ADLER, CYRUS (1863- ), American scholar and edu cator, was born in Van Buren, Ark., on Sept. 13, -1863. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1883 and received the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1887 from Johns Hopkins university, in which, from 1884 to 1893, he was an instructor and associate professor of Semitic languages. He was librarian in 1892-1905 and assistant secretary in 1905-08, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. From 1889 to 1908 he was curator of historic archaeology and historic religions in the U.S. National Museum. He became president of Dropsie college, Philadel phia, in 1908, and was acting president of the Jewish theological seminary of America, New York city, from 1916 until 1924, when he was made president. In 1892 he founded the Jewish Historical Society of America. He was one of the editors of the Jewish Encyclopaedia and in 1899 was made editor of the Jewish Year Book. His writings include numerous articles on Assyriology, oriental archaeology, Semitic philology, comparative religion, bibliography and American Jewish history.