Diane and Emery Klein
Retired?
at home in Southfield
Butzel Award winners Emery and Diane Klein are far from it.
Harry Kirsbaum
Staff Wirter
T
wo quick stories explain
why this week Emery
and Diane Klein will
receive the "Butzel," the highest
leadership honor in the Detroit
Jewish community:
No. 1: The Kleins walk into a
drugstore one recent night, and
run into somebody they know.
Emery — who's raising money
for eight different organizations
— sees this as an opportunity.
He pitches all eight to the
friend, who has no choice but to
say yes to all of them, because
Emery is, after all, Emery.
The next day, the friend
receives a "thank you" call from
18
September 28 2006
.
Emery, who adds, "But I forgot to
ask you for something else."
"OK," says the friend, who
agrees to write one more check.
"But I'm never going into that
drugstore again."
No. 2: During a conversation
with the Jewish News in their
Southfield apartment, Emery is
making a statement about his
wife's commitment to the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit and other Jewish causes.
"She spends more time at the
Federation than she spends at
home," he jokes.
"Not really," she replies.
"Well, where were you this
morning?" he asks.
"I was at a meeting, but ..."
she says, her voice and eyes drop-
ping somewhat. Emery shrugs
his shoulders, his eyes twinkling.
The Kleins will receive the
Fred M. Butzel Award at the
combined annual meeting of
the Federation and the United
Jewish Foundation at the Jewish
Community Center in West
Bloomfield today, Sept. 28.
Their story is about using the
blinding success born of hard
work and perseverance to give
back to those most needy.
Federation Chief Executive
Officer Robert Aronson called the
pair, "a tag team. You don't get
one without the other.
"They are so passionate and
committed about what they do,
they really put community at the
highest level of priority along
with their very close family:' he
said. "I call Emery my pit bull —
you can wind him up, put him in
a direction and say, 'Emery, we
need this, and he'll go out and
get it. But Diane, in her own way,
is just as effective.
"They are an example of what
makes this community special
— completely devoted to Jewish
life, completely devoted to per-
sonal volunteerism, and there
is no job that they will not do.
And they carry with them always
a sense of personal destiny
because of what Emery went
through in the war."
Beginnings
Emery Klein spent his childhood
in Nazi Germany concentration
camps. Born in Czechoslovakia
in an ardently Zionist family, he
survived Auschwitz, Birkenau
and other Nazi death camps,
along with his father and brother.
His mother and sister were lost.
"My father had a sister in
Detroit," he said. "He wanted to
come here, but my brother and
I wanted to go nowhere else but
Israel."
His father made a deal: Go to
Israel "and give it our best try. If
we cannot make a go of it, we will
all go to Detroit, because family
is the most important thing."
After nine months in Israel,
they decided to make their way
to Detroit, but spent six years in
Montreal first because of visa
restrictions.