It was with profound sadness that I absorbed the news last week that the petite, charming Irene, wife of Rabbi Sholom Klass, and publisher of The Jewish Press, returned her soul to her Maker.

Slight in height, Irene had the stature of a giant and was a ball of fire. A gifted poetess and grammarian, Rebbetzin Klass boasted a beautiful penmanship and magnificent vocabulary. She took tremendous pride in The Jewish Press’s Women’s Outlook section, which was her “baby,” but she contributed to all aspects of the paper.

If she learned of a recent divorcee or widow, she and her husband would find a place for the single mother at The Jewish Press, whether as a secretary, typist or advertising saleswoman. If it became known to her that an elderly gentleman who had led a productive life was becoming depressed after his retirement, he would find himself gainfully employed at The Jewish Press, where Irene and her husband would have the retiree surrounded by young employees who bestowed respect and honor upon him and made him feel worthy again.

Wherever Irene went, whether to participate in a simcha or vacation at a hotel, she would socialize and meet people whom she would hire to enhance this wonderful Torah newspaper. She loved Torah and was a true helpmeet to Rabbi Klass, whose goal was to spread Torah.

When I worked at the Jewish Press as an editor in the 1980′s, I would have to call Irene every week to discuss the layout and content of the Women’s section. It was before the appearance of the fax machine and since Irene didn’t come to the offices of The Jewish Press then, Rabbi Klass would bring me an envelope each week with all the articles and pictures to be featured in Irene’s magazine. I remember the first time I was instructed to call her, soon after I was hired to be editor. It was before the advent of Caller ID, and she didn’t pick up the phone. When an answering machine came on. I started speaking into the machine, leaving a message that it was Pearl Preschel calling. In middle of my sentence, I found Irene on the line. “I thought you weren’t home,” I said, “since you didn’t pick up.”

“I can’t pick up the phone, unless I know who it is,” she explained to me. “We get hundreds and hundreds of phone calls a day and this is the only way we can screen them, by listening to the machine.”

Before yeshivas and Jewish organizations had professional fundraisers, The Jewish Press served that purpose. If the worthy institutions weren’t getting free advertising, they were only spending a pittance and on credit, because the Klasses had hearts of gold and were true philanthropists. According to Maimonides, the greatest level of charity is to provide a person with a parnassah, a means of self-support. The Klasses fulfilled that mitzvah hundreds of times over. What was very special about the way they did it was that they behaved as if the employee was doing them a favor by taking the job.

The Agudath Israel of America owes tremendous hakaros hatov to Rabbi and Mrs. Klass of The Jewish Press. Several decades ago, when Rabbi Moshe Sherer was at its helm, Agudath Israel of American wasn’t a multi-million dollar operation with a tremendous budget and offices in many U.S. cities. The organization was not known at all except in Orthodox circles and was on a shoestring budget. Thanks to The Jewish Press, Agudath Israel became a household name and achieved tremendous power in the political world. Rabbi Sherer, who was very close to Rabbi Klass, was given free reign when it came to publicity, and Agudath Israel often had its articles and photos exhibited on the front page.

One time Rabbi Klass submitted an article from Rabbi Sherer that Rabbi Sherer had asked be published on the front page with its headline blaring in huge type over four columns. Rabbi Sherer was working very hard at the time on conversions according to Jewish law. Since the headline disparaged one of the movements of Judaism, I was not comfortable belittling other Jews – even if they were not acting in consonance with Jewish law – in so public a forum.

“Rabbi Klass,” I said, “The Jewish Press is exhibited on newsstands throughout the city. I am afraid of a chillul Hashem, because many people who are not Jewish will see we are putting down other Jews. Can’t we print this article inside the paper?”

Rabbi Klass said we could but advised me to receive Rabbi Sherer’s consent as well. When I called Rabbi Sherer, he agreed immediately, as Rabbi Klass knew he would. We printed the article on page 3.

Rabbi Sholom Klass’s deferral to Rabbi Sherer made a tremendous impression on me at the time. I learned at a later date that The Jewish Press never charged the Agudah for any of its full-page ads.

             It is to Irene’s credit that her husband’s entire family was part of the Jewish Press. Who could forget Lionel Klass, Rabbi Sholom Klass’s gifted and intelligent brother who worked as editor at The Jewish Press? Knowledgeable in Torah, he would spend hours at home typing up pithy Torah sayings to insert into the pages of The Jewish Press as fillers. He always had a container of vitamin C pills to administer to anyone who had a bad cold. He would regale the employees with fascinating stories and the latest medical research. He was the epitome of modesty and wrote quite a number of very interesting articles.

Irene Klass’s older daughter, Naomi Mauer, is the assistant publisher of the paper, and several children of Irene’s younger daughter, Hindy Greenwald, work at The Jewish Press.

Rabbi Klass’s nephew, Rabbi Yaakov Klass, has taken over the late rabbi’s Question and Answer column, and follows in his uncle’s footsteps with his love of Torah. His father Al Klass and mother Hilda Klass, who worked in other departments at the Jewish Press, served as surrogate parents to all its employees. Anyone who had any personal problems would find an ear with them. Rivi Rosenhal, Rabbi Sholom Klass’s sister, still delights The Jewish Press readers with her wonderful illustrations and insightful political cartoons. Rivi’s husband Harry would, from time to time, contribute his political insights in wonderful articles about Israel.

Very often, people would mistakenly believe that I was a member of the Klass family and would be surprised to discover I wasn’t related.

Now with Irene’s passing, I feel like a member of my own family has passed away. Irene, a wonderfully, talented compassionate human being will now be reunited with a giant of a man, her husband Rabbi Sholom Klass. Rabbi Klass was descended from the Maharal. Irene, who was a Schreiber, came from the family of the Chasam Sofer. In addition to their illustrious yichus, they were people with tremendous self-yichus. May their memory be a blessing.

Now with Irene’s passing, I feel like a member of my own family has passed away. Irene, a wonderfully, talented compassionate human being will now be reunited with a giant of a man, her husband Rabbi Sholom Klass. Rabbi Klass was descended from the Maharal. Irene, who was a Schreiber, came from the family of the Chasam Sofer. In addition to their illustrious yichus, they were people with tremendous self-yichus. May their memory be a blessing.

Irene Klass, the cofounder and publisher of The Jewish Press, the first nationally-distributed Orthodox Jewish newspaper in the U.S., died last week. She was 94.

A larger-than-life newspaperwoman who helped her husband, Rabbi Sholom Klass, found and build the largest Jewish weekly in America over the last 50 years, Mrs. Klass maintained a reputation for being preternaturally able to spot writing talent and for having a knack at grassroots marketing. Her efforts contributed to the great growth of The Jewish Press over the years.

In addition to her Jewish Press persona, Mrs. Klass became the matriarch of her extended family and, by the sheer force of her charm and friendliness, an increasingly large circle of friends.

But it was at The Jewish Press where Mrs. Klass had her most prominent impact. She discovered and gave writing space to little-known but talented personalities like Rabbi Meir Kahane and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis; along with Rabbi Klass, determined the look and feel of the newspaper; and became half of the public image of The Jewish Press – always carrying under her arm several copies of the latest issue wherever she would go.

“She was a queen in the true sense of the word,” said Molly Resnick, a close friend and founder of Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill and Hate. “Regal in bearing and caring for everyone. She always put God Almighty at the forefront, wishing that more people could see the beauty of His Torah wisdom.”

Irene Schreiber, the oldest of three girls, was born in 1916 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to Raphael and Nettie (Weiss) Schreiber. The family moved to several neighborhoods before settling in Brighton Beach, on the southwestern edge of Brooklyn.

Irene Klass (left) , with her sister Helen,

around the time of her bat mitzvah

As an adult, Mrs. Klass felt that her yichus, or Jewish lineage, was an important part of who she was and would make sure to remind her grandchildren that the famed Divrei Chaim was her great-great-uncle, and that she was closely related to the Chasam Sofer.

Throughout school, she and her two sisters earned a reputation for brilliance and excellence. She would frequently repeat how an elementary English teacher would ask the class if she and Ms. Schreiber were the only ones who had read and understood Shakespeare. Because she was charged with taking care of her younger sisters, Mrs. Klass did not get the opportunity to attend college, but she still devoured much literature and eventually books of Torah to hold her own in conversations on most topics.

When she was ready to get married she looked for a talmid chacham when most of her friends were looking for someone handsome and rich. She also began attending Torah classes, and soon met Rabbi Sholom Klass, who regularly lectured on the Gemara.

They got married in 1940 and had two daughters, Naomi (Klass Mauer) and Hindy (Greenwald). They soon moved from Brighton Beach to the neighboring town of Manhattan Beach, where just a handful of Orthodox families resided.

Mrs. Klass shared many of her husband’s ambitions, including that of putting out a newspaper. Rabbi Klass’s first foray into the field was the Oceanside News, a four-page publication, and she would go with him to deliver it door to door.

Klass family circa 1926

Rabbi Klass started other publications – the Brooklyn Weekly and the Brooklyn Daily – before realizing his dream of producing a newspaper filled with Torah. It was Mrs. Klass who shaped much of the look of The Jewish Press, insisting that the stories that animated her husband’s lectures and made them so popular be included in the paper. The Tales of the Gaonim and the Midrash became one of the most popular columns of the paper, and continue to be reproduced to this day. Another column she pushed for inclusion was the wildly popular Questions and Answers, where Rabbi Klass would answer questions on halacha from readers. The best of that column has been collected in three widely read books.

Over the years the paper matured; in addition to its heavy Torah content, it became an important advocate for Israel. Hundreds of thousands of American Jews looked to The Jewish Press for solace during the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973 – and throughout the 70s and 80s.

The newspaper also increasingly played an important role on the American Jewish scene, serving as a liaison for the Jewish community to local, state and federal officials.

Mrs. Klass herself was a very accomplished writer. In The Jewish Press, she wrote scores of articles and poems.

At home, Mrs. Klass was the caretaker not just for her husband and daughters but also for the many extended relatives who came to live with them at various times: Her father, Rabbi Klass’s parents, siblings and cousins, and friends.

Longtime friends and relatives emphasize several aspects of her life and personality: her vibrancy, her intelligence, her enthusiasm for the newspaper, and her tzedakah.

Her vibrancy was reflected in Mrs. Klass’s zest for life. In addition to her prose and poems, she wrote a few songs, and saw to it that they’d be recorded. Additionally, her simcha dancing, which she practiced and displayed at her vacation spots – the Pioneer Hotel and then the Homowack Hotel – was highly admired.

She would pass down aphorisms to her children and grandchildren, such as, “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again,” “You don’t have to be good at everything, take something and make it your best,” “Good better best. Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.”

Her intelligence was evident to everyone she met. “Irene Klass had a keen intellect,” said Prof. Paul Eidelberg, a Jewish Press columnist. “I recall our driving back together from a meeting in Manhattan. Her familiarity and understanding of one of my books – which is not an easy read – astonished me.”

She displayed intelligence not just in her book knowledge but also in her adaptation of healthful practices. She was a health fanatic, long before it was in vogue, advocating and practicing a healthful diet, and teaching those she met how to properly wash their hands.

She was also fanatical about The Jewish Press. She believed deeply in its content and preached its virtues every place she would go. She’d give friends and acquaintances free subscriptions not just to market the paper but also to expose them to all of its benefits.

“Irene encouraged people of all ages to get involved,” Nachum Segal, a longtime friend and a radio talk show host, said. “Her primary method was through writing, but no matter what the vehicle was, she wanted people to feel they had the ability to make a difference by expressing their opinion . [Many listeners] remembered how she would speak to young women and press them to express themselves.”

Dr. Miriam Adahan, a Jewish Press contributor and book author, called Mrs. Klass “a courageous woman.” “She spoke out fearlessly about issues that others were afraid to address,” she said, “such as domestic violence and political corruption. The fact that she published my articles was what gave me the impetus to keep writing, which led to many books and a thriving career, Baruch Hashem. I will be forever grateful to her for all that she did for me, personally, and for klal Yisrael.”

Her tzedakah was legendary. She’d regularly write out checks of several thousand dollars to cover operations, yeshiva tuitions, and basic expenses for families and individuals, many of whom she hardly knew or didn’t know at all. In one not unusual instance, her daughter Naomi alerted her to someone who needed to fly to Switzerland for an organ transplant. In an instant, Mrs. Klass paid for the airfare of this person she had never before met.

“She always gave, even when she could hardly afford it,” Naomi said. “She used the influence of the paper to help others get whatever they needed. The amount of tzedakah is almost impossible to comprehend. She was a tiny powerhouse.”

Aside from the advocacy for Israel in their paper, Mrs. Klass and Rabbi Klass became strong personal supporters of the land, eventually encouraging several grandchildren to make aliyah, and helping to support them financially when they first arrived.

When they went to Israel for the first time in 1972, Rabbi Klass came for 10 days, but Mrs. Klass was able to stay for three weeks. She took her granddaughters to the Kinnert. She had been singing a song about the lake her whole life, she said. They arrived in the evening, and when she awoke in the morning she went out on the porch. She said it was overwhelming, the song coming alive for her – how in her whole life she never saw such a site and was riveted by it.

And when she was davening in Israel in the morning, she said she would hear the birds chirping; they were joining her in her praise of God.

May her memory be a blessing.

I was an avid reader and fan of The Jewish Press long before becoming a writer in its pages. Our publication recently celebrated its milestone 50th anniversary and I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the paper’s unprecedented impact on American Jewry.

The Jewish Press was the first English-language Jewish weekly published nationally in the United States. It was unique. It was printed in English, not Yiddish. It was unflinching in its Orthodox perspective, but took on many subjects that more timid publishers in the Jewish world would long avoid.

Its founder, Rabbi Sholom Klass, zt”l, was an incredible Torah scholar who understood the ways of the world. He combined his scholarship with a common-sense approach to tackle issues that affected Jews in a modern world. 

The paper addressed sensitive subjects and issues that had, in the past, been swept under the proverbial Jewish rug. Alcoholism, drug use, spousal and sexual abuse, learning disabilities and more have been explored. Halachic perspective on organ transplants, fertility treatments, end-of-life issues and other scientific debates have also been examined.

Frum Jews enjoyed and read The Jewish Press. Over the years, an additional readership emerged. Because it was printed in English and contained such a blend of cutting-edge topical articles, in addition to traditional material, the paper has actually served as a tremendous source of kiruv (Jewish outreach). 

Rabbi Klass was undaunting in his courageous approach to the publication. He used the pages of the newspaper to champion Jewish causes and issues. He used the influence of his position to help the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The newspaper continues this legacy of Jewish leadership today.

Mazel tov to the Klass, Mauer and Greenwald families. You have taken the mantle. You have continued in this extraordinary undertaking. You have and are making a difference. Thank you for being there. The Jewish community needs you now more than ever.

Michael Dallek

From Father To Daughter

Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen

Fran?ois Delattre

French Consul General

Rabbi Albert Gabbai

Rabbi Fred Kazan

Members, ZOA Board

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