Aryeh Abraham Frimer (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: אריה אברהם פרימר) (born November 24, 1946) is an American-Israeli Active Oxygen

Chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

and specialist on women and Jewish law.

Biography

Aryeh Abraham Frimer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, to Rabbi Dr. Norman E. Frimer and Esther Miriam Frimer on November 24, 1946, but spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated summa cum laude with honors from Brooklyn College (

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

;

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

) with a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1969. During his undergraduate years he also studied at

Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh ( he, ישיבת כרם ביבנה, lit. ''Vineyard in Yavne Yeshiva'') is a youth village and major yeshiva in southern Israel. Located near the city of Ashdod and adjacent to Kvutzat Yavne, it falls under the jurisdict ...

in Israel and then Yeshivat Eretz Israel, Brooklyn NY, with Rabbi Judah Gershuni (one of the last students of

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH (), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one of ...

) - ultimately receiving

Rabbinic Ordination Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 C ...

. While a graduate student in organic chemistry at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

with Prof. Paul Doughty Bartlett, he was a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

and

Danforth Foundation The Danforth Foundation was one of the largest private nonprofit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It closed its doors in 2011 after 84 years of operation and more than a billion dollars in grants distributed. Background Establish ...

Fellow. He was also appointed Assistant to the Hillel Director, serving as Rabbi to the Harvard-Radcliffe Orthodox ''Minyan'' from 1969-1974. Upon completing his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1974, Aryeh and his family moved to Israel becoming a Post-Doctoral Fellow at The

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

with Prof. Dov Elad. He then joined the faculty of

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

in 1975, where he is the Ethel and David Resnick Professor of Active Oxygen Chemistry and former Chemistry Department Chairman. From 1982-1983, Frimer was appointed Visiting Medical Scientist at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...

in Upton, Long Island, NY. From 1990-2004, he spent a sabbatical year and consecutive summers as a National Research Council Fellow and an Ohio Aerospace Institute Senior Research Associate at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a subsidiary facilit ...

in Cleveland, Ohio. In June 2015, he received Bar Ilan University’s Excellence in Teaching Award, and in October 2015, he became a professor emeritus. Aryeh and his wife Esther (Neiman) Frimer have four children and twelve grandchildren and live in Rehovot, Israel.

Scientific Interests and Publications

Frimer’s research interests include: (1) The

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

of active oxygen species: singlet and triplet molecular oxygen,

peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of compounds with the structure , where R = any element. The group in a peroxide is called the peroxide group or peroxo group. The nomenclature is somewhat variable. The most common peroxide is hydrogen ...

s, oxy-radicals and

superoxide In chemistry, a superoxide is a compound that contains the superoxide ion, which has the chemical formula . The systematic name of the anion is dioxide(1−). The reactive oxygen ion superoxide is particularly important as the product of t ...

anion radical. (2) The organic chemistry of active oxygen species within organic media, liposomal lipid bilayers, and biomembranes. (3) The preparation of high temperature thermo-oxidatively stable aerospace polymers. (4) The preparation, characterization and neutralization of “green” reduced sensitivity high energy compounds. (5) The formation and chemistry of lithium-oxygen species in Li-O

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batteries. Frimer has published 150 scientific articles, reviews and books in the area of active oxygen chemistry, and given presentations at more than 120 scientific meetings. In 1985, together with Prof. Ionel Rosental, he edited two special issues of the Israeli Journal of Chemistry on “Active Oxygen Chemistry”. In the same year, the Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) published his four volume series on "Singlet O

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Rabbinic Studies and Writings

In addition to his scientific work, Frimer has lectured on Judaism, Zionism and Jewish Identity for officer training courses of the Israel Defense Forces. He has also published some 60 Torah articles and lectured internationally on various aspects of Jewish tradition and

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

(Jewish law). He is known most prominently for his scholarly writings on the status of women in Jewish ritual and law. He serves on the Rabbinic Board of the Rabbi Jacob Berman Community Center – Tiferet Moshe Synagogue in Rehovot, Israel. The Community Center maintains a website with more than 80 recorded lectures by Frimer given predominantly from 1997-2000 at the Tiferet Moshe Synagogue. The site contains assorted published papers, audio files, source material and unedited lecture notes on women and Jewish law. Frimer has published, ''inter alia'', on women and minyan, women’s ''megilla'' readings, women in Jewish leadership roles, on questions of liturgy and ritual, and Orthodox Feminism. Together with his brother Dov, Frimer has published several seminal papers on Women’s Prayer (Tefilla) Groups and Partnership Minyanim including the issue of women’s ''aliyyot''., “Women's Aliyyot: le-Khattehila, be-di-Avad and bi-She’at ha-Dehak” Aryeh A. Frimer, Hakirah, The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, 22 (Spring 2017), pp. 151-170
PDF version

Biography

Scientific Interests and Publications

Rabbinic Studies and Writings

References

See also