Obituaries

Obituaries are updated regularly and archived on JN Online:
-www.detroitjewishnews.com

Passion For Torah

DAVID SACHS

Senior Copy Editor

111 abbi Avrohom Abba
Freedman lived his life
ablaze with a passion for
Torah — and for 58 years
in Detroit, he spread that passion to
young and old alike.
"He was a fireball of energy," said
Rabbi Dov Loketch, a former presi-
dent of the Southfield-based Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah.
Added Gary Torgow, the yeshiva's cur-
rent president, "He was selfless and com-
pletely devoted to the Torah and its tra-
dition — and to every Jew, no matter his
station in life or his level of observance."
Rabbi Freedman was the first
teacher at the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
day school in 1944 — recruiting and
inspiring thousands of students over
the years as he helped establish a thriv-
ing Orthodox community in Detroit.
The rabbi also reached out to adults
for more than 50 years with his Monday
night Chumash (Torah) class, which
met for many years at the Southfield
home of the late businessman Marvin
Berlin, his friend of many decades. And
during the past 20 years, the rabbi pro-
vided hundreds of Russian immigrants
their first experiences in Judaism.
Rabbi Freedman, 81, died early
Saturday, Feb. 2, after suffering a heart
attack Friday night in his Oak Park
home. Word spread of his death and
1,000 people attended a memorial
service 9:30 p.m. Saturday-at Hebrew
Memorial Chapel in Oak Park.
Hundreds more from the New York area
attended another memorial service 4 p.m.
Sunday at Newark International Airport,
where his body was en route to Israel. Rabbi
Freedman visited Israelmany times in his
lifetime and hundreds of people attended
his funeral at Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in
Jerusalem, with burial at Har HaMenuchos
Cemetery.
Rabbi Freedman was known for com-
bining study of Judaism with recreation-
al activities, taking his students on
tobogganing or horseback riding outings
or on bus trips to the Jewish communi-
ties of New York, Lakewood, N.J., or
Cleveland. In recent years, he took bus-
loads of Soviet Jewish immigrants to
conventions in St. Louis and trips to
New York anciToronto.
Yosef Shumulinsky, an immigrant
whose spiritual life was transformed by
Rabbi Freedman 10 years ago, was one

2/8
2002

108

of the speakers.at the service at Hebrew
Memorial Chapel. Others who spoke
were Rabbi E.B. "Bunny" Freedman,
one of Rabbi Freedman's sons; Rabbi
Moshe Schwab of the Kollel Institute in-
Oak Park; Rabbi Dov Loketch of
Aguans Yisroel-Mogen Abraham in
Southfield; and Rabbi Yehudah Bakst of
Yeshiva Gedolah. in Oak Park.
Shumulinsky compared Rabbi
Freedman's role as yeshiva teacher —
where he "held the hands of other peo-
ple's children and shlepped them and
raised them and gave them what was
necessary for them" to the rabbi's car-
ing and compassion for the new Soviet
immigrants.
"He took our hands into his soft and
very strong hand and he would shlep us
with him all these years."
Other speakers at the Oak Park serv-
ice compared Rabbi Freedman with the
Jewish patriarch Abraham, who spread
the word of God while performing acts
of chesed (kindness).

Day School Innovation

As a youth, the Brooklyn-born Rabbi
Freedman studied under Rabbi Shraga
Feivel Mendlowitz, who led a move-
ment to establish Orthodox day
schools throughout the United States
and instilled a legion of students with
zeal fOr this mission.
When Rabbi Max J. Wohlgelernter
wanted to transform Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah from an afternoon and Sunday
school to a day school in 1944, he
brought in Rabbi Simcha Wasserman,
son of Rabbi Elchonon Bunim
Wasserman, to run it and followers of
Rabbi Mendlowitz as teachers. Rabbi
Freedman was the first of those teachers.
The idea of a Hebrew day school
was revolutionary at the time, and the
Orthodox community in Detroit was
extremely small.
"It was a foreign idea to take chil-
dren out of the public schools — it
was unheard of," said Rabbi A.M.
Silverstein of Southfield, a former
teacher at the yeshiva.
Rabbi Freedman went door-to-door
to convince parents in non-observant
households to send their children to
the yeshiva.
In the school's early days in the 1940s
and 1950s at Dexter and Cortland in
Detroit, Rabbi Freedman drove the
school bus and included recreational
trips to make the school day fun for the
students. Before Sukkot, he would dis-

Rabbi Freedman.
"He changed my life. I know dozens
of people in this city who became obser-
vant because of Rabbi Freedman."
Rabbi Freedman's son, Rabbi Betzalel
"Tzali" Freedman of Oak Park, regional
director of the National Conference of
Synagogue Youth, said, "My father's life
was nonstop activities in the service of
God. His mind was racing, just looking
for good things to do.
"Happiness was something that he
focused on. You need always to be
happy and always to be optimistic. It
was a life philosophy that he had and he
tried to teach."
Rabbi Freedman's energy was nonstop.
Rabbi Avrohom Abba Freedman
Another son, Rabbi Tzvi Freedman of
St. Louis, who founded an Orthodox
day school there, said, "He was the old-
patch teams of boys to scavenge for
est one of us in the business, but the
abandoned doors to serve as walls of
youngest of all of us. He had more
sukkot he would encourage non-affluent strength than all of us together."
families to build.
And he was active until his death. "In
Rabbi Freedman and his fellow
the last few months, he was as active as
teacher, Rabbi Sholom Goldstein, are
he's ever been throughout his life, doing
credited by many with the success of
mitzvahs and doing God's work, up to
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah and the Beth
the very last minutes of his life," said
Jacob School for Girls as well as many
Rabbi Bunny Friedman.
other Torah-based institutions.
"In the last month he was in St. Louis
"Many people have attributed the suc- with a whole group of Russians for a
cess of the Torah community in Detroit
Torah seminar. Then he was two weeks
since 1945 to my father," said Rabbi
in Israel with contemporary scholars and
Bunny Freedman. "My father would
Torah leaders. And following that he
have no part of it.
was in New York, walking a young man
"He was proud to be a soldier behind
-
down the aisle, whose father was not
other great people that he believed
able to be at the wedding."
shaped and created the Torah Jewry."
All five of Rabbi Freedman's sons are
Rabbi Freedman was known for his
rabbis and his three daughters are mar-
selflessness and shunning of material
ried to rabbis. He leaves 66 grandchil-
possessions. On Feb. 3, He would have
dren and many great-grandchildren.
been married to his wife, Temma, for 56
. "He had thousands of students and so
years.
many of them consider him the singular
"They were millionaires because of the motivator in their life, the inspirational
students and Torah they professed," said
character in their life," said Rabbi
daughter-in-law Shaindy Freedman, wife Bunny Freedman.
of Rabbi Bunny Freedman. "Each new
Rabbi Avrohom Abba Freedman is
student on board was another diamond
survived by his wife, Temma Freedman;
on their long chain of pleasure. They
sons and daughters-in-law, Rabbi Moshe
never bragged about any of their work
and Suri Freedman, Rabbi Yankel and
and I never knew of the successes unless
Yehudis Freedman, Rabbi E.B. "Bunny"
other people told me."
and Shaindy Freedman, Rabbi Tzvi and
Esther Freedman, Rabbi Betzalel and
Reaching Adults
Yehudis Freedman; daughters and sons-
Rabbi Freedman worked around the
in-law, Malky and Rabbi Dovid Pam,
clock to spread the word of Torah, often
Nechama and Rabbi Moshe Silver,
approaching strangers he thought were
Goldie and Rabbi Moshe Brodsky;
Jewish.
many grandchildren and great-grand-
Leo Stein of Oak Park remembers
children.
meeting Rabbi Freedman "when I was
Contributions may be made to
26 at Borenstein's bookstore on 12th
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, P.O. Box 2044,
Street and he asked me if I wanted to go
Southfield, MI 48037. Interment was at
to a Chumash class.
Har HaMenuchos Cemetery in Israel.
'After a period of a few years, I
Services and arrangements by Hebrew
became shomer Shabbos (Sabbath obser-
Memorial Chapel. ❑
vant). A friend of mine, Marvin Berlin,
also became shomer Shabbos because of
Related commentary: page 29