KLAUSNER, JOSEPH:
Russian Hebrew writer; born at Olkeniki, government of Wilna, Aug. 14, 1874. In 1885 he went to Odessa and became a pupil in the yeshibah there, studying both Talmudic and secular subjects. From 1897 to 1902 he studied philosophy and Semitic languages at the University of Heidelberg, and, returning to Russia, became (1903) editor of the Hebrew monthly "Ha-Shiloaḥ" and of other publications of the Aḥiasaf Society. In 1904 he was appointed editor of the Warsaw department of the "Oẓar ha-Yahadut," a Hebrew encyclopedia. Klausner is a versatile and prolific writer and a sound critic, and there are few Hebrew publications to which he has not contributed. He is one of the champions of the modernization of the Hebrew language and literature.
Klausner has written the following: "Ẓiyyun la-Meshorer Gordon," on J. L. Gordon as a poet, 1895; "Sefat 'Eber Safah Ḥayyah," on Hebrew philology, in "Oẓar ha-Sifrut," Cracow, 1896; "Ruḥot Menashshebot," criticisms, in "Ha-Zeman," Warsaw, 1896; "Ha-Adam ha-Ḳadmon," on anthropology, Warsaw, 1900; "Millon shel Kis," pocket-dictionary of modern Hebrew (with Grazowski), ib. 1903. In Yiddish, he has written "Joseph Nassi," Berdychev, 1901; and in Russian, "Novo-Yevreiskaya Literatura," on the Hebrew literature of the nineteenth century, ib. 1900; "Duchovny Sionism," on spiritual Zionism, St. Petersburg, 1900. He is the author also of "Die Messianischen Vorstellungen des Jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter der Tannaiten," Cracow, 1903.
