Felix Adler

Felix Adler (August_13, 1851–April_24, 1933) was a Jewish rationalist intellectual who founded the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City.

Chronology

Adler's family immigrated to the United States when he was six years of age on the occasion of his father Samuel Adler receiving an appointment as head rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York.

Related Topics:
United States - Samuel Adler - Rabbi - Temple Emanu-El

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Felix Adler graduated from Columbia University in 1870 and moved to Germany where he received a doctorate from Heidelberg University. Starting in 1874 he spent two years at Cornell University before his "dangerous attitude" caused him to leave.

Related Topics:
Columbia University - Germany - Heidelberg University - Cornell University

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He returned to New York and preached some sermons at the Temple Emanu-El in New York City where his father was still the head rabbi. He was noted for omitting reference to God in any of his Sermons, an unorthodox approach which made him suspect by many in the New York Jewish community and ended any thought of him succeeding his father.

Related Topics:
New York City - God

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Then, at the age of twenty-four, Adler founded the New York Society for Ethical Culture in 1876. Adler's belief in deed rather than creed led his society to foster two innovative projects. In 1877 the NYSEC sponsored Visiting Nursing, where nurses, and doctors if necessary, visited the homebound sick in poor districts. This service was eventually incorporated into the New York City health system. A year later, in 1878, a Free Kindergarten was established as a tuition-free school for working people's children. It evolved over time into the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

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In 1902 Adler was given the chair of political and social ethics at Columbia University, which he held until his death in 1933.

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Well known as a lecturer and writer, Adler served as rector for the Ethical Culture School until his death in 1933. Throughout his life he always looked beyond the immediate concerns of family, labor, and race to the long-term challenge of reconstructing institutions like schools and government to promote greater justice in human relations. Within Adler's ethical philosophy, cooperation rather than competition remained the higher social value.

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Adler became the founding chairman of the National Child Labor Committee in 1904. Lewis Hine became the committee's photographer in 1908.

Related Topics:
National Child Labor Committee - Lewis Hine

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In 1917 Adler served on the Civil Liberties Bureau, which later became the American Civil Liberties Bureau and then the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

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In 1928 Adler became president of the Eastern division of the American Philosophical Association.

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Adler served on the first Executive Board of the National Urban League.

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