Book links Oppenheimer’s secrets to his Jewish roots

David Rieff challenges the standard narrative of Robert Oppenheimer as a purely tragic figure. In his new book, Robert Oppenheimer: The Sphinx Without a Secret, the journalist connects the physicist’s emotional distance to his complicated relationship with his Jewish heritage. Rieff suggests that Oppenheimer’s enigmatic personality stemmed from a desire to stay at the center of cultural and government circles, rather than from a simple suppression of his identity.

The author details a specific incident that occurred when Oppenheimer was 14 years old. While attending a summer camp for affluent German Jewish children in upstate New York, the teenager faced mockery for his small frame and lack of athletic interest. When his parents complained to staff about the teasing, other campers retaliated by beating him, covering him in green paint, and locking him inside an icehouse overnight. Rieff argues that Oppenheimer’s decision to remain for the rest of the summer and his refusal to name his attackers established a pattern of psychological silence that defined his adult life.

This tendency toward reticence appeared decades later during the 1954 hearings. Oppenheimer failed to defend himself vigorously against the removal of his security clearances, a move Rieff traces back to his camp experience. Despite this personal quiet, the physicist was active in supporting Jewish causes. In 1934, while a graduate student in Germany, he sent part of his salary to the University of California, Berkeley, to assist German Jewish scientists fleeing the Nazi threat. His anger over the treatment of Jews in Germany, combined with sympathy for Depression victims, led him to support Communist front organizations throughout the 1930s.

Oppenheimer kept his political views even after the 1939 non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. However, his patriotic instincts were triggered when France fell and the Battle of Britain began. He distanced himself from the Communist Party but maintained contact with his brother Frank and his former partner Jean Tatlock. General Leslie Groves overrode objections from the FBI and army intelligence to grant Oppenheimer a security clearance. Groves bet that the physicist’s ambition and loyalty would ensure his dedication to the Manhattan Project.

Following the bombing of Nagasaki, Rieff notes that Oppenheimer did not have a sudden moment of regret. He continued to defend the bomb while acknowledging its grim implications. He told President Harry Truman that he felt he had blood on his hands. In his later years as director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, he focused on international control over nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer died in 1967, and his legacy remains visible in the 2023 film directed by Christopher Nolan.