OTTENSOOSER, DAVID:

By: Isidore Singer, Moses Löb Bamberger

German author; born 1784; died May 22, 1858, at Fürth. An infant prodigy, he was an omnivorous reader from early youth; and his unceasing activity continued throughout his life. Ottensooser was a thorough scholar, although entirely self-taught; but his mode of expression is frequently obscure owing to his lack of training.

His literary activities were manifold. He translated and annotated the Books of Job, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, edited philosophical works of Maimonides, Bedersi, and Shem-Ṭob ben Joseph Falaquera, wrote a Jewish history based on Josephus, and published anecdotes from the Talmud and from Maimonides.

In Ottensooser's time the yeshibah of Fürth was at its prime, and the students of the Talmud there found in him a constant benefactor.

S. M. L. B.