KANTOR, JUDAH LÖB B. JOSEPH:

By: Herman Rosenthal, Peter Wiernik

Russian journalist; born in Wilna 1849; government rabbi of Libau, Courland. For a short time he studied at the rabbinical school of Wilna and later at that of Jitomir, where he graduated as teacher. He also studied medicine in Berlin, where he obtained his doctor's degree; but he never practised. Kantor early evinced considerable literary talent and soon became known as a writer, in both Russian and Hebrew. He contributed to "Ha-Ẓefirah" from Berlin, and after he had settled in St. Petersburg as a teacher in one of its gymnasiums he became a constant contributor to, and the editor of, "Russki Yevrei" (1883-84). He edited also, with H. M. Rabinovitsch, the Russian monthly "Yevreiskoe Obozryenie," of which only seven numbers appeared (St. Petersburg, 1884). In Feb., 1886, Kantor started the publication of "Ha-Yom," the first Hebrew daily newspaper in St. Petersburg, and remained its editor until its suspension (1887). In 1890 he was assistant editor of "Ha-Meliẓ," and about 1892 became rabbi of Libau, which position he still (1904) occupies.

Kantor was the editor also of a Hebrew monthly entitled "Ben'Ammi," of which four numbers appeared in 1887. He contributed to the "Voskhod" and to other Russian-Jewish periodicals, as well as to the purely Hebrew press, especially to "Ha-Shaḥar," in which he wrote under the pseudonym "Naḥum ben 'Ozer ha-Ẓiyoski." He was one of the committee that published the jubilee edition of J. L. Gordon's poetical works, and is the author of the biography of L. Rosenthal published in vol. ii. of the records of the Society for the Spreading of Knowledge Among the Jews of Russia (St. Petersburg, 1890), of which society he is an active member.

H. R. P. Wi.