Menahem Schmelzer

Menahem Hayyim Schmelzer (Hebrew: מנחם חיים שמלצר; April 1934 – 10 December 2022) was a Hungarian-American Jewish librarian and writer.

He was the Albert B. and Bernice Cohen Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature and Jewish Bibliography at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He began his career at JTS in 1961 and was Librarian from 1966 to 1987.

A master of piyyut (Jewish liturgical poetry) and of Jewish liturgy, he was a preeminent specialist in medieval Hebrew literature and published extensively on Ashkenazi piyyut. He was known for his depth of knowledge in the field of Hebrew manuscripts and Jewish bibliography, whose "astounding command" of the details of the collection made him the 'go-to' person on questions of Jewish bibliography for researchers around the world.