FRIEDLAENDER, MORITZ

FRIEDLAENDER, MORITZ (1844–1919), writer, educator, and communal worker. Friedlaender, who was born in Hungary, studied for the rabbinate, but did not adopt it because of his liberal views. In 1875 he became secretary of the Israelitische Allianz, the Austro-Hungarian counterpart of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and on behalf of both organizations visited Galicia to assist the immigration of Russian Jews to the United States. With the help of Baron Maurice de Hirsch and later of his widow, Friedlaender established and supervised more than 50 modern schools for boys, as well as vocational schools for girls in Galicia.

Friedlaender's scholarly interests lay in the direction of Hellenistic philosophy and the origins of Christianity. Among his published works are Ueber den Einfluss der griechischen Philosophie auf das Judentum und Christentum (1872); Patristische und talmudische Studien (1878); Philo's Philantropie des juedischen Gesetzes, translation and commentary (1889); Apion, ein Kulturbild (1882); Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Christentums (1894); Der vorchristliche juedische Gnostizismus (1898); Geschichte der juedischen Apologetik (1903); Die religioeseBewegung innerhalb des Judentums im Zeitalter Jesu (1906); Der Kreuzestod Jesu (1906). Friedlaender also wrote on his experiences in Galicia: Fuenf Wochen in Brody (1882) and Reiseerinnerungen aus Galizien (1900). He used the pseudonyms M. Freimann, Marek Firkowitsch, and Paul Frieda.