quoted is not my own...my remarks have been elaborated and exaggerated nearly beyond recognition. I cannot in good conscience write down the statement you sent me as my own...I, like yourself, am predominantly critical concerning the activities, especially the political activities, through history of the official clergy...my former statement...gives a wrong impression...". For more information, see Dukas, Helen, ed. (1981). Albert Einstein, The Human Side. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 93-94.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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13.06.2024 – 27.06.2024
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