Jacob L. Friend Family Papers

Jacob Lion Friend (1888-1972) was born in Vassikov, Russia, and was ordained as a rabbi at the Vilna Rabbinic Academy at the age of eighteen. He completed his secular studies in engineering at the imperial Technological University of Dresden, Germany in 1914. In 1916, Friend made his way to Harbin, Manchuria, and several years later he moved with his wife and daughter to Shanghai, China. In Shanghai, Friend involved himself in most aspects of Jewish communal life. In 1947, Friend and his daughter, Balfoura, immigrated to the United States, and settled in Hawkinsville, Georgia. He later moved to Atlanta, where he was a Hebrew school teacher and Torah reader at the Ahavath Achim synagogue. The social historian interested in the Jewish community of Shanghai will be especially interested in this collection.