Moses Bar Abraham

Moses bar Abraham (also known as Moses bar Abraham Abinu) was a native of Nikolsburg (today Mikulov, Czech Republic). A convert to Judaism, he edited and typeset what is considered to be the first Yiddish newspaper, the Dinstagishe un Freytagishe Kuranten (Tuesday and Friday Currents) in Amsterdam in 1686–1687. Between 1690 and 1694, he owned a printing press in Amsterdam that printed several Hebrew books, including his own Judeo-German translation of Nathan Hannover’s Yeven metzulah (Abyss of Despair). In 1709, he established a press at Halle, Germany, where he published another work, Tela’ot Mosheh (or “Weltbeschreibung”), a Judeo-German work on the ten tribes of Israel (1712). In 1714, his press was shut down and he was imprisoned, charged with printing anti-Christian works. He escaped to Amsterdam, where he continued his career as an author and printer.