Rabbi Samuel Adler

Born in Worms, Samuel Adler came from a rabbinic family. His father, Rabbi Sirig Adler, was a rabbinic judge in Worms, Rabbi Nathan Adler head of the rabbinic academy in Frankfurt am Main, and Nathan Marcus Adler chief rabbi of the British Empire. His early instruction came from his father, though when the rabbi died, when Samuel was only thirteen, the family found itself in difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, Samuel continued to pursue his education, studying in yeshivot and Worms and Frankfurt while simultaneously enrolling in secular schools where he acquired grounding in classics and humanities. He studied at the University of Bonn and 1836 received a doctorate from the University of Giessen.

His next stop was Friedberg, where he studied with Rabbi Feibisch Frankfurter and received his ordination. In 1842 Adler was appointed the district rabbi of Alzey in Rhenish Hesse, and the following year he married Frankfurter’s daughter Henrietta. Although ordained in the orthodox tradition, Adler soon aligned himself with the modernizing Reform movement. While Adler was gaining a reputation for his innovative practices and profound learning, he became increasingly involved in political activities, campaigning for the emancipation of the Jews and the removal of the More Judaico, a special oath required of Jews in German courts. Within Judaism he advocated for greater gender equality and for the end of segregated seating for men and women. His outspokenness made Adler suspect in the eyes of state authorities, and his brother Abraham was imprisoned in the wake of the 1848 revolutions.

In 1857 Adler decided to accept an offer to serve as the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in New York City, the leading Reform congregation in the United States, and in March of that year he, Henrietta, and their two sons, Felix and Isaak, emigrated from Germany. During his tenure, he continued the established practice of conducting services in German—rather than Hebrew—and published a revised prayer book in 1860, which, among other things, omitted all references to the return to Zion. At Temple Emanu-El Adler established a Reform theological seminary in 1865, instituted the practice of wearing head coverings only during devotional portions of the service, and rejected the idea of supernatural revelation. At the founding of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he was appointed honorary president. Adler published widely, including his 1864 book, A Guide to Instruction in Israelite Religion. He continued to the lead Temple Emanu-El until 1874, when the congregation—whether because they found him overly scholarly, were displeased with some of his liberalizing reforms, or just seeking a change—voted to make Adler rabbi emeritus.

Throughout his life in the United States, Adler devoted his time and attention to charitable causes both in and outside of the Jewish community. In 1859, for example, he and Samuel Myer Isaacs founded the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York. His son Felix, who would become a prominent social reformer and founder of the Ethical Culture movement, would cite his father’s “profound ethical influence.”

Rabbi Samuel Adler

c. 1860