Born: May 28, 1827, Pinne, Prussia (now Pniewy, Poland).
Died: April 15, 1903, New York City.
Buried: Salem Fields Cemetery, Queens, New York.
Gottheil attended the University of Berlin and the Berlin rabbinical college, and served as assistant minister at the Berliner Reformgemeinde while a student.
From 1860–73, he served as a rabbi in Manchester, England, where he preached against slavery.
He emigrated to New York in 1873, as worked as assistant to Rabbi Samuel Adler of Temple Emmanu-El; he became the rabbi in 1874, serving until 1899.
Gottheil founded the Emmanu-El Sisterhood of Personal Service, the Emmanu-El Preparatory School, the Association of Eastern Rabbis, was vice-president of the Federation of American Jewish Zionists, and a governor of Hebrew Union College.
Columbia University founded the Gustav Gottheil lectureship in Semitic languages in his honor.