Adler, Felix

ADLER, FELIX: Founder of the Society for Ethical Culture; b. at Alzey (20 m. s.w. of Mainz) Aug. 13, 1851. He came to America in 1857, when his father was called to the rabbinate of Temple Emanu-El, New York City, and was educated at Columbia College (A.B., 1870), the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums at Berlin and the university of the same city, and the University of Heidelberg (Ph.D., 1873). From 1874 to 1876 he was professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature at Cornell, but in the latter year went to New York and established the Society for Ethical Culture, a non-religious association for the ethical improvement of its members, of which he has since been the head. He has been active in various philanthropic enterprises and in popular education, being a member of the State Tenement Committee in 1884 and of the Committee of Fifteen in 1901, and in 1902 was appointed professor of political and social ethics at Columbia University. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Ethics and has written Creed and Deed (New York, 1877); The Moral Instruction of Children (1898); Life and Destiny (1903); Marriage and Divorce (1905); Religion of Duty (1905), and Essentials of Spirituality (1905).