Abraham Kohen Kaplan (; 25 July 1839 – 2 February 1897) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

writer, poet, and translator.

Biography

Abraham Kaplan was born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in the town of Wilke,

Kovno Governorate Kovno Governorate ( rus, Ковенская губеpния, r=Kovenskaya guberniya; lt, Kauno gubernija) or Governorate of Kaunas was a governorate ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. Its capital was Kaunas (Kovno in Russian). It was formed ...

. Having acquired a reputation as a good Hebrew writer at home, he moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where he followed the profession of a publicist until his death. Kaplan was the author of the following works: ''Mistere ha-Yehudim'' (Warsaw, 1865), a Hebrew translation of the first volume of the

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

''Die Geheimnisse der Juden'' of ; ''Ḥayye Abraham Mapu'' (Vienna, 1870), a biography of the Hebrew writer

Abraham Mapu Abraham Mapu (1808 in Vilijampolė, Kaunas1867 in Königsberg, Prussia) was a Lithuanian novelist. He wrote in Hebrew as part of the Haskalah (enlightenment) movement. His novels, with their lively plots encompassing heroism, adventure and romanti ...

, with two appendices containing ''Moshe 'immanu'', a poem in praise of

Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, afte ...

, and ''Se'u zimrah'', a hymn in honour of the

choral society A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

Kol Zimrah of Krakow; ''Tzarah ve-neḥamah'' (Vienna, 1872), a Hebrew adaptation from the German novel ''Die falsche Beschuldigung'' by (Vienna, 1872); ''Divre yeme ha-Yehudim'' (Vienna, 1875), a Hebrew translation of the third volume of

Heinrich Grätz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielkopo ...

's ' (Vienna, 1875); ''Kelimah ve-belimah'' (Vienna, 1882), two satirical poems; ''Moshe Moshe'' (Vienna, 1884), poem on the celebration of the centenary of Moses Montefiore; and ''Ha-shemesh'' (Krakow, 1889), reflections on the sun, its nature and substance. Kaplan frequently contributed to the Hebrew periodicals, and was involved in press polemics on the merit of the works of Smolenskin, which he defended against their critics. Kaplan's defense provoked the publication of the pamphlet ''Kohen lelo-Elohim'' (Warsaw, 1878), in which Kaplan was violently attacked.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Abraham Kohen 1839 births 1897 deaths 19th-century Russian biographers Biographers from the Russian Empire Hebrew-language poets Jewish poets Jewish translators Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Jews from the Russian Empire Male writers from the Russian Empire People from Kovno Governorate Male poets from the Russian Empire Translators from German Translators from the Russian Empire Translators to Hebrew People of the Haskalah