Albert Katz

Albert Katz, also known by the pen name Ish ha-Ruaḥ, was a Polish-born rabbi, writer, and journalist.

Biography

Albert Katz was born in Lodz, and studied at the yeshivot of Lublin and Vilna before moving to Berlin in 1881. He served as a rabbi in Fürstenwalde from April 1883 to 1886, and for Congregation Ohel Yitzḥak in Berlin from April 1886 to 1887. From 1887 he devoted himself exclusively to writing.
Together with, Katz founded the periodical Serubabel, which promoted Jewish settlement in Israel. In 1890 he was hired as editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, eventually becoming its chief editor in 1919. He was also one of the founders of the Vereine für jüdische Literatur und Geschichte of Berlin, and of the Verband der Literatur-Vereine in Hanover, and served as the latter's secretary.
He died on 16 December 1923 at his apartment in Pankow, Berlin, and was buried at the Weißensee Cemetery

Works

Published in German as Der Jude und das Land seiner Väter.
Translation of I. B. Levinson's Efes Damim.
Response to August Rohling's anti-Jewish work Der Talmudjude.
A collection of stories including Eine Wette, Der Car und der Rabbi, David und Jonathan, and Der Fasttag.
Biographical sketches of Tannaitic scholars.
Adapted from a story by Jacob Dinezon.
Collection of twenty-seven homiletic essays.