EINSTEIN, Albert (1879 - 1955). Autograph note signed ("A. Einstein") to Mr. Igersheimer, n.p., 12 January 1954.

In German. One page, 88 x 62mm (some characters lightly brushed).

Einstein thanks his correspondent for an unknown ancestral gallery, adding: "You can tell at first glance that they weren't chosen like presidents!" The recipient of this note is presumably Joseph Igersheimer (1879-1965), a German ophthalmologist known for his pioneering work on the treatment of syphilis, whose Jewish ancestry led to his exile to Turkey in 1933. Einstein took an active role in securing him a position in Turkey, as Einstein wrote to the Turkish Prime Minister in September of that year, requesting that forty professors and doctors (including Igersheimer) be permitted to practice in the country as German laws increasingly prohibited Jews from serving in academia. (Reisman, Arnold. “Jewish Refugees from Nazism, Albert Einstein, and the Modernization of Higher Education in Turkey (1933–1945).” Aleph, no. 7 (2007): 253–81.) In 1939, Igersheimer joined the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine and became a major contributor to America's ophthalmology.