FREIMANN, JACOB

FREIMANN, JACOB (1866–1937), German rabbi, scholar, and editor. Freimann studied under Simon Sofer (see *Sofer) and Akiva Kornitzer in his native Cracow, and under his uncle Israel Meir *Freimann at Ostrowo, as well as at Berlin and Tuebingen. He married Israel Meir Freimann's daughter. Jacob Freimann served as rabbi in Moravia at Kanitz (Dolni Kounice) and Holleschau from 1890 to 1913. In 1913 he succeeded Wolff Feilchenfeld as chief rabbi of Posen. In 1928 he joined the rabbinate of the Berlin Jewish community. Freimann was a member of the board of *Mekizei Nirdamim, editor of the department of rabbinics for the Eshkol encyclopaedias of Judaica in German and Hebrew, and lecturer on rabbinics and Jewish history at the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary. Freimann's scholarly interest was medieval rabbinical literature. Particularly important in this field are his editions of Joseph b. Moses' Leket Yosher (1903–04), Nathan b. Judah's Sefer Maḥkim (1909), Ma'aseh ha-Ge'onim (1909), and Siddur Rashi (1911) which was prepared by S. *Buber but completed by Freimann. He also contributed an introduction and indexes to the second edition of Wistinetzki's edition of Sefer Ḥasidim (1924).

bibliography:

H. Levy (ed.), Festschrift… Jacob Freimann (1937), introd. 6–16 (includes bibliography); H. Gold. (ed.), Juden und Judengemeinden Maehrens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1929), 233, 240, 270, 278; N. Lebovi, in: S. Federbush (ed.), Ḥokhmat Yisrael be-Ma'arav Eiropah, 2 (1959), 211–3.

[Hirsch Jacob Zimmels /

Jacob Joshua Ross]