KLEIN, EDWARD E.

KLEIN, EDWARD E. (1913–1985), U.S. Reform rabbi. Klein was born in Newark, New Jersey. Upon ordination from the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1940, Klein served as assistant rabbi and director of education at the Free Synagogue, New York, for two years. He was director of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation at the University of California at Berkeley. Upon the death of Stephen S. Wise in 1949, Klein succeeded him as rabbi of the Free Synagogue. Noted for involvement in community action, Klein supported causes for peace, civil liberties, civil rights, and civic reform as well as the security of the State of Israel. In 1962 he became a member of New York City's Fair Housing Practices Panel. He was chairman of the Church-State Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the Social Action Committee of the New York Board of Rabbis. Klein was a fellow of the National Council on Religion in Higher Education (1970). (Myron E. Schoen)