Auction block: Einstein’s thank you note to orphaned Israeli children

Prof. Albert Einstein’s letter thanking orphaned Israeli children for sandals is going up for auction.

By World Israel News Staff

A letter Prof. Albert Einstein wrote thanking the orphans from the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Israel for sandals they made for him on his birthday is being put up for sale by King David Auctions in Jerusalem and is expected to fetch thousands of dollars, Israel Hayom reports.

It may be one of the last letters he wrote as it’s dated March 26, 1955, only three weeks before his death on April 18.

Einstein sent the letter to his good friend, Dr. Siegfried Lehman, the founder and director of the Ben Shemen Youth Village. The two studied together at university.

Lehman, who was born in Berlin in 1892, started a shelter for war orphans in Kaunus, Lithuania in 1919 and immigrated, (or “made Aliyah”) in 1926 together with his young students from the shelter and founded the youth village in Ben Shemen.

“The beautiful sandals arrived in perfect condition and were already inaugurated,” Einstein wrote in German. “And every time I slide my feet inside and out I’ll remember you with love and thanks. I wish you a happy and productive time.”

Einstein died a short time later and Israel Hayom says it’s not too much to conclude that the letter arrived only after his death.