David F. Kessler

David Francis Kessler, OBE, (6 June 1906 - 24 November 1999) was a British publisher and author. He was the managing director of The Jewish Chronicle.

David Kessler was born on 6 June 1906 in Pretoria, South Africa.¹²³ His father, Leopold Kessler, was a friend of Theodor Herzl, an early proponent of Zionism, and a shareholder of The Jewish Chronicle.

Kessler was educated at Leighton Park School in Reading before graduating from the University of Cambridge, where he earned a bachelor's degree in law and economics.¹²³

Kessler began his career by working for Antonin Besse,³ an oil and shipping businessman with ties to the Royal Dutch Shell in Aden, Yemen.¹ He subsequently worked for the Palestine Potash Company, later known as the Dead Sea Works, in Jerusalem.¹²³

Kessler became the managing director of The Jewish Chronicle in London in 1935.¹ In 1946, he dismissed the editor, Ivan Greenberg, who was deemed too divisive.¹ Instead, he appointed John Maurice Shaftesley, who remained in the post until 1958, when he hired William Frankel.²

Kessler wrote two books.¹ He was a founding member of the Minority Rights Group.¹ He served as the chairman of the Falasha Welfare Association and the Wiener Library in London.¹² He was awarded the OBE in the 1996 New Year Honours "for services to the Jewish Chronicle and to the Jewish community".¹²

Kessler had a wife, Matilda, a son, and three daughters.¹ They resided in Stoke Hammond, Buckinghamshire, England, where he died on 24 November 1999.¹²

• Kessler, David (1996). The Falashas: A Short History of the Ethiopian Jews. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 9780714646466. OCLC 33078505.
• Kessler, David (1996). The Rothschilds and Disraeli in Buckinghamshire. Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, U.K.: Rothschild Waddesdon. ISBN 9780952780908. OCLC 54503723.