Einstein-Ben Gurion

1951, May 14
David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, meets physicist Albert Einstein in Princeton University to offer him the Presidency of Israel young state, as to be the first President.

Einstein declined, saying he lacked "the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people" to do the job.

Einstein on Decision to Not Accept Presidency Offer:

"I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel [to serve as President], and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions. For these reasons alone I should be unsuited to fulfill the duties of that high office, even if advancing age was not making increasing inroads on my strength. I am the more distressed over these circumstances because my relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world." (The Albert Einstein Archives, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)