Morton Klein

Klein was born to Holocaust survivors in a displaced persons camp in Günzburg, Germany.[3] At age four, he and his family emigrated from Germany to the United States, where he would grow up in South Philadelphia.[3]

His father was a Satmar chasid, an Orthodox Rabbi with semicha from Moshe Teitelbaum.[4] Klein said in a Jewish Press interview regarding his father that "In Europe he had a long beard and black hat and was a rosh yeshiva in his early 20s. But he disagreed with the Satmars on Israel. My father loved Israel, so obviously this was transmitted to me."[5]

Klein served as an economist under presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. He has served as a biostatistician at UCLA School of Public Health and the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. He has been a lecturer in mathematics and statistics at Temple University.[6] Today, Klein is member of the International Board of Governors of the Ariel University Center of Samaria.[6]

He was dismayed by the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords, choosing to begin pro-Israel work in response: "I only went into the work because I thought Oslo was a disastrous mistake and I wanted a podium to express that. I did not intend to do it for more than a year or two, make my case and then go back to normal life. But things kept getting worse, not better."[7]

In 1993, while serving as the Philadelphia chapter president of the Zionist Organization of America, Klein was elected national president.[8] He is credited for converting it from a moribund group to a high-profile, outspoken organization.[9] After the Obama administration abstained from using its veto power to block United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which stated that Israeli Settlement in the West Bank is a 'flagrant' violation of international law, Klein called Obama "a Jew-hating antisemite."[10]

Klein has stated his belief that the U.S. should engage in religious profiling of Muslims. "In an era in which the vast majority of terrorism is committed by Muslims, in order to protect American citizens, we should adopt the same profiling policies as Israel and be more thorough in vetting Muslims," he told The Forward. Klein said he would also support profiling of Jews under certain circumstances. "If most terror were committed by Jews I would support profiling Jews."[11]

In February 2012, the ZOA lost its tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service after it failed to file tax returns for three years.[12] The ZOA regained its status in May 2013.[13] Klein said it was a technical "glitch."[13] During the years that the ZOA failed to file tax returns, The Forward reported that Klein's salary increased 38%.[14] In 2014, Steven Goldberg, a Los Angeles attorney and national vice-president of the ZOA, launched a challenge to Klein's presidency, alleging that Klein was mismanaging the ZOA and personally profiting.[13] Klein was later reelected president with 93% of the vote.[15]

Through his work with the ZOA, Klein was named one of the top dozen "Jewish activists of the century." The NY Jewish Week (largest Federation paper) has named him one of the top ten Jewish leaders who have made a difference. The Jewish Press recently stated that "Morton Klein is one of the best minds in this country."[16]

Through the ZOA, Klein has taken issue with comments by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez which appropriated the phrase "never again". Klein stated: “AOC’s ludicrous statements that the U.S. has a ‘Fascist’ ‘presidency that creates concentration camps’ to hold immigrant communities, and AOC's invocation of the Holocaust-associated slogan ‘never again’ with respect to the housing of immigrant minors – are abhorrent insults to the memory of the 6 million Jews and the millions of gays, gypsies, and others who were intentionally slaughtered, worked to death, starved, gassed and tortured in the real Nazi-Fascist concentration camps.”[17] Klein has also called for Rashida Tlaib to be removed from Democratic Party for what he views as antisemitic comments.[18]

On September 11, 2018 it was reported in The New York Times that Kenneth L. Marcus, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights reopened a seven-year-old case brought by the ZOA against Rutgers University, saying the Obama administration, in closing the case, ignored evidence that suggested the school allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students.[28] Klein is quoted in the story stating: “Hate groups like Students for Justice in Palestine try to convince others that their attacks on Zionism and Israel are legitimate political discourse. But as the State Department definition of anti-Semitism recognizes, these attacks are often a mask for Jew-hatred, plain and simple.”[28]

Klein is married to Rita, has a married daughter Rachael, and four grandchildren.[16] Klein has Tourette syndrome.[29]

In 2017, Klein submitted a letter to Congress which stated that:

"...moving the U.S. Embassy to Israel's capital will achieve tremendous benefits for the United States and our allies throughout the world."[30]

Klein served as a lecturer at Temple University[31] and as a biostatistician at UCLA School of Public Health and the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in Palo Alto, California.[2] He has previously published work on epidemiology in academic journals.[32] His research on nutrition and heart disease was cited by Discover Magazine as one of the Top 50 Scientific Studies of 1992.[31]

• Zionist Organization of America official site