Elkan Nathan Adler (24 July 1861 in St Luke's, London – 15 September 1946 in London) was an English author, lawyer, historian, and collector of Jewish books and

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s. Adler's father was Nathan Marcus Adler,

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. He traveled extensively and built an enormous library, particularly of old Jewish documents. Adler was among the first to explore the documents stored in the Cairo Genizah, being in fact the first European to enter it. During his visits to Cairo in 1888 and 1895 Adler collected and brought over 25,000 Genizah manuscript fragments back to England. Adler was particularly interested in the history of Persian (Iranian) Jews. He traveled to

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

and

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

in 1896 and 1897, where he purchased various Hebrew and

Judeo-Persian Judeo-Persian refers to both a group of Jewish dialects spoken by Jews and Judeo-Persian texts (written in Hebrew alphabet). As a collective term, Judeo-Persian refers to a number of Judeo-Iranian languages spoken by Jewish communities throughout ...

manuscripts and later published descriptive lists of their contents. These publications provided Western scholars with critical insight into the cultural, literary, and intellectual endeavors pursued by the Jews of Iran. The manuscripts collected by Adler include both religious and secular works on various topics, including stories, folklore, calendars, biblical and Talmudic dictionaries, prayer books, liturgical hymns, discourses on Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), and chronicles of religious persecution. In his 1921 summary, ''Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts in the Collection of E. N. Adler,'' Adler described over 4,500 manuscripts in his collection. Overall, Adler collected some 30,000 printed books in Judaica. Unfortunately for him, a business associate's embezzlement forced him to sell most of his library to 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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

in 1923. Moreover, Adler agreed to bequeath his subsequent acquisitions to the Jewish Theological Seminary upon his death. During a visit to Egypt in 1924, Adler acquired a recently discovered jar that contained the private archive of an Egyptian mercenary, Horos son of Nechoutes (c. 145-88 BC), and he personally contributed to the edition of the documents which were published as The Adler Papyri. Adler published many books about his travels and on his extensive collections, including ''About Hebrew Manuscripts'' (1905), ''A Gazetteer of Hebrew Printing'' (1917); ''Jews in Many Lands'' (1905); '' Auto de Fe and Jew'' (1908); ''History of the Jews of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

'' (1930); ''Jewish Travellers'' (1930, repr. 1966); and articles on the

Samaritan Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...

s and on the

History of the Jews in Egypt The history of the Jews in Egypt goes back to ancient times. Egyptian Jews or Jewish Egyptians refer to the Jewish community in Egypt who mainly consisted of Egyptian Arabic-speaking Rabbanites and Karaites. Though Egypt had its own community ...

and

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Adler was extremely active in English-Jewish communal affairs, especially in education, and was an ardent

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

; he was an early member of the

Hovevei Zion The Lovers of Zion, also ''Hovevei Zion'' () or ''Hibbat Zion'' (, ), were a variety of proto-Zionist organizations founded in 1881 in response to the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire and were officially constituted as a group at a conf ...

in England. Per his will, his personal archives are now at the library of the

References

External links

*
Jewish Encyclopedia

The Library of The JTS

Works by and about Elkan Nathan Adler in University Library JCS Frankfurt am Main: Digital Collections Judaica

Bookplate of Elkan Nathan Adler
Rare Books of the Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies, Washington University {{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Elkan Nathan 1861 births 1946 deaths English Jews 20th-century English writers 19th-century British historians 20th-century English historians 19th-century English explorers 20th-century British explorers Judaic scholars Jewish historians Writers from the London Borough of Islington Hovevei Zion 19th-century English Jews 20th-century English Jews British Zionists Jewish English writers English book and manuscript collectors