Morton A. Klein is National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the U.S., founded in 1897. Mr. Klein is widely regarded as one of the leading Jewish activists in the United States. Morton Klein is a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp in Gunzberg, Germany.
The national Jewish weekly, 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 has awarded Klein a “Certificate of Appreciation” “in recognition of outstanding contributions to national and international affairs,” after he delivered a major address there. He received the World Zionist Organization Award for Outstanding Leadership, the only leader recognized at the World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland and presented by philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson in August 2022. He is a member of the International Board of Governors of Ariel University in Israel. He received the “Keeper of the Flame” Award from the Center for Security in Washington, D.C. He received the “Defender of the Land Award” from The One Israel Fund/YESHA for “Exceptional Dedication to the Jews of Judea/Samaria and Remarkable Love for the Entire Land of Israel.” He received the Israel UN Award for “Dedication to the Jewish People and Fighting BDS.” He received the Brith Shalom Award for “Outstanding Dedication to Fighting Indifference, Intolerance and Injustice.” He received the Holocaust Humanitarian Award for “Dedication and Deep Commitment to the Jewish People.” He received the Sovereignty Award from The Israel Sovereignty Movement for being “A Lover and Fighter for Eretz Yisroel.” Klein was named at a major ceremony at the World Zionist Conference in Jerusalem, Israel an “Honorary Fellow of the World Zionist Movement for Your Extraordinary, Sacred and Holy Work and Activities Over Many Years and Your Great Contributions to the Dissemination of Zionism’s Ideas.”
As a Member of the Executive Committee of AIPAC, Klein received a Certificate of Recognition from AIPAC for “Demonstrated Leadership on Behalf of a Strong and Secure U.S.-Israel Relationship.” He received the Jabotinsky Award from the Christians and Jews United for Israel group.
He received ZOA’s Highest honor, the Theodor Herzl Award, for “Bringing ZOA to unimaginable heights of recognition and standing; under your leadership ZOA has become one of the most credible and influential organizations in the U.S. today. You have been a powerful and effective advocate for a safe and secure Israel and for the rights of the Jewish people. Your unflinching commitment to speaking the truth has been unmatched. You are a true Zionist hero.”
Morton Klein worked in three administrations as an economist in Washington, D.C. He has served as a biostatistician at UCLA School of Public Health and the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in Palo Alto, California, having worked closely with two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling. His scientific research on nutrition and heart disease was cited by the Discover Journal as one of the Top 50 Scientific Studies of 1992,” which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology. He also successfully campaigned the NIH to reduce the amount of radiation, from nearly 25 rads to less than one rad, that women were exposed to when taking a mammogram. Mr. Klein was also a lecturer in mathematics and statistics at Temple University.
The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent named Morton Klein 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 Jerusalem Post has called the 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.”
The New York Times, in a profile called “Public Lives,” called Morton 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.
Mort Klein’s successful campaigns against anti-Israel bias in leading textbooks, travel guides, universities, churches, and the media, as well as his work on Capitol Hill, were the subject of 40 feature stories both in the U.S. and Israel. Mort Klein has been invited to testify before the U.S. Congress, including the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Judiciary Committee, and the Israeli Knesset. Mr. Klein led the fight to reinterpret Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination. He was the sole Jewish leader initially supporting the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act. He was also a singular leader in the successful campaign to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He traveled to Germany and persuaded the publishers of Baedeker’s, the world’s leading travel guide, to correct the many anti-Israel errors in its guides to Israel and Jerusalem. He launched a campaign to correct dozens of anti-Israel errors in D.C. Heath’s “The Enduring Vision,” the most widely used American high school and college history textbook.
Mr. Klein is quoted internationally and has appeared in the media in countries including the U.S.A., Israel, France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Holland, etc. More than 400 of his articles and letters have been published in newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals around the world, including 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 & other leading Jewish papers, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Ha’aretz & Maariv (Israel), Canadian Jewish News, Journal of Preventive Medicine, Journal of Epidemiology.
He had given over 350 lectures throughout the world including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, Swarthmore, Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, Hebrew University and many more.
Morton Klein has appeared on TV and radio including ABC’s World News Tonight (four-minute segment on ZOA “Lobbying for Israel”), NBC National News, CNN, Fox-TV, CNBC, MSNBC, Newsmax, NPR, BBC, C-Span, VOA, Israel TV/Radio. Lines from his speeches appear in the respected volume entitled “Great Jewish Quotations.” He is on the speaker’s bureau of UJC, and Israel Bonds.
Mr. Klein is married to Rita, has a married daughter Rachael married to David, an attorney, and has four grandchildren, two of whom are in college respectively studying biomedical engineering and electrical engineering.