Rabbi Jason Klein became the first openly gay man chosen to head a national rabbinical association of one of the major Jewish denominations in the United States in 2013, when he was chosen as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. He is also the first Hillel director to hold the presidency. As of his election as president, Klein is the executive director of Hillel at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a post he has held since 2006. He will be president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association for two years.Klein grew up in East Brunswick and Montclair, both in New Jersey, graduated from Columbia University in 1997, and was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2002.