Ukraine is set to replace Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov with the chief of its military spy agency, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, in a reshuffle at the forefront of Ukraine’s war campaign.

Reznikov would be transferred to another ministerial job and replaced by Kyrylo Budanov, head of the GUR military intelligence agency, said David Arakhamia, a senior lawmaker and chief of Servant of the People parliamentary bloc.

“War dictates changes in personnel policy,” Arakhamia said on the Telegram messaging app.

He said that Ukraine’s “force” agencies – like the defence ministry – should not be headed by politicians during wartime, but people with a background in defence or security.

There was no immediate comment from Reznikov, a former lawyer who became defence minister in November 2021, a few months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

Arakhamia did not say when the move would be formalised.

The imminent shakeup was also reported by several Ukrainian media outlets citing sources as well as another lawmaker, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, writing on Telegram.

Budanov, 37, is an enigmatic intelligence operative decorated for his role in classified operations who rapidly rose through the ranks to head up Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence.

Arakhamia said Reznikov would be made minister of strategic industries.

His exit from the defence ministry would be the highest profile government change in a slew of resignations and sackings following a corruption scandal late last month.

The shakeup coincides with Ukrainian fears that Russia is planning a major new offensive this month. Ukraine is planning its own counter-offensive but is waiting on Western supplies of battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

Asked earlier at a news conference about media reports of his possible exit from the ministry, Reznikov told reporters that any decision was up to Zelenskiy.

As a wartime defence minister, Reznikov, 56, fostered ties with Western defence officials and helped oversee the receipt of billions of dollars of military aid to help Kyiv fend off the Russian invasion.

Reznikov singled out Ukraine’s “de facto” integration into the NATO military alliance as a top priority, even if joining the bloc was not immediately possible de jure.

During his tenure as defence minister, he spoke out strongly about wartime corruption, which he said was akin to “marauding”.

But in recent weeks his own defence ministry became embroiled in a corruption scandal over an army food contract that envisaged paying vastly inflated prices. It caused a public outcry.

One of his deputy ministers has been fired, and two other senior officials have also since left their posts.

The scandal prompted Zelenskiy to embark on a major reshuffle that saw the exit of an array of regional governors, deputy ministers and other officials.

Reznikov hosted a news conference on Sunday afternoon, in which he said Ukraine expected a possible major Russian offensive this month, but that Kyiv had the resources at hand to hold them at bay.

He also said that his ministry’s anti-corruption department needed to be overhauled and that it had not done what it was supposed to do.

Thousands of computer servers around the world have been targeted by a ransomware hacking attack targeting VMware (VMW.N) ESXi servers, Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) said on Sunday, warning organisations to take action to protect their systems.

The hacking attack sought to exploit a software vulnerability, ACN director general Roberto Baldoni told Reuters, adding it was on a massive scale.

A spokesperson for VMware said the company is aware of the incidents and it had issued patches for the two-year-old vulnerability that is being exploited in February 2021, urging its customers to apply the patch if they have not done so.

Italy’s ANSA news agency, citing the ACN, reported that servers had been compromised in other European countries such as France and Finland as well as the United States and Canada.

Dozens of Italian organisations were likely to have been affected and many more had been warned to take action to avoid being locked out of their systems.

Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) customers reported internet problems earlier on Sunday, but the two issues were not believed to be related.

U.S. cybersecurity officials said they were assessing the impact of the reported incidents.

“CISA is working with our public and private sector partners to assess the impacts of these reported incidents and providing assistance where needed,” the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said.

(NewsNation) — The Chinese balloon that was recently hovering over U.S. airspace made headlines, but some say China’s more existential threat to the U.S. is its activity overseas alongside Iran and Russia.

New reporting indicates that China is actively helping Russia in its war effort in Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal says that according to Russian customs data, Chinese-state owned companies are shipping military equipment to Russia despite international sanctions.

Russia is getting fighter jet parts, shipping navigation technology and jamming technology from China.

This comes as Iranian leaders are reportedly planning to develop a drone factory in Russia that would be capable of producing 6,000 drones for the war in Ukraine. Iran has already made hundreds of drones for Russia and moving production to Russian soil would likely be an escalation.

The news connecting Russia, China and Iran comes as Ukraine is going through a leadership shake-up in the middle of war, replacing its defense minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Reznikov took questions from the press Sunday. He said he expects that all weapons deliveries from the West should arrive on time.

The only weapons request the U.S. has denied for Ukraine so far have been fighter jets. Reznikov said he fully expects that fighter jets will come eventually.

(NewsNation) — One day after American fighter jets shot down a Chinese balloon at President Joe Biden’s command, some Republicans are calling it a failure and asking why it didn’t happen sooner.

“The President taking it down over the Atlantic is sort of like tackling the quarterback after the game is over,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said.

Turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says the path the balloon took passed over multiple, high-level missile defense and sensitive nuclear sites and should not have been allowed in American airspace.

“This should never have been allowed to enter the United States. It never should’ve been allowed to complete its mission,” Turner said.

Navy salvage vessels are in the water, collecting the debris from the balloon in about 47 feet of water off the Carolina coast.

Sen. Marco Rubio also believes the balloon should have been brought down earlier. He says if that option placed American lives at risk, as the Pentagon insists, that Biden should have been more transparent about that.

“It really would’ve been helpful for the President of the United States to get in television and explain to the people, this is what we’re dealing with,” Rubio said.

The U.S. Senate is expected to receive a full briefing about the balloon on Feb. 15. But the White House is pushing back and defending their actions.

Biden said when he was briefed on the balloon, he ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down as soon as possible, but later said military officials recommended he wait on that order until the balloon was over water to make sure no one would be harmed from falling debris.

“The President called for this to be dealt with in a way that balanced all the different risks. That’s exactly what happened. The military did a terrific job,” Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg said.

Defense officials say the debris from the balloon explosion spanned some seven miles. Buttigieg says that range shows it was simply not safe to shoot it down over the American mainland.

“And as you know the operation was done without any damage or injury to any American lives or property,” he added.

Without going into much detail, defense officials confirmed Saturday there was some intelligence value in letting the balloon go and monitoring it, analyzing, and assessing its capabilities. Of course, before officials ordered it to be shot down with an American missile.

The situation may sour already tense relations between the U.S. and China. After learning of the balloon, Sec. of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing was called off, which was previously seen as an opportunity to ease tension between the superpowers.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted to the U.S. bringing down the balloon, in part, calling it an overreaction:

“… the U.S. insists on using force, obviously overreacting and seriously violating international practice. China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant companies, while reserving the right to make further necessary reactions.”

Congressman Mike Gallagher, chairman of the new select committee to investigate China, says the takeaway from the incident should be the brazenness of the Chinese government and its willingness to act in U.S. airspace.

“It shows this isn’t just a matter of territorial disputes in the South China sea or the East China Sea, it’s not just a matter of threats to Taiwan’s freedom. It’s a matter of our own national security, it’s a here at home problem,” Rep. Gallagher said.

The main concern now for many U.S. lawmakers is this incident becoming a pattern. Officials confirm at least four instances in the recent past, under the Trump and Biden administrations, of China entering U.S. airspace.

It’s possible there are more instances involving balloons that we simply aren’t aware of at this time since much of that is classified information. NewsNation checked and found that the Department of Defense’s annual report on China makes no mention of these incidents.

Defense officials did confirm they are tracking at least one more balloon in Central America right now.

New York (AP) — Tank was nervous after sending his manager a preview of “When We” — he’d never released a song that explicit. “He’s like, ‘You’re crazy, but it’s jammin’!’” the R&B singer recalled. “It ended up being my biggest record ever.”

Released in 2017, the seductive chorus of “when we (expletive)” was obviously too explicit for radio, so a “clean” version used the phrase “when we touch.” Despite releasing his first album in 2001 and crafting hits like “Maybe I Deserve” and “Please Don’t Go,” it was “When We” that’s been Tank’s most successful, finishing No. 1 on Billboard’s 2018 year-end adult R&B airplay chart.

“I didn’t reinvent anything vocally — a little R&B here and there, tapped into my rap cadence, tapped into my Migos (style),” Tank, now 47, said. “I was competitive.”

Being competitive — and collaborative — with hip-hop is one of the reasons today’s R&B is more explicit. Last year’s Luminate Year-End report found that R&B/hip-hop is America’s most popular genre, accounting for the most U.S. on-demand song streams and the largest share of total album consumption.

“It just seems a little bit more extravagant now because some of the R&B singers are acting like rappers,” said Colby Tyner, senior vice president of programming at Radio One and Reach Media, which operates the largest urban radio network in the United States. “It was a clear separation of church and state. Now, it’s a little bit together and so the music reflects it.”

So how did R&B go from Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” to Chris Brown singing ”(expletive) you back to sleep”? It’s complicated.

“It used to be that television and radio was where you got your content. And if it was television and radio, it was censored because of the FCC. Well, you got YouTube, you got all these streaming services and you got social media. So, we are in the authentic era,” said Tyner. “We (radio industry) are the last sort of bastions of ‘we can’t do that’ because we’re controlled by the government regulations.”

During interviews over several months, The Associated Press asked those who create the music and industry experts about changes in R&B. Ahead of Sunday’s 65th annual Grammy Awards airing on CBS and Paramount+, here are some of their thoughts in their own words:

THE HIP-HOP EFFECT

Just one offensive or curse word can lead to a parental advisory label, so what’s defined as explicit can be subjective. It’s the parent test: Would they want their children listening? While Hollywood has an independent ratings board, record companies and artists determine what receives a parental warning.

As hip-hop grew in popularity, Billboard had to adapt; Some charts began grouping rappers and singers together, triggering fights for airplay which remains a sore subject. And with the recent explosion of melodic rap — a blend of rapping and harmonizing — spearheaded by artists like Future, Drake, Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott, the Grammys now recognize it as a category.

In the 1990s, a period considered by some as R&B’s last golden age, it was almost unthinkable that an artist would curse because radio couldn’t play it. None of the top 25 songs on Billboard’s 1990 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart required an explicit label. In 2022, with rap more dominant, all but one in the top 25 — Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” — needed a clean version.

“There was definitely some explicit R&B … but there’s no limit to what you can say sexually in hip-hop. And then when R&B and hip-hop merged, you had the hip-hop and R&B world —- so that’s literally what happened. And so now, the R&B singers have taken that way of speaking from the hip-hop cats. And the hip-hop cats have taken the melodic singing.” — Robert Glasper, four-time Grammy winner, 2023 R&B album nominee.

“Chris Brown is the top of the food chain….He lives and rolls like a rapper. He has an entourage like a rapper. His energy is like a rapper — not like Tevin Campbell in the ‘Can We Talk Days,’” said Tyner. “He can make the most sensual, classic, urban AC or R&B record that you would love, but he also can express that other side as well.” — Colby Tyner, SVP of programming, Radio One and Reach Media.

“We started having to compete with rap music, which is extremely explicit — extremely … When you’re trying to compete for space on a chart or in a playlist, and these are the things that they’re playing, how do you find your way? How do you even get into the conversation? And so, our language has kind of had to evolve to be competitive.” — Tank, five-time Grammy nominee.

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

Themes of romance and sensuality have always breathed within soul music, but much of today’s R&B has replaced innuendo with bluntness. But while profanity has increased, artists are divided on whether the actual content has changed, citing classics like Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” “Prince’s “Darling Nikki” and much of R. Kelly’s sexually-charged catalog that dominated the ’90s and early 2000s.

“The stuff my mama used to be listening to in the car: Marvin Sease and Clarence Carter — ‘I be stroking!’ That stuff was pretty vulgar! … So, no, I don’t think it’s more explicit.” — Muni Long, 2023 Grammy nominee for best new artist.

“A lot of R&B artists were just as savage back in the day — they just had to be tame. Think about it: the record companies forced them to be clean cut and preppy and all those things. I think now, artists have found their freedom.” — Rico Love, vice-president of the Recording Academy and producer.

“I think music was still explicit back in the day — they just had a better way of delivering it. You go all the way back to Rick James, ‘Super Freak’ — they just had a beating-around-the-bush type of way that they would say things.” — Yung Bleu, R&B recording artist

SOCIETAL SHIFT

While hip-hop’s influence might be the lowest hanging fruit, it’s only one factor within a larger explanation. Psychologist Jean Twenge, author of “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood,” says technology has decreased many rules of the past.

“More technology just allows people to be more independent. And that’s been just a very, very steady change in culture in the U.S. and in many other countries over the past hundred years … individualism is at the root of an enormous number of cultural changes that we see today,” explained Twenge, who authored a study on the rise of swear words in American books. “These changes have affected everybody, not just young people. … The society has definitely shifted more in that direction of being more casual and favoring self-expression more.”

Film and TV have also become more explicit in depicting sexual situations, nudity, violence and language. Pop music carries more warnings than ever, and even friendly-family artists like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have released albums labeled as explicit.

“It’s not just R&B, the world is more explicit … even in the 90s, it would have been great to use a couple of cuss words in a couple of songs. It would’ve just hit so much better if you could’ve just went there because it just would have said it better.” — Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, 11-time Grammy winner, 2023 best traditional R&B performance nominee.

“This generation has kind of become numb to it, the same way as like someone could be bleeding on the floor and someone will be on the phone and just step over that person … we’ve become numb to a lot, and I think music is included.” — Ashanti, Grammy winner.

“They say, ‘the truth shall set you free.’ So, I guess the more honest you are, the more free you’re going to be. And that’s where we at. We say whatever we got to say … it’s just direct — literally direct. And if you don’t like it, you just don’t like it, and that’s how we feel.” — Lucky Daye, Grammy winner, 2023 best R&B performance nominee.

EASY ACCESS

Generation Z and younger Millennials only know a world with the internet, and nearly all teens — 95% — have access to a smartphone, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center study. As information flows faster with each generation, some believe young people are learning mature subject matter earlier, and it trickles into what they create. Making and releasing music is easier than ever; expensive recording studios or record labels are no longer barriers.

“This generation feels very free and open, and a lot of people who wouldn’t have had access to create music back then, they can now create in their bedroom. So, there is a vast amount of product coming out. So maybe that’s why it seems like there’s so much explicit music because there’s just more music now, period.” — Chloe Bailey, five-time Grammy nominee.

“I think art is a reflection of life … this generation deals with those things more explicitly. I think there’s more access — the internet made that so, where it’s like we get information way quicker. As a father with little kids, they’re getting things quicker than I ever did.” — PJ Morton, 2023 Grammy nominee for best R&B album.

“I think it’s just the natural progression of now it’s the next generation. … this generation just has everything at their fingertips.” — Robert Glasper, whose “Black Radio lll” is nominated for best R&B album.

GOING VIRAL

While it’s not hard to guess most teenagers and social media are inseparable, 84% of adults 18-29 say they use at least one social media site, according to 2021 data from Pew. Naturally, social media behavior can influence the content choices people make with their music.

“The best way to get clicks and streams is let me be as wild as I could possibly be. So, if I’m an R&B singer talking about what sexual positions that I like and how I do it … people are going to pay attention,” said Tyner, the Radio One exec. “Artists would kill to have a “WAP” (by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion) or a big song like that because honestly, really, it only takes one song. You get that one song that’s a monster record, you can live off that song for the rest your life.”

“Everybody’s just trying to outdo each other. It’s all a popularity contest. So, whoever gets talked about the most, that’s what it is. And the more risqué you are, the more attention, the more you get talked about.” — T-Pain, two-time Grammy winner

“Sometimes you have to get out there and say things to catch people’s attention…I like being creative and witty and having the double meaning for certain things and being subliminal. But some people like to just splat it on out there!” (laughs) – Ashanti

“Maybe people feel like that’s what they need to do to get the sales or get the attention. You know, it’s a lotta shakin’ out there (laughs) … there’s a lot of lyrics that are like cringe if I’m listening to it with my daughter. But music is self-expression — people express themselves however they feel like they need to express themselves.” — Brandy, Grammy winner

While there is crossover of younger artists on the adult R&B airplay chart, which generally features more traditional R&B, the content is far less explicit. Only 11 of the top 25 songs from last year’s year-end chart were labeled explicit, with eight of the 11 by younger artists. On the year-end Hot R&B chart which tracks mainstream R&B, 19 of the top 25 songs carried an advisory.

Mary J. Blige, a nine-time Grammy winner who has been successful through R&B’s changes since the 90s, says it’s all about expression.

“Just like when we were growing up, we came from a place where we expressed ourselves from where we were living and how we were living. So, these new generations are expressing themselves,″ she said.

Blige, a nominee for album of the year at Sunday’s Grammys, says she can relate to younger artists.

“I’m so proud of them. I love them. They’re doing exactly what we did: They’re speaking from their experience, and I respect that,” Blige said. “I have so much respect for their artistry.”

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Brooke Lefferts and John Carucci in New York contributed to this story. Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at: @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.

AP Photo/John Locher

• Chris Christie blasted President Biden’s reelection plans on Sunday, calling him “old” and “boring.”
• “In the end, Joe Biden is not an exciting candidate. And the American people are not relating to him,” he argued.
• Biden is set to announce his 2024 reelection campaign in the coming months.

Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday was critical of President Joe Biden’s expected 2024 reelection bid, arguing that the commander-in-chief is “old” and “not an exciting candidate.”

During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Christie — who has slammed Biden on everything from his handling of the economy to his foreign policy worldview — said he felt that Americans were having a difficult time connecting with the president.

“In the end, Joe Biden is not an exciting candidate. He’s old. He’s boring. And the American people are not relating to him,” the former governor said.

Christie said that the unique characteristics of the 2020 presidential election — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — were a “gift” to the now-president as Trump had increasingly become a toxic figure among Independents and suburban votes.

The ex-governor, who saw his own presidential chances collapse at the hands of Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries, said that the pandemic shielded Biden from having to appear before the public on a daily basis.

Christie then stated that Biden wouldn’t have the ability to maintain a “traditional” campaign schedule, often filled with multiple stops in a range of cities and towns.

“Do you see Joe Biden on Air Force One doing seven, eight campaign stops a day at 82 years old?” Christie said. “He’s not capable of running a traditional American race.”

Biden has not yet announced his 2024 reelection campaign but is expected to do so in the coming months. 

If Biden — who will turn 81 later this year — were to be reelected in 2024, he would be 82 years old at the time of his inauguration in January 2025. And he’d be 86 at the end of his potential second term.

Last year, The New York Times spoke with several individuals — some who were top aides in the White House at the time and some who no longer worked with Biden — who said that the president was highly engaged with his work and continued to ask sharp questions while conducting official White House business.

After speaking with more than a dozen individuals, The Times reported that Biden “remained intellectually engaged, asking smart questions at meetings, grilling aides on points of dispute, calling them late at night, picking out that weak point on Page 14 of a memo and rewriting speeches.”

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches.

The three Christian leaders spoke out on LGBTQ rights during an unprecedented joint airborne news conference returning home from South Sudan, where they took part in a three-day ecumenical pilgrimage to try to nudge the young country’s peace process forward.

They were asked about Francis’ recent comments to The Associated Press, in which he declared that laws that criminalize gay people were “unjust” and that “being homosexual is not a crime.”

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South Sudan is one of 67 countries that criminalizes homosexuality, 11 of them with the death penalty. LGBTQ advocates say even where such laws are not applied, they contribute to a climate of harassment, discrimination and violence.

Francis referred his Jan. 24 comments to the AP and repeated that such laws are “unjust.” He also repeated previous comments that parents should never throw their gay children out of the house.

“To condemn someone like this is a sin,” he said. “Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”

“People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God Loves them. God accompanies them,” he added.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recalled that LGBTQ rights were very much on the current agenda of the Church of England, and said he would quote the pope’s own words when the issue is discussed at the church’s upcoming General Synod.

“I wish I had spoken as eloquently and clearly as the pope. I entirely agree with every word he said,” Welby said.

Recently, the Church of England decided to allow blessings for same-sex civil marriages but said same-sex couples could not marry in its churches. The Vatican forbids both gay marriage and blessings for same-sex unions.

Welby told reporters that the issue of criminalization had been taken up at two previous Lambeth Conferences of the broader Anglican Communion, which includes churches in Africa and the Middle East where such anti-gay laws are most common and often enjoy support by conservative bishops.

The broader Lambeth Conference has come out twice opposing criminalization, “But it has not really changed many people’s minds,” Welby said.

The Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, the Presbyterian moderator of the Church of Scotland who also participated in the pilgrimage and news conference, offered an observation.

“There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away,” he said. “There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whomever he meets.

“And as Christians, that is the only expression that we can possibly give to any human being, in any circumstance.”

The Church of Scotland allows same-sex marriages. Catholic teaching holds that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Rainy, gloomy weather greeted Albert Einstein on his only trip to the Holy Land 100 years ago, in early February 1923. “Arab villages, Jewish colonies, olive trees, cacti, and orange trees” were the first sights to catch his eye, as he noted in his journal, in German.

There was great excitement among the Jewish population regarding his 12-day trip, Haaretz reported: “An important and encouraging event took place today, amid the mundanity of our lives. Today the titan of this generation, in Israel and among the nations, came to the Land of Israel – none other than Albert Einstein, the father of the theory of relativity. What Newton was to the past three centuries, Einstein shall be to future generations.”

Accompanied by his wife Elsa, as part of a five-and-a-half-month journey to the Far East and Middle East, Einstein stopped in Tel Aviv, Rishon Letzion, Jerusalem, Jericho, Haifa, Nahalal, Tiberias, Nazareth, and other sites throughout the country during his 12-day trip.

“Now Einstein has arrived to see the country being built, to see its builders in their travails and joy of creation, to see in order to do, to take part in our building,” Haaretz waxed poetic. “Let the holy spirit of the Land of Israel and the resurrection of Israel welcome the titan of the generation as he comes to us.”

Einstein may have admired some of the landscapes and people he encountered in Mandatory Palestine, but his diary also includes comments about sights that sparked negative impressions, such as in the “very dirty” Jerusalem: “Visit to the Bukharian Jewish quarter and to dark synagogue where pious, grimy Jews await the end of the Sabbath in prayer,” he wrote, going on to describe worshipers at the Western Wall, “with their faces turned to the wall, bending their bodies to and fro in a swaying motion. Pitiful sight of people with a past but without a present” (“The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein: Vol. 13,” Princeton University Press).

When he visited Nahalal, a moshav in the north, he “expressed great bewilderment at the fact which he found most odd, that the people of Nahalal care far more for the farm animals than for their own souls and those of their families,” according to Haaretz.

On the other hand, when encountering local people during his trip, he would offer the requisite praise. “I am greatly astonished to see the immense work done by you. I see here a fresh creative force working in difficult conditions, with devotion and sacrifice,” he said at one such meeting. “The achievements of the Jews in just a few years arouse the highest admiration,” he told residents of Tel Aviv. “A contemporary Hebrew city with busy economic and intellectual life shoots up from the bare ground. What an incredibly active people our Jews are!” he noted in his diary.

Greeting students at Tel Aviv’s prestigious Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, he said: “Dear children, for the first time in my life I see so many Hebrew children, displaying such lovely gymnastics, with power and strength and harmony. I express my deepest thanks to you for the pleasure you have given me.”

The Gymnasium’s principal, Ben Zion Mossinson, told his pupils that Einstein “came as a Zionist to see the country, to observe what is happening in it, in the hopes that he may later put down roots here.” To the students, who wondered why the honored guest was not speaking to them in Hebrew, the principal explained: “He has asked me to inform you that he is most regretful that he is as yet incapable of addressing you in Hebrew.” However, Mossinson added – hopeful for a future that never came to pass – “He is studying Hebrew and hopes one day to teach you in Hebrew at the Jerusalemite University.”

Einstein, for his part, did not intend to learn Hebrew, nor did he consider making aliyah. He contented himself with receiving the honorary citizenship of the first Hebrew city. “While I have become a citizen of New York City, I am 10 times happier to be a citizen of the fair Hebrew city,” he declared.

‘Unproductive work’

A photo of Albert Einstein during his one trip to Palestine, in February 1923. Courtesy of The École Biblique Jerusalem

When he toured Haifa, his hosts also tried to sell him on taking up residence in their midst. Arthur Biram, principal of the Hebrew Reali School addressed him in German, “demanding that he remain here among our children, for among them he would find happiness,” according to a report in the newspaper Doar Hayom.

However, in private conversations, the great scientist made it clear that he had no intention of doing so, “because in Europe he feels free and here he would always be a prisoner. He has no intention of being a mere ornament in Jerusalem.” That comment was quoted in the diary of soldier and Zionist leader Friedrich Kisch (grandfather of current Education Minister Yoav Kisch), who accompanied Einstein on his tour.

“I am absolutely wanted in Jerusalem and am being assailed on all fronts in this regard [i.e., settling in the country]. My heart says yes but my reason says no,” Einstein wrote in his diary. For his part, Kisch added that Einstein spoke of “the nature of his mind,” and expressed concern that “learning Hebrew would be unproductive work for him.”

The high point of the visit was Mt. Scopus, where the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was being built and would open some two years later. Menachem Ussishkin, a senior Zionist leader, gave an impassioned speech there: “Across from this spot you see Mount Moriah. Thousands of years ago, one of the great men of our people, King Solomon, built a house of prayer there to the gods of the world, and when he consecrated the house, he prayed that it would be a house of prayer for all peoples.

“And we pray now that this building, the Hebrew University building being consecrated on Mt. Scopus, shall be a house of science for all nations. From the moment you take the stage, this stage shall be our pride and sanctity. Our great brother, take the stage, which has been awaiting you for 2,000 years.”

Einstein began his lecture in Hebrew. “I too am overjoyed to be giving my lecture in the country that has spread Torah and light to the entire enlightened world, and in a house that is being prepared to be a center of wisdom and science for all peoples of the East. I regret to say that I am incapable of reading my lecture in the tongue of my people, and am therefore compelled to switch to a language understood by all of you,” he said.

Thus he prefaced his speech, to spare the crowd the embarrassment of possibly not comprehending it, with the words, “I shall speak in French, a language I am not as fluent in, and should the audience not understand my scientific lecture on the theory of relativity, let the listeners imagine that they have failed to understand me solely due to my linguistic struggles.”

Later on it was revealed that not only the general audience, but many of the dignitaries present struggled to understand the renowned physicist. “I went to Jerusalem to hear the visitor’s lecture. From his entire lecture I understood one thing – that the entire audience understood nothing of it,” Tel Aviv Mayor Meir Dizengoff reported. Later on, when Einstein gave his speech in Tel Aviv as well, he opened by promising, “Fear not, gentlemen, it won’t take long.”

Haaretz’s reporter, too, was forced to admit that he failed to understand the theory of relativity: “There is no way to report the content of the lecture or highlights thereof in this newspaper. Despite the speaker’s attempts to elucidate his words with illustrations and diagrams, and despite the rapt attention of the listeners, there were surely very few who could grasp the principles of the wondrous theory. It struggled to find purchase in the hearts,” according to one article.

“It was impossible to translate his speech. It is a difficult thing. Had they sat for weeks on end, they couldn’t render it,” principal Mossinson added.

When touring a new locale being built outside Jerusalem, Einstein was impressed that the Jewish laborers “arrive with no special knowledge or expertise, and soon achieve excellence,” approvingly noting in his diary that the site managers earned the same wages as the common laborers.

At the national repository of books in Jerusalem, which was located at the time in the Abyssinian quarter downtown and later became the National Library, readers in the athenaeum stood up when greeting Einstein. Employees presented him with a collection of mathematical books from the dawn of Hebrew print. At the city’s Bezalel Art Academy he was struck by “the revival of the ancient Jewish ornaments.”

Grimy but tenacious

During his trip to the northern part of the country, Einstein noted that the landscape surrounding Lake Kinneret “resembles Lake Geneva.” He described Tiberias as “picturesque,” using the same adjective for Nazareth. En route from Nazareth to the community of Migdal, his car got stuck in the mud and had to be extracted with mules.

During his brief travels in the area, he was also impressed by a “young, pretty-as-a-picture Jewess and an interesting educated worker in the farmhouse.” The pioneers he met touched his heart: “Grimy but of earnest will and with tenacity and love in pursuit of their ideal, carrying on the fight against malaria, hunger, and debt.” He correctly forecast that “this communism will not last forever,” but expressed the certainty that it “will raise people of integrity.” In one of his few encounters with Arabs, he got the impression that “the common folk know no nationalism.”

Einstein came across as humble, during his visit to Palestine, and explained his genius as follows at one point: “There are special cells in the human brain, and when the cells happen to come together in a special way, they create this sort of ideas which have to come. These cells happened to come together in my brain, and I am happy that these cells came together in my brain, a Jewish brain, not for the goyim to say, but to encourage and empower ourselves.”

To this, Mossinson, of the Hebrew Gymnasium, added: “We know well that cells don’t just happen to come together,” adding that Einstein had “suckled from our people,” and “derived his theory… from the sparks scattered among us.”

During the great scientist’s visit to the Reali School and the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Einstein said that in addition to having a developed mind, the hands of a Jew must also be trained. He told one audience that while aboard ship, en route to Palestine, his pipe had broken and he had to give it to a Swiss mechanic to be fixed.

“With us Jews, everything has been concentrated in the brain, and nothing was left in the hands,” he deduced. “Here, at the Technion, I see the desire to develop the hands,” he concluded before planting a tree, which stands there to this day.

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