Miroslav Šalom Freiberger

Miroslav Šalom Freiberger (; 9 January 1903 – 8 May 1943) was a Croatian chief rabbi, translator, writer and spiritual leader. He was educated as a lawyer and doctor of theology.

Biography Freiberger was born in Zagreb on 9 January 1903. He was married to Irena (née Steiner) Freiberger with whom he had a son Ruben. Freiberger's first employment in the Jewish community was as a rabbi in Osijek, Slavonia. He served as rabbi of the Jewish community of Zagreb from 1937 to 1941. Freiberger became popular among the young Jews, thanks to his communicativeness. In 1941, after the death of rabbi Gavro Schwarz, he became the chief rabbi of Zagreb. In the years prior to World War II, he was a strong advocate of Zionism and the return of Jews to what was then the British Mandate for Palestine. However, he decided to stay in Zagreb while there was still even one Jew left there. At the end of 1942 he escorted the last group of rescued Jews to Budapest and Istanbul, from where they were transferred to the British Mandate for Palestine. Among them, with ten underage girls and boys, was his sixteen-year-old son Ruben. The group had received travel documents only after Stepinac and Vatican officials had intervened with the Croatian authorities.

Despite the efforts of Archbishop Stepinac to save him, in the spring of 1943 Freiberger was arrested by the Independent State of Croatia regime, when Heinrich Himmler himself arrived in Zagreb, dissatisfied with the way the regime was "solving the Jewish question" in Croatia. Archbishop Stepinac immediately sent a request for Freiberger's liberation to state officials, but without success.

Amiel Shomrony, Freiberger's former secretary, filed two motions to recognize Stepinac as righteous among the nations for helping Freiberger in saving the Jewish people of his community.