Cyrus Adler (September 13, 1863 – April 7, 1940) was an American educator,

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

religious leader and scholar.

Early years

Adler was born to

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and planter Samuel Adler and Sarah Sulzberger in

Van Buren, Arkansas Van Buren ( ) is the second-largest city in the Fort Smith metropolitan area, Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area and the county seat of Crawford County, Arkansas, Crawford County, Arkansas, United States. The city is lo ...

on September 13, 1863, but in the next year his parents removed to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and soon he attended the public schools there, and in 1879 he entered the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, from where he graduated in 1883. Afterwards, he pursued

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, where he was appointed university scholar in 1884, and fellow in

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

from 1885 to 1887. He earned the first American

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Semitics from the university in 1887 and was appointed instructor in Semitic languages and promoted to associate professor in 1890. He taught

at Johns Hopkins from 1884 to 1893.

Career

In 1877 he was appointed assistant curator of the section of Oriental antiquities in the

United States National Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, and had charge of an exhibit of

biblical archaeology Biblical archaeology is an academic school and a subset of Biblical studies and Levantine archaeology. Biblical archaeology studies archaeological sites from the Ancient Near East and especially the Holy Land (also known as Land of Israel and ...

at the centennial exposition of the

Ohio valley The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its mouth on the Mississippi River in Cairo, ...

in 1888. He was a commissioner for the world's Columbian exposition to the Orient in 1890, and he passed sixteen months in

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Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

, and

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securing exhibits. For a number of years he was employed by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

at Washington, with a focus on archaeology and Semitics, serving as the

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from December 1, 1892 to 1905. In 1895, after years of searching, he located the Jefferson Bible and purchased it for the Smithsonian Institution from the great-granddaughter of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

. He was made lecturer on biblical archaeology in the Jewish Theological Seminary in

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, president of the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...

, U.S. delegate to a conference on an international catalogue of

scientific literature Scientific literature encompasses a vast body of academic papers that spans various disciplines within the natural and social sciences. It primarily consists of academic papers that present original empirical research and theoretical ...

in 1898, and honorary assistant curator of historic archaeology and custodian of historic religions in the U.S. national museum. In 1900, he was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Last years

He was a founder of the Jewish Welfare Board. He was president of Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning from 1908 to 1940 and Chancellor of the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

. In addition, he was a founding member of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia. He was involved in the creation of various Jewish organizations including the

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by Reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...

, the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...

(also its president in 1929–1940), and the United Synagogue of America. Adler served a variety of organizations by holding various offices. For example, he was on the board of trustees at the American Jewish Publication Society and Gratz College, served as vice-president of the Anthropological Society of Washington, and as member of council of the Philosophical Society of Washington. Adler married Racie Friedenwald of

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in 1905, when he was 42. They had one child, a daughter named Sarah. From 1911 until 1916, Adler was ''Parnas'' (president) of Congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia. He died in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and his papers are held by the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Works

Adler was an editor of the ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

'' and in collaboration with Allen Ramsay wrote ''Tales Told in a Coffee House'' (1898). He was part of the committee that translated the

version of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He was also a contributor to the '' New International Encyclopedia''. His many scholarly writings include articles on comparative religion,

Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The fie ...

, and Semitic

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

. He edited the '' American Jewish Year Book'' from 1899 to 1905 and the ''Jewish Quarterly Review'' from 1910 to 1940. He was besides contributions to the ''

Journal of the American Oriental Society The ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society since 1843. The editor in chief is Peri Bearman (Harvard University).American Philological Association The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), formerly known as the American Philological Association (APA), is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization founded in 1869. It is the pree ...

'', the '' Andover Review'', '' Hebraica'', ''Johns Hopkins University Circular'' and numerous reviews.

References

Citations

Sources

* * *

External links

Cyrus Adler Lectures on His Presidentially-Mandated Tour of The Levant
Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Articles written by Cyrus Adler
on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner
The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
archival entry on Adler's papers.
Guide to the papers of Cyrus Adler
at the

, New York, New York.
Fact Monster Entry
for Cyrus Adler. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Cyrus 1863 births 1940 deaths People from Van Buren, Arkansas 19th-century American educators 19th-century American Jews University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Johns Hopkins University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Dropsie College faculty Gratz College Smithsonian Institution people Judaic scholars Jewish American historians American male non-fiction writers American religious leaders Translators of the Bible into English Librarians from Arkansas American anti-communists American encyclopedists American philologists American Hebraists American book editors 19th-century American historians Jewish anti-communists Jewish translators of the Bible 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American translators Presidents of the American Jewish Committee Members of the American Philosophical Society