Mrs. Rivkoh Rotzeh Klein of New York, the noted widow of R'
Chaim Shlomo (Stephen) Klein who served as chairman of the
American Committee for Chinuch Atzmai and a leader of rescue
activity in the US following the Holocaust, was laid to rest
last Wednesday at the age of 95.
Mrs. Klein was born in Turena, Poland, the daughter of R'
Avrohom Abish Monheit of Chassidei Belz, and was raised in a
home of ahavas Torah and ahavas chesed. After
marrying in Vienna she and her husband immigrated to the US
in 5698 (1938). R' Klein soon became a central figure in
matters affecting observant American Jews.
As a prominent businessman and owner of Barton's candies, he
sanctified sheim Shomayim in public when he set a
precedent by locking the doors of his 60 candy stores on
Shabbos and chagim. In the 1940s Mrs. Klein helped her
husband carry out rescue activities in cooperation with
gedolei Yisroel--particularly HaRav Aharon Kotler,
zt'l-- and continued to provide support when he became
chairman of the American Committee for Chinuch Atzmai. As
deputy chairman of Torah UMesorah, R' Klein set up a number
of chareidi schools for girls. He worked simultaneously to
sustain and strengthen the foundations of major Torah centers
set up in the US after the War and supported them with all of
the means at his disposal.
Torah faithful Jews expressed deep feelings of fondness and
appreciation for the Kleins during the large funeral held in
Boro Park. During the course of the levaya passionate
hespeidim were delivered by the Novominsker Rebbe,
rosh of Agudas Yisroel, USA, and a member of the Council of
Torah Sages; Rav Simchoh Bunim Ehrenfeld, av beis din
of Tressdorf and a member of the Council of Torah Sages;
HaRav Malkiel Kotler, rosh yeshivas Lakewood; Rav Yosef
Boimel, a prominent elderly rov in the US; Rav Yechezkel
Besser, a member of the nesi'us of Agudas Yisroel, USA; and
Mrs. Klein's distinguished son, R' Avrohom (George) Klein of
New York.
On Thursday afternoon her coffin arrived at Ben Gurion
International Airport, where her son stood waiting beside the
cargo ramp with a delegation comprised of heads of Chinuch
Atzmai and Agudas Yisroel. A distinguished group of rabbonim
and public figures then accompanied the coffin from the
arrivals terminal. Hespeidim were given by Chief Rabbi
Meir Lau, who spoke of a life filled with kiddush sheim
Shomayim and extensive work for the sake of Torah,
education and Yiddishkeit.
At the Eretz HaChaim Cemetery in Beit Shemesh, Mrs. Klein was
eulogized by Rabbi Menachem Porush, chairman of Agudas
Yisroel in Jerusalem, who acclaimed the unique greatness of
the Klein home as the main address in the US decades ago for
every matter of kedushoh and for both material and
spiritual rescue efforts. He said the family's crown jewel
was its dedication, under the guidance of gedolei
Yisroel, to the establishment of Chinuch Atzmai in Eretz
Hakodesh.
Rav Akiva Ehrenfeld, president of Kiryat Mattersdorf in
Jerusalem, described the deceased's contribution, driven by
pure faith and Jewish pride together with her late husband,
toward establishing Torah life and Jewish education during a
very turbulent period of spiritual desolation in the US. Then
he expanded on the eminent family's outstanding traits and
endeavors, which received the accolades of gedolei
Torah.
Rabbi Avrohom Yosef Lazerzon, one of the heads of Chinuch
Atzmai in Eretz Yisroel, said the Klein family's virtues were
etched in the pages of history of Klal Yisroel during
the last generation and expressed hakoras hatov on the
part of the Chinuch Atzmai administration and thousands of
talmidim across the years, saying together with her
late husband, she erected the foundations and laid the
infrastructure that served as a dwelling place for the Divine
Presence in the cities of Israel upon the opening of Chinuch
Atzmai institutions under the direction of the luminaries of
Am Yisroel.
All of the eulogizers noted Mrs. Klein's success in raising
hallowed successors to inherit their parents' great legacy,
notably her son, R' Avrohom Klein. Finally R' Avrohom Klein
offered impassioned words of parting, stressing his
unequivocal conviction that in the World-to-Come his late
father was uttering the words of R' Akiva: Sheli
veshelochem sheloh hu.
The deceased was then laid to rest beside her husband in the
Agudas Yisroel section of Beit Shemesh's Eretz Chaim
Cemetery.
