Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Mordche Shlomo Friedman, Hassidic leader of the Rizhiner dynasty and president of the Union of Hassidic Rabbis. Rabbi Friedman died yesterday at Beth Israel Hospital at the age of 80. His body will be flown to Jerusalem for burial on the Mount of Olives. Known as the Boyaner rabbi because he was born in Boyan, Austria-Hungary, now part of the Soviet Union, Rabbi Friedman was the descendant, through six generations of the Maggid of Mezhritsch, the primary disciple of Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Hassidism. Rabbi Friedman came to America from Vienna in 1926. He served on the Presidium of Agudath Israel for 30 years and was a member of its rabbinic tribunal. As president of the Union of Hassidic Rabbis, he helped thousands of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Rabbi Friedman’s synagogue on the lower East Side could seat only 147 persons but was attended by the greatest of Jewish leaders when they visited New York.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
