Esther Salaman

Esther "Polly" Salaman (née Polianowsky) (Hebrew: אֶסְתֵּר פאָליאַנאָווסקי שָׂלָמָן, Russian: Эстер Поляновская Саламан; 6 January 1900 – 9 November 1995) was a Russian-born Jewish writer and physicist.

Polianowsky fought in the Ukrainian national resistance during the Russian Civil War, thereupon escaping to Mandatory Palestine in January 1920 to join a group of pioneer agricultural workers.

[3] Despite the volatile situation for Jews in Germany, Esther and her sister Feyga (Fania) elected to relocate to Berlin in the summer of 1922 to resume their education.

Polianowsky's application to the University of Berlin was sponsored by Albert Einstein, whose recommendation gained her admission to the Faculty of Physics, in spite of her not having completed an entrance examination.

He encouraged her writing after reading her article in the Frankfurter Zeitung recalling the murderous pogroms in Zhytomyr by Petliura's Cossacks during Orthodox Christmas of 1918.

[7] From 1940, Myer and Esther Salaman shared a large home in Cambridge with their close friends Frances and Francis Cornford, along with their respective children.