Newspaper Page Text
I T is hard to avoid a play on
thr name of Dr. Cyrus Adler,
American Jewish leader who
•aincd his seventieth birthday
n Wednesday, September the
thirteenth. Adler in German
means eagle, and that bird can
well symbolize the character and
hievrments of the man; indi-
ltim: his sweep of interest in the
iried aspects of Jewish life, his
wide, comprehensive view of the
Jewish world, his sustained
wrr. his consistency, and the
huh plane of intellect and ethics
•hat he brings to his daily con
cerns.
I he eagle, too, is an aloof
feature; and in this respect as
well there is a similarity between
•he two. Always opposed to pub
licity and any form of exhibition
al. Cyrus Adler spent his birth-
in somewhere on the high seas,
lieth, with the same indifference
’> display that has marked his
achievements in public life
throughout his years.
In this article I shall deal
mainly with Cyrus Adler, the
Jew, for while he has been not
able in his work as citizen and
humanitarian generally, his many
'ears have been especially fruit
ful to Jewish causes. He has
partaken in every important phase
t Jewish communal life as edu
cator, scholar, diplomat and com
munal leader. He first achieved
distinction in the academic world,
but he was able also to bring
-'its of a high order to the prac
tical problems of his co-relig
ionists.
Dr. Adler was born in Van
Huren, Arkansas, September 13,
1863, the son of orthodox parents, years before
‘■•e great wave of Jewish immigration to America
; “1 begun. His father died when he was an in-
tant, and it was his mother who shaped his life,
and acquainted him at an early age with the best
:n Jewish culture. The boy’s fondness for Jewish
udies soon generated an enthusiasm for that field
beyond his years. He came, too, under the in-
" U(, nce of the great Sabato Morais, who encour-
his inclination. At twenty he received his
‘bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsyl
vania. Pour years later, after having pursued a
ir>e in Semitic studies at Johns Hopkins, where
n ’ "as recognized as a brilliant scholar, he was
a "ard:*d his Doctor’s degree and an instructorship
n D 'iental studies. In 1894, after nine years of
as associate professor at Johns Hopkins, Dr.
completed his work at the University. It
' a- this time, mostly due to his efforts, that the
• r er an Jewish Historical Society was founded.
. kly he became active in Jewish communal
. v d with his background of scholarship Dr.
’• found himself, at the close of the century,
“AT d in the roster of Jewish leaders.
, , n ' ( )6 Dr. Adler, together with Louis Mar-
facob H. Schiff, Mayer Sulzberger and
er .ell known communal leaders, founded the
r an Jewish Committee to w r hich, for the
•?, < en ty-seven years he has brought a charac-
thoroughness and zeal in its efforts to
DR. CYRUS ADLER
‘A veteran repulser of anti-Semitic attacks.'
Great American
a Great Jew
*rvk
Adler
By Wilfred Quaytman
On September 13, Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the
American Jewish Committee, president of the Jeivish
Theological Seminary of America and of the Dropsie
College, attained his seventieth birthday. This review
of his life is the story of a man who has denoted a
lifetime unostentatiously and without theatricalism to
the welfare of his fellowmen and his brother Jews.
safeguard the civil and religious rights of Jews all
over the world. At the time this committee was
organized American Jewry was engaged in the
severe task of assisting immigrants from Eastern
Europe into this country and repelling the attacks
of immigrant-baiters who pressed their views with
increasing energy. In this work, the group of
which Dr. Adler is now the head was most ef
fective. Incidentally it may be worth pointing out
that but for Dr. Adler and his associates there
would not be so large a Jewish community in the
United States. They labored day in and day out,
year in and year out, to enable immigrants from
Eastern Europe to come in. 'That many of these
immigrants were later misled by demagoguery into
attacks on Dr. Adler, docs not undo the facts of
his achievements, and those of others in the group
with which he was associated.
the s
OUTHERN ISRAELITE
Another important work of
Dr. Adler was that involved in
the Russian passport question.
The full story of that question
has not yet been written. When
it is, recognition will at last come
to those men of whom Dr. Adler
was one, who persuaded a great
government to stand by its dignity
and its obligations to its Jewish
citizens.
Some years after the Russian
passport question came the war
and with it the great need for
relief work—again for the dis
tressed European Jewries. It is
a hit of irony once again, that this
achievement of Dr. Adler’s should
have been so wilfully overlooked
by those who make invidious dis
tinctions between German Jews
and Russian Jews. 'The relief
work was for suffering Jews and
that was enough to enlist Dr.
Adler’s aid. It called for enor
mous energy and vast outpourings
of money. Dr. Adler made no
distinction between Jews. Later
came the campaign for the recon
struction of Jews in Russia, and
one campaign after another to
continue the work of relief and
rehabilitation. Consult the an
nals of these campaigns and you
will find Dr. Adler worthily up
holding his place among the con
scientious leaders of these efforts.
Were a full length biography
of Dr. Adler to be written, it
would have to include, too, his
enormous work along with Louis
Marshall and others for the in
clusion of minority safeguards in
the Versailles Peace Treaty. In
this work he was the right-hand
man of I>ouis Marshall, just as he
was when the Jewish Agency for Palestine was
being established. It was only natural, therefore,
when the great Ixrnis Marshal! passed away that
Dr. Adler should have been called to the helm of
the American Jewish Committee.
Yet primarily Dr. Adler remains what he was,N
a scholar, and an editor. This explains his position
as president of Dropsie College of Philadelphia,
and of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New
York. It explains, too, his active interest in the
work of the Jewish Publication Society, his former
editorship of the American Jewish Year Hook, of
the Jewish Encyclopaedia, of the Jefferson Hible,
and his authorship of a multitude of articles on
philology, comparative religion, Judaica and Ori-
entalia. His recent biography of Jacob H. Schiff
is a landmark in tribute to one of the greatest
figures in Jewish life.
Most men when they have reached seventy with
draw from public life and its accompanying cares.
Not so Dr. Adler. This year, when the great
Hitler tragedy shocked Jewries all over the world,
Dr. Adler, a veteran repulser of anti-Semitic at
tacks in the past, forgot his seventy years and
plunged energetically into the counter-activity.
'Phis is not the time to recount what Dr. Adler
and the committee have done, but it can be said
that patiently, without demagoguery or sensation
alism, Dr. Adler has directed the American Jewfish
Committee into work (Please turn to page 42)
[in