Israel Teller

TELLER, ISRAEL (1835–1921), Hebrew writer, grammarian, and teacher. Born in Zolochev, Galicia, he moved to Romania, where for 30 years he was a teacher and a director of Hebrew schools in various Jewish communities. He was among the first to join the Ḥovevei Zion when they became active in Romania; he also contributed to Hebrew periodicals, as well as the Yiddish press. In 1896 he came to Israel and was a teacher in Reḥovot. His works include Mabbat Ḥofshi ba-Dikduk (1906), in which he maintains that Hebrew grammar should conform to the modern spoken language, and Torat ha-Lashon (1912), in which he expounds his method of Hebrew grammar. Teller's poetry, didactic and tendentious in quality, has slight literary merit. A collection of his articles, entitled Ben-Oni, was published in 1914.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.