Naphtali Keller

Naphtali Keller (25 January 1834 in Tarnów, Galicia – 5 August 1865 in Rožnov (Rožnau, Rosenau), Moravia) was an Austrian scholar. He was the son of Israel Mendel Keller, a well-to-do innkeeper.

Naphtali as a mere youth practised speaking Hebrew with his friend and began to write in that language. He also acquired a certain amount of modern culture by means of Hebrew educational literature. After losing in business the marriage portion given him by his father-in-law, he went with his wife and four children to Vienna, and there eked out a toilsome existence as a broker.

In 1864 he published with great care and impartiality the first volume of the Hebrew periodical . In the spring of 1865, on the advice of his physician, he went to Rožnov, a watering-place, to seek relief from an illness which had attacked him in the previous year; but he died there.

Keller was the author of 2 stories:

• (1) "Sullam ha-Haẓlaḥah", written in imitation of the "" of Julius Rodenberg, and 1st printed in "Ha-Maggid" (1863)
• (2) "Debek lo Tob", a tale of Galician Jewish life, which first appeared in Bikkurim (1866).

These stories were published at Warsaw in 1880 under the collective title Sippure Naftali.

References[]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Keller, Naphtali". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.