Descriptive Summary |
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| Creator: | Cyrus Adler (1863-1940) | |
| Title: | Cyrus Adler Papers | |
| Dates: | n.d., 1883-1937 | |
| Abstract: | Born in Arkansas and raised in Pennsylavania, Cyrus Adler was a prominent Jewish scholar, educator, and leader. A nephew of the Philadelphian Sulzbergers (Mayer and David), Adler developed an interest in libraries, Semitics, and Assyriology, earning a Ph.D from Johns Hopkins. In 1888, Adler began work at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and eventually became the President of Dropsie College in Philadelphia. Adler was active in Jewish affairs and history, in the American Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the United Synagogue, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, The Jewish Encyclopedia, the National Jewish Welfare Board, and he participated in the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The collection represents a small portion of Adler's papers with materials concerning Jewish activism, Conservative Judaism, and Jewish scholarship and history in America. The collection contains correspondence, galleys and page proofs, manuscripts and published articles, clippings, notes, speeches, and ephemera. | |
| Languages: | The collection is in English, with some Hebrew and Yiddish. | |
| Quantity: | 2.5 linear ft. (5 manuscript boxes) | |
| Identification: | P-16 | |
Cyrus Adler (1863-1940)
Cyrus Adler was born in Van Buren, Arkansas, on September 13, 1863. His father, Samuel, was a merchant and cotton planter who had settled in Van Buren in 1840. The family fled Civil War fighting and poor economic conditions in Arkansas for a return North several months after Cyrus was born. Unfortunately, Samuel Adler did not long survive the trip. Following her husband's death in January 1867, Sarah Adler took her family back to Philadelphia to live with her unmarried brother, David Sulzberger. Cyrus grew up surrounded by the traditional Ashkenazic religious practices of his maternal Sulzberger relatives, who had emigrated from Germany; he was particularly influenced in this regard by his uncle and an older second cousin, Mayer (a prominent Philadelphia judge). From them he also absorbed a love of scholarship which would shape the rest of his life.
Young Cyrus first attended a day school run by the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia, where he studied Hebrew and Judaism in addition to traditional public school subjects, and then transferred to the public grammar school several blocks away. During his high school years, he began the task of preparing an author's catalog to the library collection of Isaac Leeser, which had been donated to the Library of the Philadelphia YMHA. Impressed with the results of his young nephew's efforts, David Sulzburger arranged for the catalogue to be printed. Adler later referred to this work as having "laid the foundation of my interest in libraries, in cataloguing and in bibliographies."
Cyrus Adler attended college near home, at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he earned an A. B. in 1883 and an M.A. in 1886. Having developed a keen interest in Semitics, he went on to study Assyriology under Professor Paul Haupt in the newly established graduate program at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where Adler also taught Semitics from 1884 to 1893. Upon obtaining his Ph.D. from Hopkins in 1887, Adler was appointed Honorary Assistant Curator of Semitics at the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. His devotion to the Smithsonian led to his subsequent appointment there as Curator of Historic Archaeology and Historic Religions at the U.S. National Museum (1889-1908), Institute Librarian (1892-1905), and Assistant Secretary (1905-1908). In the interim, Adler also served as Special Commissioner to the Orient for the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893, for which he organized the Oriental Department, and served on the editorial board of the Jewish Encyclopedia from 1899 to 1905. In 1908, he accepted the post of President of the newly formed Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning in Philadelphia and moved back to Philadelphia.
Adler's involvement with Jewish history and culture was not limited to his own scholarly endeavors. In 1888, he helped to found the Jewish Publication Society of America, and edited the first seven volumes of The American Jewish Year Book. He was also instrumental in the founding of the American Jewish Historical Society in 1892, the first organization to promote the scientific study of the history of Jews in the Western Hemisphere. He edited The Jewish Quarterly Review, a scholarly journal whose publication was assumed by Dropsie College. Following the death of Solomon Schechter in 1916, Adler became Acting President of The Jewish Theological Seminary - a post which eventually turned permanent in 1924. In 1906, he was one of the founders of the American Jewish Committee, eventually succeeding Louis Marshall as President in 1929. Adler found himself in frequent disagreement with American Zionist leaders during this period, but continued to serve on behalf of world Jewry, acting as co-chair of Council for the Jewish Agency from 1929 to 1931.
Adler was a bachelor for more than half his life, finally marrying Racie Friedenwald of Baltimore in 1905, at age 42. Adler and his wife had one child, a daughter named Sarah born the year after their marriage. In his later years, failing health caused Cyrus Adler to slow his lifelong hectic pace of academic and communal activities, and he largely retired from public life after 1933. During his retirement, he delighted in spending time with his small granddaughter, Judith Wolfinsohn. Adler died at age 77 in April 1940.
Sources
Adler, Cyrus. I Have Considered the Days. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1941.
Neuman, Abraham A. Cyrus Adler: A Biographical Sketch. New York: The American Jewish Committee, 1942.
S. v., "Adler, Cyrus," Who's Who in American Jewry, 1938-1939 (New York: National News Association, Inc., 1938), pp. 10-13.
S. v., "Adler, Cyrus," Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (New York, 1941), pp. 88-89.
S. v., "Adler, Cyrus," Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1972), pp. 272-27
| 1863 | Born
in Van Buren, Arkansas, to Samuel Adler and his wife Sarah Sulzberger Adler (of
Philadelphia) |
|
| 1867 | Samuel
Adler dies. Sarah Adler moves her family to Philadelphia |
|
| 1883 | Obtains A.B. from the University of
Pennsylvania |
|
| 1884-1893 | Fellow,
Instructor and Associate Professor of Semitic languages at The Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Maryland |
|
| 1886 | Obtains M.A. from the University of
Pennsylvania |
|
| 1887 | Earned Ph.D.
in Semitics from Johns Hopkins University in February; began teaching at Johns
Hopkins and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York |
|
| 1888 | Appointed Honorary Assistant Curator for
Oriental Antiquities at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
D.C. |
|
| Prepared exhibition of
biblical archeology for Government building at the Cincinnati
Exposition |
||
| Founding member of
the Jewish Publication Society of America |
||
| 1889-1908 | Curator of Historic Archaeology and Historic
Religions at the United States National Museum, Smithsonian
Institution |
|
| 1890-1892 | Special
Commissioner to Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Tunis and Morocco for the World's
Columbian Exhibition at Chicago; organized Oriental Department for the
fair |
|
| 1892 | Founding member of
the American Jewish Historical Society |
|
| 1892-1898 | Secretary of the American Jewish Historical
Society |
|
| 1893 | Appointed
Librarian of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian
Institution |
|
| 1898 | Represented
the United States at the Conference on the International Catalogue of
Scientific Literature, London |
|
| 1898-1922 | President of The American Jewish Historical
Society |
|
| 1899-1905 | Editor of
the American Jewish Year Book |
|
| 1899-1906 | Departmental editor for
The Jewish Encyclopedia |
|
| 1902-1905 | President of the Board of Trustees,
Jewish Theological Seminary of America |
|
| Sept. 1905 | Married Racie Friedenwald of
Baltimore |
|
| 1905-1908 | Assistant
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution |
|
| 1906 | Helped found the American Jewish
Committee |
|
| Daughter Sarah
born |
||
| 1908 | Appointed President
of Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning in Philadelphia; moved back
to Philadelphia |
|
| 1908-1915 | Chaired the Board of Editors for new JPS translation of the
Bible |
|
| 1910 | Became Co-Editor of
The Jewish Quarterly Review with Solomon
Schechter |
|
| 1913 | Helped found
the
United Synagogue of
America |
|
| 1916-1940 | Editor of The Jewish Quarterly
Review |
|
| 1916-1924 | Acting President of Jewish Theological Seminary; Chair of Executive
Board of the American Jewish Committee |
|
| 1917 | Became Chairman of the Army and Navy Committee of the
National Jewish Welfare Board |
|
| 1919 | Represented the American Jewish Committee at the
Paris
Peace Conference |
|
| 1923 | Elected President of the
American Oriental
Society |
|
| 1924 | Appointed President of the Jewish Theological Seminary
|
|
| 1929 | Appointed President of
the American Jewish Committee |
|
| 1929-1931 | Co-chair of the Council of the
Jewish Agency for
Palestine |
|
| 1932 | Daughter Sarah marries violinist Wolfe Wolfinsohn in
January |
|
| 1933 | Granddaughter
Judith Wolfinsohn born on November 26th |
|
| 1939 | Summoned by President Roosevelt to confer on strategies
for peace in post-War America |
|
| 1940 | Died on April 7. |
| 1925 | Honorary Doctorate in Hebrew Letters, Hebrew Union
College |
|
| 1930 | Honorary
Doctorate of Letters, University of Pennsylvania |
|
| 1933 | Silver Buffalo Award, Boy Scouts of
America. |
The Papers of Cyrus Adler encompass the breadth of his involvement in the American Jewish community as a scholar, educator, administrator and leader. Although the collection represents only a small portion of his extant papers, there is a great deal of important material contained within it for the study of Jewish activism, Conservative Judaism, Jewish scholarship in America and American Jewish history.
The collection is valuable to researchers interested in the history of the American Jewish Historical Society and its early activities, in the development of the Jewish Encyclopedia in 1901, in Jewish immigration to the United States from Russia, in Jewish participation in the Spanish American War, and in the growth of Conservative Judaism and the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as in the scholarly study of Semitics at The Johns Hopkins University and the Smithsonian Institution toward the end of the 19th century.
The collection contains correspondence, galleys and page proofs, manuscript and published articles, clippings, notes, speeches and ephemera. The vast majority of the items are in English, with some notations in Yiddish and Hebrew (generally made by others).
The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.
Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the
Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply
in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript
materials found in this collection. For more information
contact:
American Jewish Historical Society
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Papers of Max James Kohler, P-7
Papers of the Sulzberger Family,
P-147
Papers of Louis Marshall, P-24
Papers of Jacob H. Schiff,
P-295
Papers of Israel Zangwill, P-225
Papers of Oscar Solomon Straus,
P-220
Papers of Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal, P-021
Records of the
American Jewish Historical Society
Records of the American Jewish Relief
Committee for Sufferers from the War, I-083
Records of the Baron de Hirsch
Fund, I-055
Records of the National Association of Jewish Social Workers,
I-087
Records of the National Jewish Welfare Board, I-180
Records of
the American Jewish Historical Exhibition, I-021
American Jewish Historical Society
Papers of Jacob H. Schiff
Papers of Louis Marshall
Papers of Judah
L. Magnes
Papers of Rabbi David Phillipson
Papers of Morris D.
Waldman
American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati
Papers of Cyrus Adler
Center for Judaic
Studies Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Records
of the American Jewish Committee
YIVO Institute for
Jewish Research, New York
Records of the Jewish Theological
Seminary
The Jewish Theological Seminary, New
York
Individual gifts given to AJHS, in part, by Cyrus Adler (1908, 1911, 1914), Racie Friedenwald Adler (1940), the American Jewish Committee (1976), and The Sang Foundation (1979).
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification
of item, date (if known); Cyrus Adler Papers; P-16; box number; folder number;
American Jewish Historical Society, Newton Centre, MA and New York, NY.
Cyrus Adler Publications
"Progress of Oriental Science in America during 1888" in Smithsonian Institution Annual Report 1888 (Washington, 1890)
The Shofar (Washington, 1894)
Museum Collections to Illustrate Religious History and Ceremonials (Washington, 1895)
Biblical Antiquities. A Description of the Exhibit at the Cotton States International Exposition, Atlanta 1895 (Washington, 1898)
Turkish Tales, Told in the Coffee House (New York, 1898)
Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Objects of Jewish Ceremonial Deposited in the United States National Museum by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat (Washington, 1901)
Editor, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French, and English by Thomas Jefferson (Washington, 1904)
Editor, The Voice of American on Kishinev (Philadelphia, 1904)
Co-editor, Oriental Studies [Paul Haupt 40th Anniversary Festschrift] (Baltimore, 1926)
Jacob H. Schiff: His Life and Letters (2 volumes; New York, 1928)
Memorandum on the Western Wall: Prepared for the Special Commission of the League of Nations on Behalf of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (Philadelphia, 1930)
Lectures, Selected Papers and Addresses [Adler's 70th Birthday Festscrift] (1933)
I Have Considered the Days (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1941)
With Firmness in the Right: American Diplomatic Action Affecting Jews, 1840-1945 (New York, 1946, reprinted 1977)
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.