Morton A. Klein is the National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest U.S. pro-Israel group, founded in 1897. He is widely regarded as a leading Jewish activist. He testifies at key Congressional hearings (including before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees) and at the Israeli Knesset. His numerous successful campaigns include reinterpreting the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students; correcting anti-Israel falsehoods in widely-used textbooks; recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over her united capital Jerusalem and the Golan Heights; moving the U.S. Embassy, defunding the “pay to slay” Palestinian Authority; and recognizing that Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria are legal. Mr. Klein is a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp in Gunzberg, Germany.
Recognitions: Morton Klein was the only Jewish leader honored for “outstanding efforts helping and defending Israel the Jewish people” at the World Zionist Congress 125th anniversary in Basel, Switzerland. The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent named Morton Klein one of the top dozen “Jewish activists of the century.” The Jerusalem Post called ZOA, “one of the most important and influential groups in the U.S. today.” The Wall Street Journal called Morton Klein “heroic and the most credible advocate for Israel on the American Jewish scene today,” and we should “snap a salute to those who were right about Oslo and Arafat all along, including Morton Klein who was wise, brave, and unflinchingly honest. When the history of the American Jewish struggle in these years is written, Mr. Klein will emerge as an outsized figure.”
NY Jewish Week named him one of the top ten Jewish leaders who have made a difference. The Forward named Morton Klein one of the top five Jewish leaders in the U.S. today, stating “It’s impossible to deny that Klein has been extraordinarily effective.” The U.S. Department of State awarded Klein a Certificate of Appreciation “in recognition of outstanding contributions to national and international affairs.” Christians and Jews United for Israel gave him the Jabotinsky Award. He is an Ariel University Board member. The New York Times “Public Lives” profile called Mr. Klein, “a man who ferrets out antisemitism wherever it is, a rare voice from the outset in the American Jewish community against the Oslo Accords, and an iconoclast who is a prolific speechmaker, writer, and Congressional lobbyist.”
Media: International media frequently quote Mr. Klein. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, NBC, CNN, Fox-TV, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, C-Span, VOA, Newsmax, Israel TV/Radio.
Hundreds of his articles and letters have been published, including in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Washington Times, USA Today, Congressional Quarterly, New Republic, New Yorker, Commentary, Near East Report, Reform Judaism, Breitbart, Algemeiner, Jerusalem Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Haaretz & Maariv), Canadian Jewish News, Journal of Preventive Medicine, Journal of Epidemiology, etc. “Great Jewish Quotations” includes lines from his speeches.
Previous: Morton Klein worked as an economist in three U.S. administrations; as a biostatistician at the UCLA School of Public Health and Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine (working closely with double Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling), and as a mathematics and statistics lecturer at Temple University. Discover Magazine’s “Top 50 Scientific Studies of 1992” cited his scientific research on nutrition and heart disease.
Personal: Mr. Klein is married and has a married daughter and four grandchildren.