The Portraits

Two large portraits of Aharon and his second wife were painted in oil from life and have passed down in the family through the generations. For many years they graced the home of Nathan and Sadie Friedman, my grandparents. From my earliest childhood memories, my parents, Robert and Edith Friedman displayed them in their homes; and for the past three decades they have been in the possession of my late sister, Rachel, and her husband Michael Albert.

We know that Aharon's first wife, Rebecca Liberman, my great-great-grandmother, was a relatively young mother with several small children when she died under tragic circumstances. This is described in Hebrew on her gravestone in Brooklyn. (I shall share the inscription in my next posting.) My father was told that Rabbi Aharon was compelled to take a second wife to care for his youngsters. Dad did not know this lady's name. Perhaps a reader of this blog can help with more information.

To all the descendants of Aharon Tzevi Friedman

In the course of working on piecing together our family tree, I came to the realization that a forum was needed to share (while there is still time!) memories and memorabilia with my own children and grandchildren, as well as with a very large field of cousins, most of whom I have yet to meet, and most of whose names I don't even know.

Twenty-first century technology now affords us extraordinary new means of sharing information around the globe in the blink of an eye, so it would would be inexcusable for me to keep to myself information which could help others of you to better understand the early history of our family in America. Publishing this blog seems the best way to reach to the widest circle, and it is my hope that each of you will help our "followers" list to grow by sharing Tuv Taam with other corners of the family that are known to you.

Over the next weeks and months I shall be adding photos, articles, and anectodotes about our ancestors, and I hope that many of you will take advantage of adding your own comments to the mix.

Who was Aharon Tzevi Friedman?

The following article first appeared in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, and can be accessed online at JewishEncyclopedia.com: FRIEDMAN, AARON ZEBI by Cyrus Adler Shoḥeṭ: born in Stavisk, Poland, March 22, 1822; died in New York city May 17, 1876. At the age of seventeen Friedman became shoḥeṭ for the city of Stavisk and the neighboring country. He removed to Bernkastel-on-the-Moselle, Germany, where he became rabbi and shoḥeṭ in 1844. Four years later he went to New York, where he was chosen as shoḥeṭ of one of the largest abattoirs in the city. Friedman held this position until his death. Owing to charges of cruelty made by Henry Bergh, president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Friedman wrote (1874) a defense of sheḥiṭah entitled "Ṭub Ṭa'am," translations of which were two years later made from the Hebrew into English, French, and German. His strict Orthodoxy and learning caused him to be widely known as the "Ba'al Shem" of America.

DF explains:
Aaron Zebi is the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name pronounced Aharon Tzevi.

A Shohet is an ordained expert in the laws of Jewish ritual slaughter or shehita. Animals must be put to death painlessly, and blood must be drained immediately.

Stavisk is a small town north of Lomza in what was Lithuanian Poland.

Tub Ta'am is the Anglicized form of the Biblical phrase Tuv Ta'am, which means "in good taste".

Ba'al Shem means "holder of the Good Name".