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Alexander Zusia Friedman
Alexander Zusia Friedman (Hebrew: אלכסנדר זושא פרידמן; 9 August 1897 – November 1943) was a prominent Polish Orthodox Jewish rabbi, communal activist, educator, journalist, and Torah scholar. He was the founding editor of the first Agudath Israel Hebrew journal, Digleinu (Our Banner), and author of Ma'ayanah shel Torah (Wellsprings of Torah), an anthology of commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, which is still popular today. He was incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto and deported to the Trawniki concentration camp, where he was selected for deportation to the death camps and murdered around November 1943.
Friedman was born in Sochaczew (Sochatchov), Poland in 1899. His father, Aharon Yehoshua Friedman, was a poor shamash (synagogue caretaker); his mother supplemented the family income by selling wares in various fairs and markets. Alexander Zusia, their only son, proved himself to be an illui (exceptional student) at a very young age. When he was 3, he knew the entire Book of Genesis by heart. When he was 9, his melamed informed his father that he had nothing left to teach him. His father then arranged for him to learn with a Talmudic scholar who had been brought from another town by three wealthy families to teach their gifted sons. The tuition was three rubles each per week, a huge sum in those days. When these families heard that Alexander Zusia would join their group, they offered to pay his father the three rubles for the privilege of having Alexander Zusia learn with and motivate their sons. But his father insisted on paying the tuition himself, which amounted to his entire week's wages.
After his bar mitzvah, Alexander Zusia entered the Sochatchover yeshiva. In the summer of 1914 he became engaged to a girl from a nearby town. With the outbreak of World War I, he, his bride and his parents fled to Warsaw, where he studied under Rabbi Baruch Gelbart, a well-to-do Talmudic scholar who offered to support him, an offer which he refused. Friedman also attended lectures given by Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Carlebach for young Jewish refugees in Warsaw.
Postwar Poland was full of new reforms and political movements that caused many Jewish youth to rebel against traditional Torah observance. Friedman founded the Orthodox Federation to strengthen youth who were still loyal to the Torah camp. At the First Knessia Hagedola in 1923, he read aloud a statement in the name of Haredi youth pledging allegiance to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. His organization, like other Orthodox ones, united under the banner of Zeirei Agudath Israel, the Agudah youth movement. Friedman subsequently rose in the ranks of the Agudah youth movement to become its leading figure and advisor.
In 1925 Friedman was appointed secretary-general of Agudath Israel of Poland, a position he held until his death. He represented Agudath Israel in the Jewish Community Council of Warsaw, and was elected to the latter body three times, in 1926, 1930, and 1936. He was also the chairman of Keren HaTorah (the educational fund-raising arm of Agudath Israel), head of the Federation of Yesodei HaTorah Schools (the network of boys schools run by Agudath Israel), member of the National Executive of the Bais Yaakov movement in Poland, and director of the Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary in Kraków. He was also a founder of the Seminary for Religious Teachers in Warsaw and lectured in this teacher-training institute.
In addition to his other gifts, Friedman was a masterful orator and writer. His speeches combined deep knowledge of the Torah with original insights, and he was the second most popular speaker for the Agudath Israel of Poland, second only to Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the Rav of Lublin. He wrote many articles for the religious press expounding the Torah point of view. In 1919 he founded and edited Digleinu (Our Banner), an Agudath Israel publication for young people. This paper was published between 1919 and 1924, and again between 1930 and 1931. From 1936 to 1938 he was a co-editor of Darkeinu (Our Path), the official journal of Agudath Israel of Poland. He also wrote poetry.
Friedman visited Palestine in 1934 as part of a delegation led by World Agudath Israel activist Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin. His sister, who had married Rabbi Avraham Mokatowski (known by his pen name, Eliyahu Kitov), immigrated to Palestine before World War II, as did his parents, but he opted to remain in Poland because of his communal responsibilities.
On 20 November 1939 Friedman was arrested together with 21 other Polish Jewish leaders and jailed for one week to prevent them from resisting the construction of the Warsaw Ghetto. After his release he became the sole representative of Agudath Israel in the Warsaw Judenrat (Jewish Community Council), which advised the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee regarding the latter's relief efforts. At that time, religious Jews faced much discrimination from secular Jewish relief organizations. Friedman successfully pushed for the opening of the first kosher soup kitchen in Warsaw, which was followed by the opening of several other free kitchens operated by Agudath Israel workers. The Joint and the Judenrat entrusted him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in stipends to distribute to the hundreds of refugee families that arrived penniless in Warsaw, a task he fulfilled with humility and sensitivity.
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Alexander Zusia Friedman
Alexander Zusia Friedman (Hebrew: אלכסנדר זושא פרידמן; 9 August 1897 – November 1943) was a prominent Polish Orthodox Jewish rabbi, communal activist, educator, journalist, and Torah scholar. He was the founding editor of the first Agudath Israel Hebrew journal, Digleinu (Our Banner), and author of Ma'ayanah shel Torah (Wellsprings of Torah), an anthology of commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, which is still popular today. He was incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto and deported to the Trawniki concentration camp, where he was selected for deportation to the death camps and murdered around November 1943.
Friedman was born in Sochaczew (Sochatchov), Poland in 1899. His father, Aharon Yehoshua Friedman, was a poor shamash (synagogue caretaker); his mother supplemented the family income by selling wares in various fairs and markets. Alexander Zusia, their only son, proved himself to be an illui (exceptional student) at a very young age. When he was 3, he knew the entire Book of Genesis by heart. When he was 9, his melamed informed his father that he had nothing left to teach him. His father then arranged for him to learn with a Talmudic scholar who had been brought from another town by three wealthy families to teach their gifted sons. The tuition was three rubles each per week, a huge sum in those days. When these families heard that Alexander Zusia would join their group, they offered to pay his father the three rubles for the privilege of having Alexander Zusia learn with and motivate their sons. But his father insisted on paying the tuition himself, which amounted to his entire week's wages.
After his bar mitzvah, Alexander Zusia entered the Sochatchover yeshiva. In the summer of 1914 he became engaged to a girl from a nearby town. With the outbreak of World War I, he, his bride and his parents fled to Warsaw, where he studied under Rabbi Baruch Gelbart, a well-to-do Talmudic scholar who offered to support him, an offer which he refused. Friedman also attended lectures given by Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Carlebach for young Jewish refugees in Warsaw.
Postwar Poland was full of new reforms and political movements that caused many Jewish youth to rebel against traditional Torah observance. Friedman founded the Orthodox Federation to strengthen youth who were still loyal to the Torah camp. At the First Knessia Hagedola in 1923, he read aloud a statement in the name of Haredi youth pledging allegiance to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. His organization, like other Orthodox ones, united under the banner of Zeirei Agudath Israel, the Agudah youth movement. Friedman subsequently rose in the ranks of the Agudah youth movement to become its leading figure and advisor.
In 1925 Friedman was appointed secretary-general of Agudath Israel of Poland, a position he held until his death. He represented Agudath Israel in the Jewish Community Council of Warsaw, and was elected to the latter body three times, in 1926, 1930, and 1936. He was also the chairman of Keren HaTorah (the educational fund-raising arm of Agudath Israel), head of the Federation of Yesodei HaTorah Schools (the network of boys schools run by Agudath Israel), member of the National Executive of the Bais Yaakov movement in Poland, and director of the Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary in Kraków. He was also a founder of the Seminary for Religious Teachers in Warsaw and lectured in this teacher-training institute.
In addition to his other gifts, Friedman was a masterful orator and writer. His speeches combined deep knowledge of the Torah with original insights, and he was the second most popular speaker for the Agudath Israel of Poland, second only to Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the Rav of Lublin. He wrote many articles for the religious press expounding the Torah point of view. In 1919 he founded and edited Digleinu (Our Banner), an Agudath Israel publication for young people. This paper was published between 1919 and 1924, and again between 1930 and 1931. From 1936 to 1938 he was a co-editor of Darkeinu (Our Path), the official journal of Agudath Israel of Poland. He also wrote poetry.
Friedman visited Palestine in 1934 as part of a delegation led by World Agudath Israel activist Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin. His sister, who had married Rabbi Avraham Mokatowski (known by his pen name, Eliyahu Kitov), immigrated to Palestine before World War II, as did his parents, but he opted to remain in Poland because of his communal responsibilities.
On 20 November 1939 Friedman was arrested together with 21 other Polish Jewish leaders and jailed for one week to prevent them from resisting the construction of the Warsaw Ghetto. After his release he became the sole representative of Agudath Israel in the Warsaw Judenrat (Jewish Community Council), which advised the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee regarding the latter's relief efforts. At that time, religious Jews faced much discrimination from secular Jewish relief organizations. Friedman successfully pushed for the opening of the first kosher soup kitchen in Warsaw, which was followed by the opening of several other free kitchens operated by Agudath Israel workers. The Joint and the Judenrat entrusted him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in stipends to distribute to the hundreds of refugee families that arrived penniless in Warsaw, a task he fulfilled with humility and sensitivity.
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