Archive - Hermann Adler Papers

British chief rabbi from 1891 to 1911, son of Nathan Marcus Adler. Hermann Adler (30 May 1839–18 July 1911) was born in Hanover, Germany, but was taken to London as a child, when his father became British chief rabbi, and was educated there and on the continent. He received rabbinical ordination from S. J. Rapoport in Prague. In 1862 he became principal of Jews' College, and in 1864 minister of Bayswater Synagogue in the West End of London. After 1879 he deputized as delegate chief rabbi for his father who was ill, and was elected to succeed him in 1891. Adler followed and developed the tradition set by his father, combining Orthodoxy with organizational ability, as well as having a firm feeling for the dignity of his office. He was largely instrumental in securing general recognition of the chief rabbi as the main representative of English Jewry, taking his place alongside the heads of other religious communities on public occasions.

Opposed to the ideas of Theodor Herzl, Adler termed political Zionism an “egregious blunder," although he had previously visited Palestine and been active in the Hovevei Zion movement. His period of office coincided with the great Russo-Jewish influx into the British Isles. This created a large “foreign" element in the community, whose confidence he did not gain. Despite periods of friction, Adler succeeded in maintaining his position as chief rabbi of Anglo-Jewry as a whole, the Reform and Sephardi communities being satisfied to be formally represented by him on public occasions. In the relatively small Anglo-Jewish community of the second half of the 19th century, with its integration into non-Jewish society and its painfully achieved balance, Adler saw a sort of self-contained “National Jewish Church," led on the lay side by the head of the Rothschild family and on the ecclesiastical by the Adlers, as the Jewish equivalent of the Anglican or Catholic hierarchy; Hermann Adler even imitated the Anglican episcopal garb. Hence they were seriously perturbed by the influx of Eastern European refugee immigrants from 1882 onward, which disturbed the delicate balance of the community. Adler published historical and other studies and numerous sermons, as well as preliminary studies for an edition of the Ez Hayyim by the 13th century scholar Jacob b. Judah Hazzan of London. A selection of his sermons was published under the title Anglo-Jewish Memories (London, 1909). (Encyclopedia Judaica)