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H. B. ROSENBERG, Owner
Walker Tire Battery Co. Inc.
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FITZGERALD, GA.
American Jewry's
Incredible
“Mr. President”
THE CENTENNIAL
OF DR. CYRUS ADLER
by BERNARD POSTAL
When a Philadelphia public
school teacher asked a first-
grader to name her father’s
occupation, the little girl re
plied, “President.” She was not
lar wrong because her father
was Dr. Cyrus Adler, presi
dent, chairman or founder of
more major national Jewish
institutions and organizations
than anyone ever was or prob
ably ever will be.
Almost every phase of Jew
ish life between 1888 and 1938
was influenced by Dr. Adler
the centennial of whose birth
was observed Sept. 13th. If all
of the organizations and insti
tutions at whose cradle he
stood and which he guided to
maturity and achievement
were united they would consti
tute the closest approach to a
national representative body
of American Jewry.
The list is almost unbeliev
able. At one time or another
Dr. Adler was president or
chairman of Dropsie College,
Gratz College, Jewish Theolo
gical Seminary of America,
Jewish Historical Society,
American Jewish Committee,
Jewish Committee on Scout-
i n g, United Synagogue of
America, the American Council
of the Jewish Agency, the Pub
lication Society, the National
Committee of the Jewish
Society, the National Coun
cil of Y M H A s and Kin
dred Associations, the National
Jewish Welfare Board and the
Army and Navy Committee of
JWB. He also headed the
American Oriental Society. In
Philadelphia he was president
of Mikveh Israel Synagogue
and the Public Library.
Dr. Adler was also one of the
founders of the American Jew
ish Joint Distribution Commit
tee, a prime mover in the cre
ation of the first Jewish En
cyclopedia and one of the
American delegates, with Louis
Marshall, to the Versailles
Peace Conference where Jew
ish minority rights were in
corporated into the peace
treaties. Nothing Jewish was
alien to this unique figure, by
training a scholar in Semitics.
Johns Hopkins University in
1887 gave him the first Ph.D.
in Semitics granted by an
American university. Born in
Van Buren, Ark., in 1863 in the
middle of the Civil War, Dr.
Adler spent most of his life in
Philadelphia, commuting be
tween that city and New York
for nearly two generations in
pursuit of his wide-ranging or
ganizational. cultural, religious
and educational activities.
A promising career as a
teacher and Semitic scholar
took an unexpected turn for
Dr. Adler when he was ap
pointed assistant curator at the
National Museum in Washing
ton, more popularly known as
the Smithsonian Institution.
Here he formed a life-long
friendship with the Museum’s
director. Samuel Langley,
aviation pioneer. Here he
helped enlarge the Museum
and added to it sections on
Oriental antiquities and re
ligious ceremonial objects.
Here he became an internation
al authority on the place of
ieligion in national exhibits.
Later, as the trusted adviser of
the principal Jewish leaders
of his time, and as an admini
strator, organizer, creator, edu
cator, bibliophile and scholar,
he was without a peer in the
Jewish world.
Much of Dr. Adler’s unique
career is part of the history of
The Southern Israelite
18