FREIMANN, ABRAHAM ḤAYYIM

FREIMANN, ABRAHAM ḤAYYIM (Alfred ; 1889–1948), jurist and rabbinical scholar. Freimann, born in Holleschau (Holesov), Moravia, the son of Jacob *Freimann, studied rabbinics with his father and law in Frankfurt on the Main and Marburg. He served as a magistrate at Koenigsberg and county judge at nearby Braunsberg until the Nazis took power, when he immigrated to Palestine. There he at first worked for an insurance company, but in 1944 he began lecturing on Jewish law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1947 Freimann was appointed head of an advisory committee for Jewish law concerning personal status in the proposed State of Israel. He was murdered by Arabs who attacked a convoy taking university staff to Mount Scopus.

Freimann's scholarly work was concerned with medieval rabbinics; later he devoted his efforts to the adaptation of Jewish law to modern conditions in a Jewish state. He was about twenty when he published two important studies on *Asher b. Jehiel and his descendants (in: jjlg, 12 (1918), 237–317; 13 (1920), 142–254). He edited a series of important responsa collections by Maimonides and members of his family: Teshuvot ha-Rambam (1934); Teshuvot R. Maimon ha-Dayyan Avi ha-Rambam (1935); Teshuvot Rabbenu Avraham ben ha-Rambam (1938); Teshuvot ha-R. Yehoshu'a ha-Naggid mi-Benei Banav shel ha-Rambam (1940); and Teshuvot ha-Rambam le-R. Yosef ha-Ma'aravi Talmido (1940); and one by Rashi, Teshuvot Rashi (1941). Freimann also prepared a second edition of Filipowski's edition of Sefer Yuḥasin by Abraham *Zacuto with an introduction and indexes (1925, repr. 1963). His major work Seder Kiddushin ve-Nissu'in Aḥarei Ḥatimat ha-Talmud (1945; repr. 1964), deals with changes in Jewish marriage laws after the talmudic period.

bibliography:

E.E. Urbach, in: ks, 25 (1948/49), 105–8 (with full bibl.); idem, in: Yavneh, 3 (1949), 125–7, 225–36; P. Dickstein, in: Ha-Peraklit, 5 (1948), 67–70; M. Elon, in: ilr, 3 (1968), 443ff., 448ff.