Samuel Klein (Hebrew: שמואל קליין; lived 17 November 1886 – 21 April 1940) was a Hungarian-born rabbi, historian and historical geographer in Mandatory Palestine.

From 1906 to 1909, he went on to study at the orthodox Rabbinerseminar in Berlin,[1] a Jewish Theological Seminary where he was ordained in the rabbinate, and from there to Friedrich-Wilhelm University of Berlin, before advancing to Heidelberg University where he wrote a thesis entitled: Beiträge zur Geographie und Geschichte Galiläas (Leipzig 1909) (Contributions to the Geography and History of Galilee), his first important contributions to the science of Historical Topography of the Holy Land.

During the First World War, Klein was conscripted in the Austro-Hungarian army as a rabbi, and became the patron and benefactor of some 200 refugees who came to Nové Zámky in search of a new life.

[5][6][7] In the words of Albright: "Samuel Klein represents Jewish philological research at its best; his erudition was exhaustive, covering Graeco-Roman as well as Hebrew and Aramaic sources; his critical judgment was sound and highly developed; his acumen and insight into complex historical and topographical situations were unsurpassed among specialists in the field."

Klein's greatest contribution to scholastic research is his identification of old place names in Palestine during the classical period, drawn principally from the Hebrew Bible, Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, and from the writings of Josephus in transliterated Greek form, as well as from other epigraphic texts of antiquity.