KLAR, BENJAMIN MENAḤEM

KLAR, BENJAMIN MENAḤEM (1901–1948), Israeli Hebrew scholar. Klar, born in Linets, Ukraine, was educated at the university and the Jewish Theological Seminary in Vienna. In 1936 he emigrated to Palestine and taught at the Mizrachi Teachers' Seminary in Jerusalem, and from 1944 he taught Hebrew language and grammar at the Hebrew University. He was among those killed by Arabs in the convoy to Mount Scopus on April 13, 1948.

Klar's main interest was in medieval and modern Hebrew poetry. In 1936 he published a book on Bialik in German, Bialik, Leben fuer ein Volk. A volume of studies, Meḥkarim ve-Iyyunim be-Lashon, be-Safah u-ve-Sifrut ("Researches and Studies in Language and Literature"), published posthumously in 1954, contained parts of an autobiography. Other works by Klar include editions of the chronicle of *Aḥimaaz, Megillat Aḥima'az (1944–45), and early Hebrew poetry in Italy; of Moses b. Isaac's Sefer ha-Shoham (1947); and letters and documents relating to Ḥayyim ibn *Attar, Rabbi Ḥayyim ibn Attar (1950). Klar completed and issued with an introduction S. Ginzburg's edition of M.Ḥ. Luzzatto's poetry, Sefer ha-Shirim (1945); he published Z. Jawitz's letters, Leket Ketavim li-Ze'ev Jawitz (1943), and D. Yellin's history of Hebrew grammar, Toledot Hitpatteḥut ha-Dikduk ha-Ivri (1945). He also translated selected poems of Goethe, Mi-Shirei Goethe, and the commentary on Genesis from J.H. Hertz's English edition of the Pentateuch, Targum Perusho ha-Angli shel R. Yosef Ẓevi Hertz (1942).

bibliography:

M. Zulay, in: ks, 24 (1947/48), 243ff. (bibliography); R. Avinoam (ed.), Gevilei Esh, 2 (1958), 178ff., 634; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 756f.