NAFTOLI HOROVITS (NAFTALI HOROWITZ)

NAFTOLI HOROVITS (NAFTALI HOROWITZ) (b. February 5, 1908)

            He was born in Stutshin (Szczuczyn), near Torne (Tarnów), western Galicia.  His father, R. Yisroel-Yoysef, was the Riglitser rebbe.  Horovits himself received rabbinic ordination at age twenty-three.  He was an active member of “Tseire agudat yisrael” (Agudat Yisrael youth) in Poland.  During WWII he was a refugee in Shanghai.  From 1946 he was living in the United States where he served as rabbi in the community “Agudat aḥim” (Brotherhood society) in Brooklyn as well as an employee of the United Jewish Appeal.  He published articles and Hassidic tales in the local Galician press from prior to WWII and later in such serials as: Idishe almanakh (Jewish almanac) in Harbin, Ortodoksishe tribune (Orthodox tribune) in New York, and elsewhere.  Among his books: Fun erets-yisroel-oytser (From the treasury of the Land of Israel) (New York, 1949), 192 pp.; Khsides un etik (Hassidism and ethics) (Brooklyn, 1964/1965), 164 pp.  Among his pen names: Naftoli Roptshitser and Harov ben Harov.  He was last living in Brooklyn, New York.

Sources: Kh. Liberman, in Forverts (New York) (May 6, 1949); N. Gordon, in Tog (New York) (June 10, 1949); Dr. H. L. Gordon, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (June 31, 1949); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (September 2, 1949); A. Almi, in Dos idishe folk (New York) (November 1949).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 215.]