Einstein and Oppenheimer - Undefined Friendship - Part 1
Channel: CurioNexus
Date: 2023-12-30

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Historical Figures:

Einstein’s real friendship with Oppenheimer 1932-1955
In reality "Oppenheimer and Einstein were not friends in the beginning, although they knew about each other. They met for the first time in 1932 during Einstein's visit to CalTech. They even worked in the same place after the war, at the Institute for Advanced Study, where Oppenheimer served as director from 1947 to 1966, but were not particularly close friends. Oppenheimer saw Einstein then “as a living patron saint of physics, not a working scientist, but respected Einstein for his works. Albert Einstein was skeptical of quantum theory, which J. Robert Oppenheimer would advance in, and didn’t believe black holes could possibly exist. Oppenheimer, as the younger physicist helped to prove they do eventually. This was published in paper the same day Hitler invaded Poland. Though Oppenheimer thought he was essentially old-fashioned, “Einstein eventually acquired a grudging respect for the new director” of the Institute, “whom Einstein described Oppenheimer as an unusually capable man of many-sided education. What Einstein admired about Oppenheimer was the man, not his physics. Although Einstein and Oppenheimer did still enjoy each others’ company. Oppenheimer's father, Julius that the pair often had fleeting conversations together in CalTech. It's also noted that their lives regularly intertwined with the duo having many conversations on politics and science.

In 1948, “knowing Einstein’s love of classical music, and knowing that his radio could not receive New York broadcasts of concerts from Carnegie Hall, Oppenheimer arranged to have an antenna installed on the roof of Einstein’s home at 112 Mercer Street. At the time it was done without Einstein’s knowledge. On his birthday, Oppenheimer showed up on his doorstep with a brand new radio and suggested that they listen to a scheduled concert and Einstein was delighted.” Years later, when Oppenheimer was targeted for his past Communist ties and stripped of his security clearance, Einstein was firmly on his colleague’s side, even if he didn’t understand Oppenheimer’s response at the time. “The trouble with Oppenheimer is that he loved a woman who doesn't love him which referred to as the United States government,” he told a friend. “Albert’s outlook to the problem was simple: All Oppenheimer needed to do was to go to Washington, tell the officials that they were fools, and go home.” Einstein was smart enough to keep those views private from the public. He expressed his support in a more palatable manner, Publicly: “I admire him not only as a scientist but also as a great human being,” he told the press.

Later, Oppenheimer would return the favor as he quoted: “Einstein is also, and I think rightly, known as a man of very great good will and humanity,” he said in that 1965 lecture. “Indeed, if I had to think of a single word for his attitude towards human problems, I would pick the Sanskrit word Ahinsa, not to hurt, harmlessness.”

It wasn't until the last decade of Einstein's life, after the bombs had already dropped, the war had ended, and both physicists were at Princeton, that the two came to be "close colleagues and something of friends," Oppenheimer wrote in 1965 journal.

The follow up on this Biography of Albert Einstein &  J. Robert Oppenheimer is - Einstein’s integral part in Oppenheimer's development - Atomic Bomb - Part 2

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