Avrohom Yaakov Friedman

Avrohom Yaakov Friedman was born in 1884 in Sadhora

Friedman was born in 1884 in Sadigura, the son of Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Sadigura. He was named after his grandfather, the first Sadigura Rebbe, and was a great-grandson of Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhyn. He was engaged at 11 to Bluma Raizel, daughter of the Kopshitzer Rebbe, and they married when he was 18.

After his father died in 1907, he and his brothers each became Rebbes. When World War I began in 1914, he fled to Vienna and set up his court there. He took part in founding Agudat HaHaredim in Chernivtsi with other Ruzhin Rebbes and was among the first members of Agudat Israel.

After the Anschluss in 1938, the Nazis forced him to sweep the streets of Vienna. That year he reached Tel Aviv and set up his court on Nachmani Street. Many of his followers were murdered in the Holocaust.

In Israel he sat on the Council of Torah Sages of Agudat Israel and briefly served as its president. He urged observant Jews to settle in the Land of Israel. He and his wife had no children, and he raised two of his nieces.

He died in 1961 and was buried in the Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery in Givatayim. His Torah teachings were collected in the book Avir Yaakov.