Kligler was one of the pioneers of modern medical research in Mandatory Palestine, studying as varied a field as Bacteriology, Parasitology, Virology, Nutrition, Epidemiology and Public Health.

[2][3][4][5] Israel Jacob Kligler was born in the town of Kopychyntsi, then in Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and today in western Ukraine.

[7] In parallel to his studies Kligler started working as an assistant in the Department of Public Health at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (1911–1915).

At Rockefeller, Kligler conducted research commissioned by the Board of Directors on soil contamination, rural sanitation and intestinal bacteria.

Kligler became a member of the Yellow Fever Commission, and at the end of World War I was sent by the Rockefeller Institute to Mexico and Peru (1919/1920) where he served as the deputy of the head of the delegation, the bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi.

[8] [9] [10] [11][12] Soon after returning from South America, Kligler left the Rockefeller Institute and the US for Palestine, arriving in Eretz Israel in early 1921 as part of the Third Aliyah.

The fact that a man who symbolised the finer side of life in the USA was eager to share his destiny with his people; it was like a dream that became a reality.

Kligler, who had dreamt for a long time of making 'Aliyah', wanted to be in the first professional medical health group that arrived in Palestine in July 1918, to help the Jews after the misery experienced during the war.

In January 1921, Kligler arrived in the Holy Land, and began working as a manager of the laboratories of the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, located then in Prophets Street.

The new family moved to Haifa where Israel Kligler directed the Malaria Research Unit, which was established by the "Joint Distribution Committee" in September 1922 and was attached to the Health Department of Palestine.

David Aaron Kligler MD, MPH was devoted to the Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and was involved with the development of the Speech and Hearing Program in New York.

After working for a year as the director of the Hadassah Bacteriological Laboratory in Jerusalem, Kligler moved to Haifa and began his research into malaria, then the most destructive disease in Palestine.

In the spheres of microbiology, epidemiology and public health, he emphasized applied research, striving for continued improvement of the quality of life in the country.

Students and colleagues included: Prof. Gideon Mer (1894–1961) – a malariologist; Prof. Aryeh Leo Olitzky (1898–1983)[19] [20] - a bacteriologist at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School; Prof. Abraham Komarov (1907–1960) who became Director of the Government Veterinary Institute, Haifa and produced one of the most successful Foot-and-mouth disease vaccines;[21] Prof. Meir Yoeli (1912–1975) [22] – a biologist who studied rodent malaria at the New York University Medical School, [23] and also wrote extensively on history of science including articles on malaria;[24][25][26] Prof. Manfred Aschner (1901–1989) – a microbiologist and entomologist and was awarded the Israel Prize in 1956; Prof. Yechiel Karl Guggenheim (1906–2002) – a nutritionist [27] and Prof. Hans Bernkopf (1910–1966) – a virologist.

[29] Among his Ph.D. students were Benjamin Elazari Volcani (1915–1999) who was among the first to be awarded a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and became a pioneer in the study of silicon compounds; Nathan Grossowicz (1914–2904) who became a professor in the Department of Microbiology of the university and worked on Legionnaires' disease;[30] Deborah Kaplan – an immunologist at The Chicago Medical School; [31] Zvi Saliternik (1897–1993) who was awarded the Israel Prize in 1962 for his contribution to the control of malaria in the country; [32] Prof. Shlomo Hestrin (1914–1962) who won the Israel Prize for Exact Science in 1957; Hannah Farkas – a bacteriologist who was married to Ladislaus Farkas;[33][34] Emanuel Eylan (Oleinik) – a bacteriologist and David Nachtigal – a cellular immunologist at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot.

He did not put a lot of importance in formal lectures and his teaching method was largely to require his students to read appropriate material including research articles followed by extensive class critical discussions and analysis with emphasis on experiment.

"[37] The knowledge and experience he acquired before coming to Palestine, his organizational abilities, initiative and obvious talents in planning and carrying out projects turned Kligler into a respected and valued director and a member of many committees.

Kligler gathered information about the health issues in the country and acquired experience in the field by joining a delegation for the Study of Yellow Fever in South America.

After failing to convince Chaim Weizmann and the Zionist executives of the need to invest in the eradication of malaria, Brandeis privately financed $10,000 for an experimental project through Hadassah, which Kligler directed.

In 1922, Kligler founded and managed the Malaria Research Institute in Haifa, established by the Joint Distribution Committee Hadassah with Brandeis's financial assistance, and worked with the Department of Health under Mandatory Palestine.

Kligler showed the ineffectiveness of previous methods used for the control of malaria in the country, namely, planting of Eucalyptus trees to dry the marshes, and the provision of Quinine prophylaxis for preventing infection.

He studied the prevalence of various Anopheles species, their biology and nesting grounds, tested different methods of eradication and selected the appropriate measures, taking into account their efficiency and cost.

The use of larvivorous fish to diminish mosquito populations was already well known at that time, e.g.,[41] the importance lies in the protocols used to define which of the known species of Gambusia was best suited to the local conditions.

The result was the almost total eradication of malaria in the upper Jordan Valley, i.e. the Huleh area, north of the Sea of Galilee, [a] by using where appropriate combinations of anti-larval fish and drainage techniques.

Kligler organized the first national conference of microbiologists in Mandatory Palestine, held in Jerusalem in 1936, and was elected president of Palestinian Microbiology Association.

Kligler hosted and served as a guide for many distinguished international visitors, among them Commander Bernard Montgomery, Rabbi Stephen Wise and the American ambassador in Russia, William Christian Bullitt.

He regularly attended meetings of the General Agricultural Council of Israel, and chaired the Nutrition Committee as a representative of the Hebrew University and later the Jewish Agency.

Kligler enthusiastically supported a plan of Dr. Katznelson of the Va'ad Leumi to provide a daily glass of milk to schoolchildren, which would not only improve nutrition but would also help dairy farmers.

At the beginning of 1941 he was asked by the American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to organize medical aid for Jewish refugees from Europe who arrived in the Dominican Republic at Sosua.

[citation needed] Kligler's grave, along with others including that of Henrietta Szold, were desecrated after the 1947–1949 Palestine war (1948), when the cemetery on the Mount of Olives was under Jordanian jurisdiction and a road was paved over it.