Louis Untermeyer, well known poet of New York, has composed a special ode in celebration of Dr. Albert Einstein’s fifty-fourth birthday, occurring on March 14th. The poem will be read at a dinner held in honor of Dr. Albert Einstein at the Hotel Commodore on March 15th, under the auspices of the American Friends of the Hebrew University and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Special music by Louis Gruenberg, composer of the American Opera, “Emperor Jones”, has been written for the dinner to Dr. Einstein, it was announced. Mr. Gruenberg stated that he himself would play the accompaniment to the melody written in honor of the German scientist, who will make his only public appearance in New York at the dinner at which it is expected over one thousand of his friends and admirers from all over the country will be present.
Diplomatic representatives of three European powers who will be present to greet Dr. Einstein before his departure for Europe directly after the dinner, include Count Charles de Ferry de Fontnouvelle, the French Consulate General; Commandre Antoni Grossardi, the Italian Consulate General, and Dr. O. C. Kiep, the German Consulate General, according to Mr. Sol M. Stroock, Chairman of the Dinner Committee.
Dr. Einstein’s address, Mr. Untermeyer’s poem and the speech of Dr. Harlow Shapley of the Harvard University Astronomical Observatory, will be delivered over the radio on a coast to coast hook up through the National Broadcasting Company, Mr. Stroock stated.
Other speakers include President Karl T. Compton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Mr. James Marshall, Vice-Chairman of the Council of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and Dr. Nathan Ratnoff of the Beth Israel Hospital and Chairman of the American Jewish Physicians Committee.
The dinner honoring Dr. Einstein is part of the nation wide celebration of the Eighth Anniversary of the Hebrew University, which will occur on April 1st. Dr. Einstein, whose original manuscript on Relativity was given by him to the Hebrew University Library, was Chairman of the first National Council of the Hebrew University.
Dr. Einstein who will arrive from Pasadena, California, on the morning of March 15th, accompanied by Frau Einstein, will leave for Germany on the S. S. Deutschland at midnight.
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