KAEMPF, SAUL ISAAC

KAEMPF, SAUL ISAAC (1818–1892), rabbi and Orientalist. Kaempf, who was born at Lissa (Leszno), Poznania, was a disciple of akiva eger there. He later studied at the University of Halle where he was a student of gesenius . In 1845 he became a preacher in Prague and in 1858 professor of Semitics at the University of Prague. His works include the two-volume Nichtandalusische Poesie andalusischer Dichter aus dem 11., 12. und 13. Jahrhundert (2 vols., 1858), an important pioneering contribution to the study of Hebrew poetry; a biography of R. Akiva Eger with a eulogy at his death (1838); Mamtik Sod (1861), a defense of Z. Frankel 's Darkhei ha-Mishnah against S.R. Hirsch (1861); popular German translations of the maḥzor (1854) and of the siddur (1874), both following the rite of his temple in Prague (1874); Das Ruehmen Moab's, oder   die Inschrift auf dem Denkmal Mesa's (1870); and collections of sermons and poetry. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zeitlin, Bibliotheca, 163ff.; M. Reines, Dor ve-Ḥakhamav, 1 (1890); I. Davidson, in: PAAJR, 1 (1930), 43–44. (Jacob Hirsch Haberman)