WI: Albert Einstein, President of Israel

Night Gaul

In 1952, Israel's first president Chaim Weizmann passed away. Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion offered Einstein the post, but he refused.

What if Einstein had accepted the position? Could he have done something significant with it? Yes, I'm aware that the office of President of Israel is a largely ceremonial one, but Isaac Newton's appointment as Master of the Mint being intended as a sinecure didn't stop him from taking his job seriously.
 

Joshua Ben Ari

Cross-posting my response from another thread that asked the same question. The TL,DR is that in 1952, Albert Einstein was already in poor health and dies in 1955. There's only so much that he can do before he eventually passes away. The only real historical changes I could see is maybe if he puts his name to Pinhas Lavon's idea of integration of Arab-Israelis into Israeli society through military service.

Joshua Ben Ari said:
Not really.

The Presidency is a ceremonial role and largely symbolic, sort of like the British monarchy. You might get an institution named after him (either Einstein University or the Einstein Institute of Science), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem gets a huge boost because he served on the original Board of Directors along with Freud, Buber, and Weizmann. Having Einstein there just means there's a big name attached to Israel soon after independence, and he'd probably become an Israeli pop icon up there with Ben-Gurion, Herzl, and Golda. But Einstein also dies in '55 so there's not much time for him to do anything policy-wise. He was already in poor health in 1952.

The only real historical changes that I can see happening is if Einstein puts his name to Pinhas Lavon's idea of integrating Arab-Israelis through military service. Lavon had thought extending the draft to include Arab-Israelis would help Jewish-Arab relations. When he experimented with it on a trial basis, thousands of Arab-Israelis answered the call and signed up. Einstein was a big proponent of Jewish-Arab cooperation and this might be something he'd support. But even then, it's a 'maybe he will?' kind of thing rather than a definite thing.
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Anarcho-Occultist

Anarcho-Occultist

Einstein probably is viewed in a much more controversial light than in OTL. Even if he pushes for more rights for Arab-Israelis Israel is still bound to be polarizing as a nation and by heading it Einstein too will be seen as polarizing.
 

Johnrankins

Was Einstein even remotely interested in such a position? He was a physicist not a politician. Becoming President of Israel would take time away from things he was actually interested in.
 

Joshua Ben Ari

Johnrankins said:
Was Einstein even remotely interested in such a position? He was a physicist not a politician. Becoming President of Israel would take time away from things he was actually interested in.
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Not really. When Abba Eban, the Israeli ambassador to the US, offered him the post, Einstein wrote in his reply that he was "at once saddened and ashamed" he could not accept it and that he had "neither the natural ability nor the experiences necessary" to fill the role.

(1) source: http://idfarchives.bloger.co.il/90164/, image of Einstein's letter is displayed on the site
 
Mad Bad Rabbit

Mad Bad Rabbit

Einstein disliked publicity; per a 1939 New Yorker article, if approached in public he would claim to be someone else. "Pardon me, sorry! Always I am mistaken for Professor Einstein"
 

Seandineen

in the mike resnik book alternate tyrants, he takes the job and its ethuthanised by an old friend after compromising himself to protect the country.
 
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