(JTA) — The quirky Jewish physicist would have been proud. A violin once owned by Albert Einstein sold for $516,500 at the New York-based Bonhams auction house on Friday. The instrument ...

Einstein had a birthday ... Albert liked doing puzzles, reading books about nature, and playing violin. He was fascinated by the invisible magnetic force that makes compasses work.

Like a student cramming for an examination, Scientist Albert Einstein shut himself up in a room of Adolph Lewisohn’s New York home one afternoon last week and practiced three hours on his violin.