Thence he removed to Kovno, and subsequently to Białystok, where the aged poet, who in later years had become blind, ended his days in poverty and neglect.

Gottlober's next important work was the Bikoret le-Toledot ha-Kara'im, a critical investigation of the history of the Karaites, with notes by Abraham Firkovich (Vilna, 1865).

In the same year were published his Yerushalayim, a translation of Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, with an introduction, and his allegorical drama Tif'eret li-Bene Binah (Zhitomir, 1867), modeled after Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's La-Yesharim Tehillah.

His Iggeret Tza'ar Ba'ale Ḥayyim (Zhitomir, 1868) is a polemic against Abraham Uri Kovner [he]'s critical work "Ḥeker Dabar."

He also wrote several short Hebrew novels, and translated Lessing's Nathan the Wise, to which he added a biography of the author (Vienna, 1874).

Gottlober was the founder and editor of the Hebrew monthly Ha-Boker Or [Wikidata], to which some of the best contemporary writers contributed poems, articles, and stories.

His most important contribution to this magazine was undoubtedly his autobiography Zikronot mi-Yeme Ne'urai, containing much material for the culture-history of the Jews of Russia, which was reprinted in book form at Warsaw, 1880–81.