Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel, but he turned it down.

Einstein never lived in Israel, but he was a hero for the Jewish people during and after WWII. He fled Nazi Germany for the United States in the early 1930s. He spent much of his time during the war fighting to help other Jewish refugees escape Europe. He also raised money to create the homeland for Jews in Palestine that later became Israel.

Despite helping create Israel, he had misgivings about the Jewish state and turned down an offer to be its president. "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it."

Einstein's opinion of Israel: "I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state."

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