last word
Ron Klasko
HONORED WITH HIAS PA GOLDEN DOOR AWARD
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
E arly in lawyer Ron Klasko’s
career, he traveled to Hawaii
for a conference, staying at
the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach
Resort and Spa. But he insists he didn’t
become an immigration lawyer just for
the chance to lounge in the sun.

In fact, it appeared no one at that
conference did. Upon spending the
week there, Klasko realized that none
of his fellow lawyers were interested in
living it up; they really just wanted to
talk immigration law with each other.

“Little did I know when I got out
there, that these immigration lawyers
were really serious about what they
do — morning, aft ernoon and night,
even on a beach in Hawaii,” Klasko
said. “And that’s when I got sold on
immigration [law] because I saw these
people who are so committed and so
much loved what they did and so much
cared about their clients.”
Aft er four decades as an immigra-
tion lawyer — including being the
founder and managing partner at
Klasko Immigration Law Partners,
LLP — Klasko, according to HIAS
Pennsylvania, has earned some time in
the sun and the spotlight.

Klasko was honored on May 24 at
HIAS PA’s Golden Door Awards gala
for his work in immigration law, as well
as the scholarship program he created
for HIAS clients, providing fi nancial
help to young people to pay for their
college education.

In addition to serving as president
of the American Immigration Lawyers
Association, where he was appointed
general counsel, Klasko was also the
immigration policy adviser for HIAS
and was involved in domestic aff airs
at the Jewish Community Relations
Council. He was part of the commit-
tee on the deportation and denatural-
ization of Nazi war criminals at the
National Jewish Community Relations
Advisory Council.

But Klasko earned his bread and
34 JUNE 9, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Ron Klasko (center) with recipients of
his scholarship, which awards money
to high school seniors to attend college
Photo by James Blocker
butter at Klasko Immigration Law
Partners, where, in addition to serving
individual clients, he helps get visas for
workers at hospitals and other compa-
nies and for international university
students. “We’re known around the country
for being the place to go, if all else
fails,” Klasko said.

When Klasko was beginning his
career as an immigration lawyer in
the 1970s, the concern was mostly
around Iranian immigrants, many of
whom were students, who left their
home country during the Iranian
Revolution, in which Iran instated an
Islamic republic following the over-
throw of the Pahlavi dynasty under
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

During that time, there was also
a massive redesign of the American
car line to make the American auto
industry competitive with its Japanese
and European competition. Th e under-
taking demanded thousands of car
engineers, creating a labor shortage.

Despite that, it was near impossible to
get visas for workers abroad to come to
America for jobs in the industry.

“I came up with the novel idea ...

where we identifi ed an automotive
designer in England who was able to
provide about 1,000 automotive design
engineers to the U.S.,” Klasko said.

Klasko made it happen with the
then-novel E2 treaty investor visa.

Despite the case gaining national
attention, and despite Klasko’s req-
uisite training taking supplemental
night classes at Temple University and
joining the bar association, he consid-
ered himself a neophyte, giving him
a sense of honesty and vulnerability
when speaking with clients that Klasko
believed other lawyers lacked.

“People felt from the beginning that I
was honest and tried real hard,” Klasko
said. “And if the word gets around that
there’s actually an honest immigration
lawyer who’s really going to work hard
for you, you develop a lot of business.”
Klasko was born into a “fairly reli-
gious” Conservative Jewish home in
Havertown, where his father was a
shamash at their synagogue.

His family, like many other Jewish
families, considered education to
be critical. Klasko paved his path to
becoming a lawyer with a law degree
from the University of Pennsylvania
and a bachelor’s from Lehigh University.

In his older age (he declined to state
his age, though he feels he’s getting
younger every year), Klasko wanted to
give others the same opportunities he
had but that many could not aff ord.

“When I reached a point in my
career, where it was time to give back ...

the fi rst thing that came on my mind,
to an area where I think I can give back,
is helping kids who might otherwise
not be able to reach their educational
goals, to reach them,” Klasko said.

Th ough the scholarship is in its third
year, with three students winning the
scholarship each year, this year was
the fi rst time Klasko was able to meet
the recipients, due to COVID restric-
tions. Students from Ukraine, China
and Uganda, among others, who won
the scholarship, greeted Klasko at the
HIAS gala, telling him they would
not have otherwise been able to go to
college. “Th at’s the payback for the scholar-
ship programs,” Klasko said. “It’s not
fi nancial payback, but it’s emotional
payback.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com