Background
Esther Klein was born to Ignaz Klein in a Jewish family in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary in 1910.
Esther Klein was born to Ignaz Klein in a Jewish family in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary in 1910.
Following the outbreak of World World War II, Esther and George Szekeres emigrated to Australia after spending several years in Hongkew, a community of refugees located in Shanghai, China. In Australia, they originally settled in Adelaide before moving to Sydney in the 1960s. In Sydney, Esther lectured at Macquarie University and was actively involved in mathematics enrichment for high-school students.
In 1984, she jointly founded a weekly mathematics enrichment meeting that has since expanded into a programme of about 30 groups that continue to meet weekly and inspire high school students throughout Australia and New Zealand.
As a young woman in Budapest, Klein was a member of a group of Hungarians including Paul Erdős, George Szekeres and Pál Turán that convened over interesting mathematical problems.