Meir Friedmann

Meir (Ish Shalom) Friedmann (10 July 1831 in Kraszna , district of Kashau (Košice Region), Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire – 1908 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary)

Biography In 1844, at the age of 13, he entered the yeshiva at Ungvar, Carpathian Ruthenia region (now part of Ukraine) and studied with Meir Eisenstaedter (also called Meir Asch). There, he was attracted to Chasidism and Kabbalah. At the age of sixteen, he was led by the "Bi'ur" of Moses Mendelssohn to the study of the Bible, and became deeply interested in Hebrew poetry, especially in Wessely's "Shire Tife'ret". At twenty, while living at Miskolc, where he earned his livelihood by giving Talmud instruction, he took up secular studies. In 1858 he entered the University of Vienna. In 1864, when the Vienna bet ha-midrash was founded, he was chosen as teacher of the Bible and Midrash. Later he was hired as a professor in the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt.