Abraham Solomon Freidus

Abraham Solomon Freidus (1866–October 2, 1923) was the first head of the Jewish literature department at the New York Public Library, holding that role from 1897 until his death in 1923. During Freidus's tenure there, the library dramatically expanded its collection of Jewish written works, and Freidus developed a system for organizing those materials that was arguably the first standard for cataloguing Jewish literature in the context of a large library holding. Freidus's classification system remains one of the main alternatives for organizing large collections of Jewish works.

Early life and education Freidus was born in 1866 in Riga, which was then part of the Russian Empire. There he learned the French language and became interested in the maintenance of books. Adler and Wiernik wrote that Freidus's system of organizing these materials "may be considered the first elaborate scheme of classifying Jewish literature for library purposes". The originality of Freidus's scheme, and his reputation for being able to rapidly supply references on Jewish literature, made him a prominent figure in the community of Jewish writers in New York City at the beginning of the 20th century.

Freidus died on October 2, 1923, in New York City.

In 1929, the Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation published a book on Jewish bibliography that was dedicated to the memory of Freidus, and discussed his life and work.