August 13: Felix Adler

Felix Adler, founder of the Ethical Culture Society in 1876, was born on this date in 1851. He was the son of Rabbi Samuel Adler, the leader of Reform Judaism’s “cathedral,” Temple Emanu-el on Fifth Avenue in New York, where at age 24 he began to sermonize about ridding Judaism of superstition to clarify it as a tradition of human ethics. Adler was taken for an atheist and iced out of the Jewish community. The Ethical Culture Society, which he led until his death in 1933, sponsored New York’s Visiting Nurses, the Fieldston School, and other vehicles of social reform as it began to spread across the country. Adler was also active in the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Urban League. His books included Creed and Deed (1878), The Religion of Duty (1906), and An Ethical Philosophy of Life (1918).

“Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.“ —Felix Adler