Idit Klein was four years-old in 1976 when she asked her aunt why she had blue numbers on her arm. Idit was informed that her aunt was taken away by "bad men" because she was Jewish. Fearing that those bad men could walk through the open door, Idit rushed to close it. "I have a very vivid memory of standing in front of the door with the stairwell behind me vowing with all of a four year-old's ferocity that I needed to do whatever I could do to change the world so that there wouldn't be bad men."

That ferocity would fuel the fire behind Idit's commitment to social change. After graduating from Yale University, Idit moved to Israel where she became a community organizer in the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community of Jerusalem.

Returning to the states in the late nineties, Idit put her time into Keshet, a small volunteer-run organization dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive Jewish community for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews. Determined to expand the organization, Idit worked tirelessly to raise money and organize in the Jewish community. In 2001 Idit was hired to be the executive director. Now, Keshet offers workshops, support groups, social events, and an initiative to advocate for equal rights for same-sex couples. Idit's work in schools and synagogues has been instrumental in developing a consciousness of GLBT issues in the Jewish community both locally and internationally. With a new film and teacher's guide due out this year, Keshet plans to continue outreach across the country.

ON JEWISH VALUES

"Everything that I do and think is so strongly imbedded in my identity as a Jew..." ...More 

ON FAMILY UPBRINGING

"An important part of my identity growing up in my family has been being from Israel and the fact that we left Israel. That was always very significant." ...More 

ON ROLE MODELS

"I've had a lot of teachers that were role models." ...More 

ON PATH TO ACTIVISM

"The impetus for me becoming political happened when I was four and a half years-old. I was spending the day with my great aunt because my parents were at the hospital and my brother was being born. All of the older people in my family had blue numbers on their arm." ...More 

ON IMPACT ON WORLD

"I was asked to be on a panel at the general assembly of international Jewish communities. In the Jewish community they call it the GA, it's people from all of the Jewish federations in the states and Europe." ...More 

ON IMPACT ON SELF

"This work has made me be completely, irrevocably out. There's no way to go back." ...More 

	Photographs
	Papers  Flyer announcing "Havdalah Drag" - a performance presented by Keshet and The Theater Offensive. January 31, 2004. Brochure from the Jewish Safe Schools Program. Brochure for "Quick Dates", Boston’s fourth annual Jewish GLBT speed-dating event. December 25, 2004.
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