Hadassah Medical Organization gets a Zionist rabbi

The Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) has chosen a Modern Orthodox, Zionist rabbi – Moshe Klein – to be the rabbi of its medical institutions, succeeding its longtime rabbi, Yaacov Rakovski, who died last January.

The announcement last week thus put to an end speculation and concern – which was even expressed in a large advertisement in The Jerusalem Post, that political and other pressures would lead to the appointment of an ultra- Orthodox rabbi, without the Zionist credentials of the Women’s Zionist Organization of America that owns the medical centers.

For the past 19 years, Klein has served simultaneously as head of Bnei Akiva Tzfira girls’ schools and deputy chairman of all Bnei Akiva boys and girls schools.

Previously, the 55-year-old rabbi served as the director of Bat Ami – a voluntary national service organization – and from 2004 until 2010, as deputy director of the conversion administration in the Prime Minister’s Office. For the past 12 years, he has also served voluntarily as the rabbi of the Kfar Ganim neighborhood in Petah Tikva.

Klein, who was born in Petah Tikva, is frequently asked to speak on religious and educational topics in person and on the radio and to present his views in a variety of publications.

He also prepares Jewish Agency emissaries for service abroad, sharing his knowledge of Diaspora communities.

Ordained by a number of Torah scholars, including the late Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel Rabbi Avraham Shapira, Klein also has certification of higher religious education from the Chief Rabbinate.

A graduate of the Yeshivat Bnei Akiva Nehalim high school, east of Petah Tikva, and Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Merkaz Harav, Klein holds a master’s degree in law from Bar-Ilan University and certification as a teacher, family mediator and arbitrator by the Israel Bar Association.

HMO had 10 candidates to choose from, some of them haredi.

“Finding the right person was not an easy task at all, because all the candidates had excellent qualifications,” HMO director-general Prof. Ehud Kokia Hadassah said. “I congratulate Rabbi Klein and am certain that he will provide religious and spiritual counseling for our patients, our employees and whoever comes to visit Hadassah.”