Dr. Sidney Edelstein, pioneer industrial chemist, noted historian, scholar and philanthropist, has contributed $1 million for a center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which will house several major collections of scientific books and manuscripts, including Albert Einstein’s personal archives, it was announced here by the American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU).
The contribution to the AFHU will endow the Sidney Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine. The Center will provide a bridge between the sciences and the humanities at the university and for scholars from Israel and throughout the world.
It will encourage and enable scientists to broaden their knowledge of the history of their field, while providing the wherewithal for historians, philosophers and other scholars to pursue the impact of science and technology on all of human experience, the AFHU said.
The Einstein collection comprises some 45,000 documents from the scientist’s archives, including some 30 unpublished scientific manuscripts and a vast amount of correspondence with the century’s leading scientists and public personalities. Einstein left the collection to the university in his will.
The Center will also prove a home for Edelstein’s own collection — considered one of the world’s most important — of books and manuscripts concerning the history of chemistry, alchemy, dyeing and related sciences. He gave the collection to the Hebrew University in 1976.
A PIONEER IN INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY
Edelstein, the president of Dexter Chemical Corporation of New York City, is a pioneer in the chemistry of dyeing and textiles. He is actively engaged as a science historian, with a particular interest in the development of dyestuffs, dyeing and the chemical industry and has numerous publications in this field. He is considered a world authority on the analysis of ancient dyes and the development of their use.
Edelstein, of Fort Lee, N. J., has been a vice chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, a member of the national board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and has been active with the Israel Bond Organization and the World Federation of YMHA’s and Jewish Community Centers. He is a member of the Council of Trustees of the AFHU.
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