Adam Klug

Adam Klug was a brilliant young Israeli economic historian who recently passed away well before his prime. We at Rutgers were fortunate to have him with us for four years in the early 1990s. (He was a visitor in the International Finance Section at Princeton for two years and a visiting professor at Rutgers for two years). Adam's field of interest was financial history and he published several important articles on German Reparations and Sovereign Debt default in the 1930s, as well as an article on the Suez crisis of 1956. He collaborated with Michael Bordo on a project on the Sterling crisis of 1967 and Eugene White on leading indicators of the Great Depression in the US, with Doug Irwin on the political economy of Tariffs, and with others. These papers will be published in the future. What was so special about Adam was his intellectual curiosity, and his broad range of expertise. He kept coming up with the most interesting and arcane data and ingenious hypotheses on important issues. His signature in his years in New Jersey was a heavy green tweed sport jacket, white (sort of) shirt and nondescript tie, which he wore regardless of the season, and an old leather briefcase which was always overflowing with a good fifty pounds of tomes from the Princeton Library. We will miss him.

Michael Bordo
Hugh Rockoff
Eugene White

Eulogy expressed at the funeral

Debbie, Omri, Yoel, Mrs Liebe Klug, Professor Aaron Klug, David.
We are at the end of a terrible week. We lost two pillars of the Department of Economics, Ehud and Adam.
I, personally, do not remember such an awful week since the tragic days of the Yom Kippur war.
Adam's death is untimely, with all respect. He was young, he leaves a young family who needs his presence, he leaves parents who expected to see him flourish, and he leaves us and an unfinished work that would have been superb.
Adam was a brilliant economist or rather a brilliant scholar.
He had an amount of knowledge, which was unmatched in its quantity, depth, width and variety.
He was walking encyclopedia. Every time when I needed a reference or an overview of the literature on a topic, I asked Adam and received a comprehensive lecture.
This was because Adam, on top of being a wonderful source of knowledge, was also a great human being who was always willing to share his knowledge and help people with all his heart.
Adam! Dear friend and colleague, we will badly miss you, your wisdom and kindness. Our only consolation is that you are relieved of your suffering.
May you rest in peace.

Jimmy Weinblatt.