Hershey Friedman (born 1950) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

billionaire businessman and philanthropist. His business concerns span the plastics packaging business and kosher meat in North America as well as luxury real estate development and Jewish books in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Early life

Hershey Friedman was born in 1950 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. His parents owned a textile company. His father was paralysed in a car accident in 1960, when Friedman was ten years old. He has two brothers. Friedman was raised as an

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

. He was educated at

Yeshivas Ner Yisroel Ner Israel Rabbinical College (ישיבת נר ישראל), also known as NIRC and Ner Yisroel, is a Haredi yeshiva (Jewish educational institution) in Pikesville (Baltimore County), Maryland. It was founded in 1933 by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ru ...

near

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, USA, and Beit Shraga in

Monsey, New York Monsey (, yi, מאנסי, translit=Monsi) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of Airmont, east of Viola, south of New Hempstead, and west of Spring Valley. The ...

. He later studied the law and accounting in Montreal.

Career

Friedman started his career by working for his family textile company. By 1982, he acquired a plastics packaging business. By 2014, Friedman told ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'', "we are the largest in North America, packaging Hershey’s chocolates, Pepsi, Nestle, Elle Candy, the famous Entenmann’s donuts, McCain’s fries, as well as larger and smaller companies internationally and locally. We’re also probably the largest bread-bag producer." Friedman purchased Azorim , a real estate development company which builds luxury apartments in

, from

Shaya Boymelgreen Shaya Boymelgreen (born 1951) is an American real estate developer in New York City. Personal life Born in Israel, Boymelgreen immigrated to New York in 1969 and worked in asbestos abatement and running a number of modern Judaica bookstores in ...

in 2009-2011. The company built the Beeri-Nehardea Tower; it also planned to build the

Elite Tower The Elite Tower is a site in Ramat Gan, Israel, in which various skyscrapers have been planned, but as of March 2015, construction has been cancelled due to delays in the permitting process. At upon completion, the tower would have been the tall ...

, but the project was discontinued. Friedman purchased

Agriprocessors Agriprocessors was the corporate identity of a slaughterhouse and meat-packaging factory based in Postville, Iowa, best known as a facility for the glatt kosher processing of cattle, as well as chicken, turkey, duck, and lamb. Agriprocessors' ...

, a kosher meat company based in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

, USA in 2009. Shortly after, he renamed it Agri Star Meat and Poultry. All employees are E-Verified. Friedman is the co-owner of "Dun & Bradstreet, Fourier, which produces solutions for scientific education, and CVD, a development company." Friedman is a billionaire.

Philanthropy

Friedman is a philanthropist who contributes to charities, hospitals and yeshivas. He also invests heavily in funding large-scale projects of publishing holy '' seforim'' and is the chief patron of the Babylonian

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

(

Vilna Edition Shas The Vilna Edition of the Talmud, printed in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, is by far the most common printed edition of the Talmud still in use today as the basic text for Torah study in yeshivas and by all scholars of Judaism. It was typeset by ...

), the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...

Shulchan Aruch The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in Is ...

and

Mishna Berura The ''Mishnah Berurah'' ( he, משנה ברורה "Clear Teaching") is a work of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (Poland, 1838–1933, also known as ''Chofetz Chaim''). It is a commentary on '' Orach Chayim'', the first section ...

published by the

Oz Vehadar Oz Vehadar ( he, עוז והדר) is a Torah institute that deals with the publication of Torah books. It was founded by Rabbi Yosef Samet and currently headed by Rabbi Yehoshua Leifer from Monsey, NY. Projects Oz Vehadar publishes a wide ra ...

institute. These editions are called 'Friedman edition'. The cost of the Babylonian Talmud project was over $20 million.

Personal life

Friedman married Raisy Stuhl in Montreal in 1975, and they have six married children, all of whom work for his businesses. Friedman resides in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada. He spends one week a month in Israel, and always stays at the

Hilton Tel Aviv Hilton Tel Aviv belongs to the international hotel chain Hilton. It was refurbished and now is a standard higher than the average Hilton hotel. Location The hotel is located in the Independence Park, with direct access to the Hilton Public Beach ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Hershey Living people 1950 births 20th-century Canadian businesspeople 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Businesspeople from Montreal Canadian billionaires Canadian Orthodox Jews Jewish Canadian philanthropists Philanthropists from Quebec Patrons of literature