Signposts: Cyrus Adler’s Vision of American Jewish Historical Writing

If Cyrus Adler (1863–1940) came back to life today, he would be gratified with the activities of the American Jewish Historical Society [AJHS] as it commemorates its 125^th anniversary in 2017. For in its scope and emphases, the society is fulfilling the vision that he had for the professionalization of a field that only in the last few decades has come fully into its own. More than 100 years ago, this first major Jewish scholar to associate himself with the society envisioned a day when trained and productive professional academics, schooled in a variety of disciplines, would examine the American Jewish experience rigorously even as he hoped for this moment in time when their work would be adjudged as valuable contributions to the wider worlds of Jewish and American scholarship.

In examining the AJHS’s contemporary agenda, he would be pleased that its leadership is deeply committed to “foster[ing] awareness and appreciation of the American Jewish heritage and to serve as a national resource for research.” And he would have heartily agreed that while its public programming is well known to those who attend events at the Center for Jewish History—the home of the AJHS since 2000—the core of the society’s mission lies in the collection of historical documents and the publication of scholarly works in the field. He would be proud that its journal, American Jewish History, now publishing its 101th volume, has remained the most significant and enduring aspect of the society’s work. He would have noted with pleasure that this most important academic periodical in its field, is overseen by the society’s Academic Council, composed of 123 members who teach and write about all aspects of American Jewish studies, most with posts at universities in the US and abroad. He would be absolutely delighted that it is a field that now comprehends not only history, but sociology, anthropology, economics, literary studies, and other cognate disciplines, and that many of the Council colleagues occupy chairs in these variegated disciplines at distinguished universities. And he would have been excited that, every two years, these scholars gather at a scholars conference where a fellow academician who does not work specifically in American Jewish studies is featured in a plenary session that typically relates or compares the Council members’ academic work to cutting edge studies in American and modern Jewish history. It would make abundant sense to Adler that examinations of other ethnic or racial groups, or considerations of gender relationships, are high on the agendas of these invited academicians. He, likewise, would be happy to be informed that, on occasion, Academic Council affiliates return the favor when they present at the meetings of the American Historical Association (AHA), the Organization of American Historians (OAHS), or the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). In other words, he would be most appreciative to find–upon his return visit–at this landmark moment of a century and a quarter of work, that the society is solidly positioned within the world of academe.¹

To be sure, upon reviewing the history of the society since his passing in 1940, Adler would acknowledge that the road to such a contemporary respected status had been long and hard; American Jewish historical writing had to overcome its amateurish beginnings and surmount enduring prejudices among academics about the value of early professional work. But he could still stake the claim that the dream of professionalization began with him when he spoke boldly of what American Jewish historiography could become during his two addresses to the society as its president, the first in 1902, the second in 1909.

Admittedly, Adler’s prime intellectual concern was not the serious study of this country’s Jews. He was an Orientalist by training and had earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in Semitics. He was the first scholar educated in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in that discipline. But Adler had a distinct and prescient vision of what American Jewish Studies might someday become.²

Actually, Adler had played an important role in launching...