Items from a collection of about 1,400 letters that Albert Einstein wrote to his wives and children were made public yesterday for the first time by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

According to Barbara Wolff, an archivist at the university's Einstein Archives, who read all 3,500 pages of correspondence, and Prof. Hanoch Gutfreund, who manages all matters relating to Einstein at the university, the collection sheds new light on the personal life - as husband, father and lover - of the person who is widely considered the greatest scientist of the twentieth century.

Einstein willed his entire archive to the Hebrew University. His stepdaughter, Margot Einstein, gave the personal correspondence to the university and stipulated the letters remain sealed for 20 years after her death to protect the privacy of the individuals mentioned therein; she died on July 8, 1986.