Handwritten letter from Albert Einstein denouncing anti-Semitism in American universities up for auction

The physicist wrote this letter to his friend, Austrian Jewish pianist Bruno Eisner, in 1936.

"Be careful, it never takes the form of speech or brutal actions, but simmers all the more intensely below the surface," writes Einstein.

Eisner was staying in New York at the time with a mutual friend.

"He is, so to speak, an omnipresent enemy, impossible to see, and whose presence we can only perceive."

Einstein explains in the letter that his own assistant was forced to leave the country and take a post in Russia due to the anti-Semitism he had faced in the United States.

The letter will go on sale in the week with a starting price of 40,000 shekels ($11,450).

Albert Einstein, born in Germany and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his discovery of the photoelectric effect, was on a speaking tour abroad when Adolf Hitler came to power. Read more

In December 1932 Einstein decided to leave Germany forever (he would never go back). It became obvious to Einstein that his life was in danger. A Nazi organization published a magazine with Einstein's picture and the caption “Not Yet Hanged” on the cover. There was even a price on his head.