Naftali Nilsen was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

.

He was born in Trondenes

Trondenes

Trondenes is a parish and a former municipality in Troms county in Norway. It is located along the Vågsfjorden in the present-day municipality of Harstad. Trondenes includes the majority of the island of Grytøya and part of the island of Hinnøya as well as some smaller islands...

. In 1910 he moved to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He returned to Trondenes in 1917, and became chairman in the local Labour Party. He was a member of Trondenes municipal council from 1920 to 1924, and was a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway during the term 1922–1924. He was also acting editor of the newspaper Folkeviljen

Folkeviljen

Folkeviljen is a former Norwegian newspaper. Labour Party organ and was established by parish priest and later Member of Parliament Kristian Tønder in Sjøvegan 1911, and published in Harstad from 1917. Among its later editors were Harald Langhelle, Alfred Skar, Sigurd Simensen, Alfons Johansen and...

in 1922, while Sigurd Simensen

Sigurd Simensen

Sigurd Simensen was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour and Communist parties.He was born in Vestfossen. He started his career as an iron and metalworker, working at Thunes Mekaniske Verksted. He first joined the Union of Iron and Metalworkers in 1907, and was politically...

 was imprisoned for revolutionary activity. In 1923, when Simensen joined the new Communist Party

Communist Party of Norway

The Communist Party of Norway is a political party in Norway without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brief...

, the Labour Party retained control over Folkeviljen, and Simensen was replaced by an editing committee of Naftali Nilsen, Kristian Tønder

Kristian Tønder

Kristian Pedersen Tønder was a Norwegian priest and politician for the Labour Party.He was born at Sørli in Nesna as a son of farmers Peder Mikal Kristoffersen og Jacobine Kristine Arntsdatter . He graduated from Tromsø Seminary in 1883, and studied theology from 1887 until he graduated with the...

 and Alfons Johansen. Johansen took over as sole editor a few weeks later.

From 1924 to 1932, Nilsen was the editor-in-chief of Fremover

Fremover

Fremover is a regional newspaper published in Narvik, Norway. It has been published for more than 100 years, having been founded on May 27, 1903....

in Narvik

Narvik

is the third largest city and municipality in Nordland county, Norway by population. Narvik is located on the shores of the Narvik Fjord . The municipality is part of the Ofoten traditional region of North Norway, inside the arctic circle...

. He chaired the regional party in Nordre Salten

Salten

Salten is a district in Nordland in North Norway, consisting of the municipalities Meløy, Gildeskål, Bodø, Beiarn, Saltdal, Fauske, Sørfold, Steigen and Hamarøy. The district borders Helgeland in the south , Ofoten in the north, Sweden in the east and Vestfjorden in the west...

, and was a member of Narvik city council.