In October 1954, when an honorary doctorate was to be conferred to Einstein at Princeton, Oppenheimer made himself unavailable at the last moment (despite being "begged" to attend the event); he informed the convocation committee that he had to be out of town on the day of convocation. Earlier, in May 1954 when the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee decided to honour Einstein on his seventy-fifth birthday, the American Committee for Cultural Freedom, concerned about the Communist ties of the honouring committee requested Oppenheimer to stop Einstein from attending the event lest it may cause people to associate Judaism with Communism, and think of scientists as naive about politics. Oppenheimer, who was then busy with his security clearance hearings, persuaded Einstein to dissociate with the honouring committee.