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R. Dov Baer ha-Kohen Adler, was the son of R. Mordecai Adler, chief rabbi of Hanover. He came from a Frankfort Jewish family, which, for several centuries, supplied theologians to the rabbinical chairs of the Continental ghettos. He was educated in Hebrew and theological learning under his father's supervision. An ardent opponent of Reform, he was a member of the Frankfurt Bet Din, where he served for many years with distinguished rabbis. His brother R. Nathan Marcus Adler was the Chief Rabbi of London.
The Adler family came originally from Frankfort, but which has been connected for more than a century with the chief rabbinate of England. R. Tebele Schiff, who was chief rabbi of London, was connected by marriage with R. Baer Adler, the two having married sisters. There is little doubt that the family associations thus created with England had something to do with the candidature of R. N. M. Adler for the chief rabbinate of England in 1844. Though a Frankfort family - and thus related, directly or indirectly, with the Worms and Rothschilds - they have been, this century, more closely connected with Hanover, especially while it was under British sovereignty - another point of connection with England. The name has been derived from the eagle on the sign-board in the Frankfort ghetto, or from the outstretched hands in the priest's blessing, resembling the wings of an eagle, the Adlers being of priestly stock.
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