Adler, Cyrus (1863-1940)

US educator and public figure. In 1892 he was appointed curator at the Smithsonian Institution and later served as its librarian and assistant secretary. From 1908 until his death, he was president of Dropsie College and a leader of the American Jewish Committee. His appeal for protection of the rights of religious ethnic minorities was adopted in the final text of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

Born in Van Buren, Arkansas, Adler studied Semitic languages at the University of Pennsylvania and at Johns Hopkins University, where he received a PhD in 1887.