The Freedman Family

Rev. Alter Benzion and Ida Rebecca Freedman posing with the five children, (clockwise from top) Ethel, Morris, Jennie, Freda and Meyer. The Freedmans immigrated to the United States from Poland about 1908. Although never formally ordained, Rev. Freedman was the rabbi, cantor, shochet (ritual slaughterer) and mohel (ritual circumciser) for congregations in Warren, Pa. and Kittanning, Pa.. He left Western Pennsylvania in 1916 to take a position with a congregation in Lebanon, Pa., near Harrisburg.