Joseph Klausner - Life

Life

Klausner was born in Olkeniki, Vilna Governorate in 1874. At the turn of the 20th century, his family left Lithuania due to growing antisemitism (Amos Oz tells that the reason for leaving was his grandmother's health) and settled in Odessa where her closest family lived)], where Klausner was educated. He frequented scientific, literary, and Zionist circles. Klausner was a committed Zionist, and knew Theodore Herzl personally.

In 1912, he visited Palestine for the first time, and moved there in 1919. In 1925, he became a professor of Hebrew literature at the University of Jerusalem. He embarked upon research on the history of the Second Temple period. Although not an Orthodox Jew, he observed Sabbath and the dietary laws. He had a wide grasp of the Talmud and Midrashic literature.

Joseph Klausner was a member of the circle of Russian Zionist political activists from Odessa, which included Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Ussishkin, and although 'not a party man' he was a fellow traveler with Revisionist Zionism. Klausner contributed significantly to the 'Zionist education' of the Revisionist youth movement, Betar, and nationalist youth movements in general. With his background as an academic with expertise in the Jewish history, he was also and unusually an activist in Zionist polemics, and rarely stood on the side of majority Zionist leadership; this eventually brought him to the forefront of Jewish anger at the failure of the Zionist establishment in Palestine. In July 1929, Klausner established the Pro-Wailing Wall Committee to defend Jewish rights, and resolve problems over access and arrangements for worship at the Western Wall. Demonstrations by Revisionist youth stemming for the committee's work were later identified as the proximal cause of the 1929 Palestine riots by the Shaw Commission. Also as a result of the ensuing riots, his house in Talpiot was virtually destroyed.

Amos Oz wrote about his great uncle in his autobiography, "A Tale of Love and Darkness" (ch.9-11).