The development of technical and scientific opportunities for the Jewish people, and particularly for the new Technikum, was a cause that Professor Albert Einstein, a two-time Nobel laureate, felt was worth his investment. “The development of the Land of Israel is of immense importance to all Jewry,” he stated at a dinner with the American Technion Society. In 1923, Einstein visited the Technion and planted a palm tree during his visit. The tree still stands today in front of the old Technion building in Haifa’s Hadar neighborhood. Einstein returned to Germany to establish the first Technion Society and served as its chairman. Later, he was scheduled to tour America to raise funds for higher education in the Land of Israel, a cause he said was “close to his heart.” Einstein’s motivation was not nationalistic but humanitarian. “I am doing what I can to help those of my tribe who are treated so poorly everywhere,” he said.