National President Morton A. Klein

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. He is a member of the Executive Committee of AIPAC. Mr. Klein is widely regarded as one of the leading Jewish activists in the United States.

The national Jewish weekly, "The Forward" named him one of the top five Jewish leaders in the US today, stating "It's impossible to deny that Klein has been extraordinarily effective." The US 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 is a member of the International Board of Governors of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, Israel. He is a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp in Gunzberg, Germany. He is an economist who served in the Nixon, Ford, and Carter Administrations. 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., having worked closely with two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling. He has been a lecturer in mathematics and statistics at Temple University.

The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent named him 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." 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 the ZOA "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 Klein,"a man who ferrets out anti-Semitism 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."

His 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 30 feature stories both here and in Israel, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, AIPAC's Near East Report ("One Man Made a Difference"), Hadassah Magazine ("Writing Wrongs'), New York Jewish Week ("Morton Klein: One-Man Lobby"), Jerusalem Post ("Economist Fights for Israel"), the Philadelphia Inquirer ("Keeping Watch on Behalf of Jews and Israel"), Philadelphia Magazine, Ha'aretz, Long Island Jewish World (He Does It His Way), the Jerusalem Report, Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, Baltimore Jewish Times, LA Jewish Times, Washington Jewish Week, Legal Times, Ma'ariv, Vesti (major Russian Israeli daily), and Lifesyles.

In recognition of his efforts, Mr. Klein received Hadassah's Myrtle Wreath Award, the Humanitarian Award from the Holocaust Memorial Committee of New York, the One-Israel Fund's "Defender of the Land" award, the Jerusalem Reclamation Project's Ze'ev Jabotinsky Memorial Award, was honored by the Center for Security Policy, a distinguished Washington think tank, and the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, a respected think tank in Montreal, Canada, and was elected to the Philadelphia Jewish Times Hall of Fame.

His scientific research on nutrition and heart disease was cited by Discover Magazine as one of the Top 50 Scientific Studies of 1992. While a health economist in Washington, Klein was also the first to determine and publicize the dangers of annual mammograms for women under the age of 50, changing national policy in this area, including the reduction of radiation emission from mammograms.

Mr. Klein has led a series of successful pro-Israel efforts in Washington. The magazine Reform Judaism wrote "Klein has emerged as a sophisticated political infighter with a keen feel for the subtleties of US-Israel relations and Washington Lobbying." ZOA led the fight against Prof. John Roth's appointment to direct studies at the US Holocaust Museum (he equated Israeli policies to Nazi policies); Roth resigned shortly thereafter. ZOA led the fight against Joe Zogby, a State Dept. Mideast analyst, who had written anti-Israel articles -- in two weeks, Zogby left the State Department. ZOA exposed the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel writings of Salam Al-Marayati (Director of Muslim Public Affairs Council) and led the fight against his nomination to the US Terrorism Commission. Marayati's appointment was rescinded.

After a 3-year lobbying campaign, ZOA was responsible for the US Government offering multi-million dollar rewards for the capture of Palestinian Arabs who have murdered dozens of American citizens in Israel and the territories. ZOA also initiated the Ashcroft-Salmon Bill and helped pass the Koby Mandell Act which facilitates the capture of these Palestinian Arab killers. The ZOA organized 42 Members of Congress to protest the fact that Abu Daoud, the admitted mastermind of the 1972 Munich Massacre (in which 12 Israelis were murdered) was allowed by Jordan to live there comfortably. After ZOA's campaign Abu Daoud quickly left Jordan. The Jordanian government then, for the first time, publicly pledged that it will arrest Daoud if he returns. The Forward reported (9/3/99) that "The ZOA's effort to hold Jordan accountble for harboring terrorists is having an affect ... ZOA president Morton Klein wrote to the Jordanian ambassador to America, Markwan Muasher, on August 29, expressing concern that two terrorists were being harbored in Jordan, and asking 'why Jordan permits ... Hamas to maintain major facilities in Amman.' In a matter of days, the Hamas offices were closed."

ZOA exposed the anti-Israel writings of Strobe Talbott, Clinton's nominee for Deputy Secretary of State. This effort stopped Talbott from becoming Secretary of State. Klein and the ZOA initiated the creation of the 60-member Peace Accord Monitoring Group in the US Congress. This group and ZOA brought the issue of PLO compliance to the fore and was instrumental in passing the Spector-Shelby Bill which further exposed Arafat's non-compliance of Oslo.

He has been invited to testify before the US Congress, Including the US House International Relations Committee, and the Israeli Knesset.

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. Other campaigns by Klein dramatically reduced the number of anti-Israel lectures at Villanova University and at the largest church in the Philadelphia area. The exposure of anti-Israel sermons at this church, where U.S. Senate candidate Lyn Yeakel was VP of the Board, played a major role in helping elect U.S. Senator Arlen Specter in his 1992 campaign.

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 300 of his articles and letters have been published in newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals around the world, including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Washington Times, USA Today, Congressional Quarterly, New Republic, New Yorker, Commentary, Near East Report, Reform Judaism, Jerusalem Post & other leading Jewish papers, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Ha'aretz & Maariv (Israel), Israeli- Russian paper Vesti, Canadian Jewish News, Journal of Preventive Medicine, Journal of Epidemiology.

Klein has appeared on TV and radio including ABC's Peter Jennings World News Tonight (4 minute segment on ZOA "Lobbying for Israel"), NBC National News, Jim Lehrer News Hour, O'Reilly Factor, Buchanan & Friends, Donahue, CNN, Fox-TV, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Col. Oliver North National Radio Show, Janet Parshall's America National Radio, C-Span, VOA, Israel TV/Radio.

He has delivered over 400 lectures throughout the world including Harvard , Yale, Princeton, Stanford, UC/Berkeley, MIT, Columbia, Penn, Michigan, Israel's Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University and College of Judea & Samaria; Swarthmore, Brandeis, Wash. U/St-Louis, U/Texas, U/Illinois, Brigham Young, National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, General Assembly (Federation) meetings, Israel Bonds, B'nai B'rith Canada, American Jewish Press Assoc., Rabbinic Council of America Federations, JCRC's & Synagogues from coast to coast, and the U.S. Dept. of State's Distinguished Lecture Series.

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, a recent graduate of Barnard College. He lives in a suburb of Philadelphia.