Klemperer, Guttmann

Austrian rabbi; born 1815 at Prague; died at Tabor, Bohemia, Jan. 20, 1882. On his mother's side he was a descendant of Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller. He completed his Talmudic studies at Presburg as a pupil of Moses Sofer, and he also passed the gymnasium examinations at the lyceum (Protestant gymnasium) in the same place. On his return to Prague he attended courses in philosophy at the university and the Talmudic lectures of Solomon Judah Rapoport. In 1844 he went as rabbi to Tabor, where he labored until his death. At Tabor he introduced the regulated worship of the Prague Temple.

Of Klemperer's numerous published writings the following may be mentioned: (1) Speech on the occasion of the abolition of the Jews' tax in Bohemia, Prague, 1847; (2) "Ḥayye Yehonatan," biography of Jonathan Eybeschütz, ib. 1858; (3) "Jüdischer Geschichtskalender" ("Pascheles Volkskalender," 1855-59); (4) "Der Patriarch R. Juda II., ein Charakterbild," Prague, 1861; (5) "R. Salomo Luria," ib. 1862; (6) "Das Armengesetz nach Talmudischen Prinzipien," ib. 1863; (7) "Das Erziehungswesen nach den Prinzipien Unserer Altvordern," ib. 1864; (8) "R. Löwe ben Bezalel, Lebensbild eines Prager Oberrabbiners," ib. 1873; (9) "Das Wesen der Jüdischen Geheimlehre," ib. 1875-79. Of his German translation of David Gans's "Ẓemaḥ Dawid," with notes, only parts i. and ii. have been published, by Moritz Grünwald.

S. A. Ki.