I would like to thank Professors Ismar Schorsch, Paula Hyman, and Jonathan D. Sarna for their encouragement and suggestions in the preparation of this essay.

1. Kling, Simcha, “Cyrus Adler and Zionism,” Conservative Judaism, Fall 1979, p. 22.Google Scholar

2. Adler's reputation as a Jefferson scholar was given recognition when he was invited by the Thomas Jefferson Association of the United States to contribute a study on Jefferson to the memorial edition of his works then being published under its auspices in 1904. His contribution, “Jefferson as a Man of Science,” has been republished in Cyrus Adler, Lectures, Selected Papers, Addresses(Philadelphia, 1933). See Also Adler's interesting paper, “The Jefferson Bible,” which constituted his introduction to Jefferson's The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth(Washington, 1904). This essay is also republished in Adler's Lectures, Selected Papers, Addresses.

3. Harkavy, Richard Keith, “Non-Zionism Within Reform Judaism: 1917–1948” (Rabbinical School, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, 1984), p. 21.Google Scholar

4. Ibid, p. 22.

5. Ibid.

6. Knee, Stuard N., “Jewish Non-Zionism in America and Palestine Commitment, 1917–1941,” Jewish Social Studies, Summer 1977, p. 209.Google Scholar

7. Neuman, Abraham A., Cyrus Adler: A Biographical Sketch(New York: American Jewish Committee, 1942), p. 205.Google Scholar

8. Harkavy, , “Non-Zionism Within Reform Judaism,” p. 162.Google Scholar

9. Ibid, p. 23.

10. Ibid, p. 162.

11. For a discussion of Adler's discovery and purchase of the Jefferson manuscript, the “fervor it created in religious circles,” and its publication, see Neuman, Cyrus Adler, pp. 95–99. This is also discussed in Adler's autobiography, I Have Considered the Days(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1941), pp. 58–59.Google Scholar

12. Kling, , “Cyrus Adler and Zionism,” pp. 22–27.Google Scholar

13. Robinson, Ira, ed., Cyrus Adler Letters(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society and Jewish Theological Seminary, 1984). My citations from the Adler letters in this study are from a prepublication copy of Professor Robinson's work, made available to me by Professor Louis Finkelstein of the Jewish Theological Seminary. I wish to acknowledge my thanks to Dr. Finkelstein for allowing me to read and study his copy of the Adler letters.Google Scholar

14. Neuman, , Cyrus Adler, p. 34.Google Scholar

15. Finkelstein, Louis, Preface to Robinson, Cyrus Adler Letters, p. 5.Google Scholar

16. Neuman, , Cyrus Adler, p. 36.Google Scholar

17. For a detailed discussion and analysis of Haupt's “Mesopotamian plan,” see Moshe Perlmann, “Paul Haupt and the Mesopotamian Project, 1892–1914,” Proceedings of the American Jewish Historical Society, January 1958.

18. Ibid, p. 164.

19. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 62, pp. 1–5: Letter to Theodor Herzl, undated draft.

20. Neuman, , Cyrus Adler, pp. 194–195.Google Scholar

21. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 71, p. 1: Letter to Theodor Herzl, undated draft (January 1900).

22. Parzen, Herbert, Architects of Conservative Judaism(New York: Jonathan David, 1964), pp. 92–93.Google Scholar

23. Cohen, Naomi W., A Dual Heritage: The Public Career of Oscar S. Straus(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1969), p. 139.Google Scholar

24. Cohen, Naomi W., Not Free to Desist: The American Jewish Committee, 1906–1966(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1972), p. 106.Google Scholar

25. Kling, Simcha, “Zionism in the Early Days of Conservative Judaism,” in Perspectives on Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of Wolfe Kelman, ed. Chiel, A. (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1978), p. 257.Google Scholar

26. Davis, Moshe, The Emergence of Conservative Judaism(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1963), p. 268.Google Scholar

27. Ibid, p. 271; for Jastrow's published views on Zionism, see Marcus Jastrow, “Zionism and Its Critics,” Maccabean, 1901.

28. Davis, , Emergence of Conservative Judaism, pp. 271–272.Google Scholar

29. Parzen, Herbert, “Conservative Judaism and Zionism, 1896–1922,” Jewish Social Studies, October 1964, p. 237.Google Scholar

30. Neuman, , Cyrus Adler, p. 199.Google Scholar

31. Kling, , “Zionism in the Early Days,” p. 263.Google Scholar

32. Lipsky, Louis, “Early Days of American Zionism,” Palestine Yearbook, vol. 2 (New York: Zionist Organization of America, 1946), p. 451.Google Scholar

33. Parzen, , “Conservative Judaism and Zionism,” p. 239.Google Scholar

34. As Baila Shargel has noted, however, “of all the Seminary faculty, it was Friedlaender who devoted the greatest portion of his time and creative energy both to the theoretical defense of the Zionist ideology and the day-by-day, year-by-year functioning of American Zionism.” Baila Round Shargel, “Israel Friedlaender and the Transformation of European Thought in America” (D.H.L. diss., Jewish Theological Seminary, 1982), p. 280. For a detailed discussion and analysis of Friedlaender's role in, and contributions to, American Zionism, see Ibid, pp. 280–316.

35. Kling, , “Zionism in the Early Days,” p. 267.Google Scholar

36. Ginzberg, Louis, United Synagogue Reports, 1913–1919, p. 21.Google Scholar

37. Neuman, , Cyrus Adler, p. 199.Google Scholar

38. Quoted in Parzen, Architects of Conservative Judaism, p. 121.

39. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 310, p. 3: Letter to Louis Marshall, July 6, 1917. (Adler was subsequently persuaded to relent and remain on the American Jewish Committee's executive.)

40. Parzen, , Architects of Conservative Judaism, p. 122.Google Scholar

41. United Synagogue Reports, 1913–19, p. 20.

42. Kling, , “Cyrus Adler and Zionism,” p. 24.Google Scholar

43. Rosenthal, Jerome C., “A Fresh Look at Louis Marshall and Zionism, 1900–1912,” American Jewish Archives, November 1980, p. 111.Google Scholar

44. Friesel, Evyatar, “Jacob H. Schiff Becomes a Zionist: A Chapter in American-Jewish Self-Definition, 1907–1917,” Studies in Zionism, Spring 1982, p. 63.Google Scholar

45. Ibid.

46. Ibid, p. 55.

47. Ibid, p. 72.

48. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 326: Letter to Julian Mack, July 2, 1918.

49. Ibid, no. 102, p. 3: Letter to Israel Zangwill, November 1, 1905.

50. Adler, , Lectures, Selected Papers, Addresses, pp. 103–108.Google Scholar

51. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 103, pp. 1 and 2: Letter to Oscar Straus, November 12, 1905.

52. The early history of the Reform movement's staunch opposition to Zionism is analyzed in, among other works: Cohen, Naomi Wiener, “The Reaction of Reform Judaism in America to Political Zionism (1897–1922),” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 40 (June 1951): 361–394Google Scholar; Sternstein, Joseph P., “Reform Judaism and Zionism, 1895–1904,” Herzl Year Book 5 (1963): 11–31Google Scholar; Greenstein, Howard R., Turning Point: Zionism and Reform Judaism(Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1981)Google Scholar, chap. 1; and Meyer, Michael A., “American Reform Judaism and Zionism: Early Efforts at Ideological Rapprochement,” Studies in Zionism, Spring 1983, pp. 49–64.Google Scholar

53. Parzen, “Conservative Judaism and Zionism,” p. 242.

54. Cohen, , Not Free to Desist, p. 150.Google Scholar

55. Urofsky, Melvin I., American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust(Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1975), p. 319.Google Scholar

56. Ibid.

57. Neuman, , Cyrus Adler, pp. 128–129.Google Scholar

58. It is important to note that Adler's genuine and abiding concern for Jews throughout the world motivated him to aid in the efforts for Jewish agricultural and educational development in Palestine even prior to the 1920s. Thus, for example, when Solomon Schechter of the Jewish Theological Seminary asked Adler to join Louis Marshall, Mortimer L. Schiff, and himself on the American board of trustees of Haifa's Technion, Adler accepted. Always willing to promote the “practical” work of Jewish colonization in Palestine, Adler had (in 1909) urged support for the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station at Athlit as a means of raising the agricultural productivity of Palestine. He, like Louis Marshall, Jacob Schiff, and other Jewish leaders, became interested through meetings with a young agricultural scientist named Aaron Aaronsohn, who had discovered how to grow a prototype of wheat, barley, rye, and oats. World-renowned German botanists and the United States Department of Agriculture had praised Aaronsohn's discovery. In writing to Louis Marshall, Adler introduced Aaronsohn as “a man who has made important agricultural discoveries…. I believe that if he can carry out his plans, the agricultural regeneration of Palestine can be accomplished; that moreover, they have the greatest importance for all dry lands as indicating a form of reclamation which does not imply the great expense attached to irrigation” (Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 136, p. 1: Letter to Louis Marshall, November 8, 1909). Adler wrote letters of introduction for Aaronsohn to Marshall, Schiff, and Professor Morris Loeb, urging that “the man and his ideas are worthy of a mighty push” (Ibid., no. 136, pp. 1 and 2).

59. Davis, Moshe, “The Human Record: Cyrus Adler at the Peace Conference, 1919,” in Essays in American Jewish History(Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1958), p. 457.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., p. 463.

61. Knee, , “Jewish Non-Zionism,” p. 212Google Scholar; see also Kessler, Lawrence, “American Jews and the Paris Peace Conference,” Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science, 1947–1948, pp. 232–235.Google Scholar

62. Davis, Moshe, “The Human Record,” p. 462, fn. 14.Google Scholar

63. Knee, , “Jewish Non-Zionism,” p. 212.Google Scholar

64. Louis Lipsky has commented that Adler “refused to go along with the democratic trends in Jewish life.… he seemed to think that democracy was an alien notion in Jewish life.” In his leadership style, Lipsky has suggested, Adler was, at least during most of his career, “critical and caustic, dictatorial and intolerant.” Lipsky, Louis, A Gallery of Zionist Profiles(New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1956), pp. 210–212Google Scholar. Herman Rubenovitz, one of Adler's contemporaries and his coworker in the organization of the United Synagogue, would later comment that Adler was “a firm believer in maintaining the established order whereby leadership in Jewish affairs was to be left to certain prominent families of wealth and public spirit. He was entirely out of sympathy with the democratic trends in Jewish life which became manifest at the turn of the century” and found expression in the Zionist movement and the Zionist-inspired campaign for an American Jewish Congress. Herman, and Rubenovitz, Mignon, The Waking Heart(Cambridge, Mass.: Nathaniel Dame, 1967), pp. 55–56.Google Scholar

65. Cohen, , Not Free to Desist, p. 105.Google Scholar

66. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 254: Letter to Solomon Schechter, June 9, 1915.

67. Urofsky, , American Zionism, pp. 320–321.Google Scholar

68. “On several occasions,” as Yehuda Reinharz has noted, “Weizmann made it clear that he distrusted the instincts of the masses.” Reinharz, Yehuda, “Chaim Weizmann: The Shaping of a Zionist Leader Before World War I,” Journal of Contemporary History 18, no. 2 (April 1983): 207CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Moreover, as Yosef Gorni has pointed out, “Weizmann underestimated mass action and did not comprehend its political importance.” Gorni, Yosef, “Chaim Weizmann as Zionist Leader,” Midstream, May 1982, p. 47.Google Scholar

69. Gorni, , “Chaim Weizmann as Zionist Leader,” p. 43.Google Scholar

70. Thus, for example, Adler noted in a letter to Judah L. Magnes concerning the board of governors of the Hebrew University: “The insistence of yourself and others of the presence of Dr. Stephen S. Wise on this Board is not likely to make for my continued cooperation, at least, if I have to sit in the room with that gentleman very often.” Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 470, p. 3: Letter to Judah L. Magnes, July 21, 1926.

71. Ibid.

72. Urofsky, , American Zionism, p. 318.Google Scholar

73. Cohen, , Not Free to Desist, p. 151.Google Scholar

74. See, for example, Weizmann's Letters to Felix M. Warburg of November 22, 1929, January 16, 1930, January 17, 1930, February 28, 1930, and June 26, 1930. The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann, vol. 14, series A (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1978)Google Scholar, letters no. 102, 184, 188, 209, and 328. See also Weizmann's letter to Cyrus Adler of January 4, 1932, in Ibid, vol. 15, series A, letter no. 234.

75. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 533, p. 5: Letter to Felix Warburg, March 31, 1931.

76. Ibid, p. 10.

77. Kling, , “Cyrus Adler and Zionism,” p. 26.Google Scholar

78. Adler, , Lectures, Selected Papers, Addresses, p. 331.Google Scholar

79. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 513, p. 1: Letter to Louis Namier, January 30, 1930. 80. This was published as Memorandum on the Western Wall, Prepared for the Special Commission of the League of Nations on Behalf of the Jewish Agency for Palestine(Philadelphia, 1930).

81. Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 515, p. 3: Letter to Chaim Weizmann, April 2, 1930.

82. Kling, “Cyrus Adler and Zionism,” p. 26.

83. Neuman, Cyrus Adler, p. 212.

84. See, for example, his correspondence with Judah L. Magnes during this period: e.g., his letter to Magnes of March 5, 1930—Cyrus Adler Letters, no. 514a, pp. 1–7.

85. Ibid, no. 546: Letter to Moses A. Leavitt, February 11, 1932.

86. Ibid

87. Friesel, “Jacob H. Schiff Becomes a Zionist,” pp. 56–57.Google Scholar

88. For a thoughtful and detailed discussion of why “SchifPs intention of joining the Zionist Movement was never consummated,” see Ibid, pp. 55–92.