Contributor

Idit Klein

Executive Director, Keshet

Idit Klein has worked as the Executive Director of Keshet since 2001. In that time, she has built Keshet from a one person, $35,000 annual budget local organization to a 14-person, $1.3 million organization with national reach.

She has led numerous successful organizing efforts at synagogues, schools, and Jewish organizations around the country. Under her leadership, Keshet mobilized over 30 Massachusetts congregations to help defeat the proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment.

Klein also served as the Executive Producer of the documentary film, "Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School."

Prior to Keshet, Klein was an activist in the queer women's community in Israel and played a role in early organizing around the creation of the Jerusalem Open House. She worked for social justice organizations in Jerusalem and in Boston including Shatil, the Israel/Palestine Center for Research & Information, and Community Work Services.

She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received a Master's in Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a focus on social justice and anti-oppression education. Idit was among eight recipients of the 2003-2005 Joshua Venture Fellowship for young Jewish social entrepreneurs.

She is a past fellow and current board member of the Jewish Organizing Initiative and was honored by the Jewish Women's Archive with a Women Who Dared award.