There’s an old joke that the world’s thinnest book is “Great Jewish Athletes.” But really, there’s a much thinner book than that: “Great Jewish Physicists Before Einstein.” And that’s where we kick off this week’s installment of Jewsday Tuesday.

Einstein at the Annus Mirabilis

If there were ever a single year when science was totally transformed, it would have to be 1905. That year, known as “Annus Mirabilis,” a Jew published a set of four papers wherein he demonstrated the truth of atomic theory, laid the foundations of quantum mechanics, formulated the theory of relativity, and demonstrated the equivalence of mass and energy. This would be enough for four different people to have become scientific legends for lifetime achievement, but it was the work of one Jew in one year. And a Jew who had to work in isolation, since university appointments were not generally extended to those of Hebraic tribal identities. Einstein had no role-models to show him that Jews could do physics, there were no diversity programs, no affirmative action. So clearly, there was no way for him to succeed because he wasn’t taught by people who “looked like him.”

And yet he persisted. To say that these four papers completely transformed physics is an understatement. They had the impact of Newton and Maxwell combined. And of course, there’s cycles and irony here, and that’s this week’s story.

Philipp Lenard

During the Annus Mirabilis, as just about every other year, prominent scientists were honored with the awarding of Nobel Prizes. And in physics for 1905, the Nobel was awarded to Philipp Lenard for his work on cathode rays and the photoelectric effect. Lenard had been able to demonstrate that cathode rays (the basis of how pre-LED video picture tubes work) consisted of a stream of negatively charged particles rather than electromagnetic waves. Further, he showed that these negatively charged particles were much smaller than the size of nitrogen or oxygen molecules of air. He referred to these particles as “quanta,” but that name gave way to the modern appellation of “electron.”

Lenard also worked with the photoelectric effect, an unexplained phenomenon where electrons were ejected from metal surfaces when those surfaces were bombarded with ultraviolet light. He used this as an improved way to generate cathode rays for his experiments, and in this process found that (surprisingly) the ejected electrons did not fly faster when he increased the intensity of the UV light but just got more numerous. Changing the frequency of the UV light was the key to changing the speed of the ejected electrons. The reasons for this were totally mysterious, given the state of knowledge of physics at the turn of the century.

Lenard’s reputation was that of a first rate experimental physicist – his experimental setups and quality of data were superb and highly ingenious. But like a great pitcher who can’t hit, his abilities at experiment did not translate to similar aptitude for theory. It took an Einstein, literally, to figure out why Lenard got the results he got and to make it theoretically clear, quantitative, and predictable. And that analysis is what got Einstein his Nobel about 15 years after Lenard got one – Einstein’s was not for relativity but for explaining Lenard’s photoelectric effect.

So…. 1905. Lenard gets a Nobel. Einstein totally overturns the world of physics. Here’s where things get weird.

Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect directly led to quantum mechanics. And for the rest of his life, Einstein could never accept quantum mechanics and did everything he could to figure out ways to show that QM was nonsense. Unfortunately for him, QM has passed every experimental challenge ever thrown at it, and his thought experiments about QM’s inevitable paradoxes in fact only strengthened his hated theory when experiment verified them.

Weirder yet: Lenard deeply resented his brilliant experiments being explained by this upstart Jewish nobody. He embarked on a single-minded lifelong crusade to discredit anything and everything that Einstein had done, contrasting the hated Jew Physics (his actual term for it) with the beautiful and traditional Aryan Physics (also his term). He was also active in movements to ban or severely restrict the use of English and English terms in physics texts and university settings. Then Hitler appeared. Lenard (with the help of fellow Nobelist Johannes Stark, he of the eponymous Stark Effect, which ironically gave more experimental support to the hated Jew Physics QM) enthusiastically embraced the Nazi party, led the effort to remove Jews from university positions, and replaced any faculty that supported modern physics Jew Physics with politically correct Aryan Physics advocates.

Lenard became Hitler’s chief science adviser, and his only failure in the political realm was his inability to destroy Werner Heisenberg, one of the founders of QM (and he would have succeeded if it weren’t for you nosy kids Heisenberg’s childhood friendship with Heinrich Himmler). In the scientific realm, of course, he utterly failed to dislodge Einstein’s theories from physics outside of Germany and discredit that hated Jew, though he did manage to transform Germany from the world leader in physics to a total non-entity for decades thereafter.

Lenard’s legacy is obscurity and fringe “scientists” who have gone to impressive lengths to disprove relativity (Here’s an example of 100 scientists beclowning themselves – remember this the next time someone tells you about that 97% thing), which has in our day mutated into an interesting alliance between crank “scientists” and frank anti-semites.

Einstein’s legacy is a reputation as one of the smartest humans to ever live and almost the entire basis of what we know and understand about physics a century later. Following Einstein, it’s fair to say that Jews have dominated physics in disproportionate numbers, and one contributing factor was the Lenard-and-Stark-led purge.

I’d score this one a win for (((us))).