He was the rabbi of the Nové Zámky community, Czechoslovakia, Érsekújvár - since 1938 part of Hungary - from 1931 to 1944 (today part of Slovakia) when he was deported to Auschwitz and Dachau. His wife and young son were killed in Czechoslovakia before World War II officially commenced. His father and two of his three sisters were killed in Auschwitz. He was freed from Dachau by US troops in 1945. After the war he served briefly as the rabbi in his hometown of Satu Mare. After emigrating to France, he was a rabbi of the synagogue on Rue de Montevideo in Paris (1950–1951) and in 1951 he emigrated to Canada, with his sister Elizabeth and her husband. There he held the post of Rabbi of Congregation Beth Yitshak in Toronto, founded by Hungarian-speaking Holocaust survivors and named for Klein's father Yitschak. He served as the community's rabbi until his death in 1983. Author Klein wrote three etymological dictionaries. His most famous work is A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1966–1967). He is also the author of A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English (1987), an English-language etymological dictionary of Hebrew to which he devoted the last ten years of his life. He wrote an etymological dictionary of medical terms which was not published. Honors For his scholarly work he received honorary degrees from McMaster University and the University of Guelph in 1977. In 1978, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Notes Further reading A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1966–1967) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English (1987) 1899 births 1983 deaths People from Satu Mare Romanian Jews 20th-century Hungarian rabbis Czechoslovak rabbis Linguists from Canada Officers of the Order of Canada Canadian Orthodox rabbis Hungarian emigrants to Canada Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Hungarian Orthodox rabbis Linguists from Hungary Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Linguists from Romania Romanian Orthodox rabbis Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors University of Vienna alumni Eötvös Loránd University alumni Romanian emigrants to Canada People from Old Toronto 20th-century linguists 20th-century Canadian rabbis