Menachem Friedman ( he, מנחם פרידמן; born 1936 – 16 March 2020) was an Israeli

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of sociology at

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 ...

Ramat-Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

. His expertise was religion and the confrontations between religious and secular Judaism in modern history. He also studied the modern process of

Halachic ''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 comman ...

decision making. Friedman was considered one of the leading researchers of

Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...

Judaism.

Biography

Before entering the academic world, Menachem Friedman was a student at Yishuv Hehadash yeshiva in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

Academic career

Friedman's interest in the Lubavicher rebbe led to the publication of a book co-authored with Samuel Heilman: "The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson". Many of their conclusions, as well as their methodology and research, were criticized by Chaim Rapoport - - in "The Afterlife of Scholarship – A Critical Review of 'The Rebbe' by Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman". Friedman was also criticised for not disclosing that he had served as an expert witness against the rebbe in a lawsuit involving ownership of the

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic grou ...

library, which invited suspicion of bias.Patricia Cohen, NY Times, June 14, 2010 , whereas Rapaport is a rabbi closely associated with the Lubavicher sect.

Published works

*''Society and Religion: The Non-Zionist Orthodoxy in Eretz-Israel, 1918–1936.'' Jerusalem, Yad Ben-Zvi, 1st edition, 1978; 2nd edition, 1982. (Hebrew). *''Growth and Segregation – The Ultra-Orthodox Community of Jerusalem,'' (with J. Shilhav), The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem 1986 (Hebrew). *''The Haredi Ultra-Orthodox Society: Sources Trends and Processes'', The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem 1991 (Hebrew). *''Society in a Crisis of Legitimization – The Ashkenazi Old Yishuv – 1900–1917'', Mosad Byalik & The Israeli Academy of Science 2001, (Hebrew). *''Haredi Violence in Contemporary Israeli Society'', P. Medding (ed.), Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 18, 2002, pp. 186–197. *''Haredim and Palestinians in Jerusalem'', M.J. Bereger and O. Ahimeir (eds.), Jerusalem, a City and its Future, Syracuse University Press, 2002, pp. 235–254. *''The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson'' (with S. Heilman), Princeton University Press, Princeton 2010 (English).

References

External links

Menachem Friedman's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Menachem Judaic studies Israeli sociologists Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University 1936 births 2020 deaths People from Bnei Brak