In the letter, which is from 1954, Einstein expresses his views on God and the Jewish people. Einstein, a German born Jew escaped from Nazi Germany in 1933 and is credited with sending President Roosevelt a letter (not the one up for bid) explaining that Hitler may have been on the path to building an atomic weapon... the letter to the President is said to have directed the United States to developing its own atomic bomb.
The letter up for auction however sheds light on what Einstein believed in terms of religion and shows him as purely a man of science and not faith... from the letter:
"For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people, to whom I gladly belong and whose mentality I have a deep affinity, have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups... I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them..."
"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it..."