By Mayank Chhaya-
Indians constitute the largest number of admirers of Albert Einstein on social media, says the official manager of the social media accounts of the physicist who emblematized the idea of genius.
Benyamin Cohen, an award-winning writer and journalist whose latest book ‘The Einstein Effect’ will be released on July 18, says, “Sometimes even more than the United States, India is the number 1 country for Einstein’s fans on social media. That’s across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I see the most comments from India, I get the most messages from India. People send me artwork about Einstein (from India). A lot of it comes from kids in India.”
With 20 million plus followers, Einstein as handled by Cohen outnumbers most dead celebrities and even some big living ones such as the Hollywood icon Tom Hanks, according to Cohen.
A blurb for the book being published by Sourcebooks says, “Albert Einstein was the first modern-day celebrity and, decades after his death, still has the world’s most recognizable face. His influence is seen in much of the technology we use every day: GPS, remote controls, weather forecasts, even toothpaste. But it’s not just his scientific discoveries that continue to shape our world. His legacy underpins the search for aliens, the rescue of refugees, the invention of time machines and the debunking of fake news. He appears in new books, TV shows and movies – and fans are paying millions for Einstein relics at auction.”
Cohen’s day job is as the News Director of the Forward and was the founding editor of both Jewsweek and American Jewish Life magazine. He is the co-host of the That Jewish News Show podcast.
Cohen’s book is a freewheeling reportage of how Einstein’s legacy, both scientific and philosophical, not just survives but even flourishes nearly seven decades after his death in 1955 and 118 years after he formulated arguably the four most revolutionary theories of in physics that he published in the single year of 1905 when he was just 26. They are the photoelectric effect, for which he won the Nobel Prize, Brownian Motion, the general theory of relativity and the famous equation E=MC2 (squared).
In the book, Cohen looks around the world for Einstein’s relevance, interviewing scientists, celebrities, dozens of people with the last name Einstein, and others. Along the way he also finds Einstein’s brain that was stolen during an autopsy and stored in a beer cooler in the basement of a doctor’s home in Princeton, New Jersey.
Half in jest and half seriously, Cohen explains the enduring love and admiration for Einstein by saying, “He is so beloved because people do not understand his science. They project their ideas on who they think he was.”
Cohen says it is an “awesome responsibility” to be the manager of Einstein’s social media accounts, a perch he uses to frequently correct misinformation about the scientist as well as often misattributed quotes. He cites the specific example of Ivanka Trump who tweeted a quote purportedly by Einstein when in fact it was not. The quote wrongly attributed to Einstein by Ivanka was “If facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” Einstein never said that. Cohen corrected her but to no avail since she did not bother to take it down.
Cohen, who describes himself as a “likeable idiot”, offers the kind of insights into Einstein’s legacy never before encountered. Some of them are quite hilarious. For instance, he spoke to some women who were married to men with the last name Einstein and eventually got divorced. As part of the divorce settlement though they insisted that they retain their last name because of the obvious appeal of the name. That is like reflected glory removed several times over but still retaining its shine.
Cohen’s book has been receiving rave reviews. For instance, the well-known actor, singer and activist Mandy Patinkin, wrote, “I’ve tried to read other books about Einstein, but I never finished them. Benyamin has a tremendous sense of humor, and he displays it in the telling of our universal connection to one of the greatest gifts to humanity, Albert Einstein. I promise, if you pick up this book, you’ll never want to put it down.”
Library Journal said, “Readers won’t find a livelier celebration of Einstein’s work and life.”
