Manis Friedman

American rabbi

Manis Friedman (full name: Menachem Manis HaKohen Friedman; ; born 1946) is a Hassid, rabbi, author, social philosopher and public speaker. He is also the dean of the Bais Chana Institute of Jewish Studies. Friedman authored Doesn't Anyone Blush Anymore?, which was published in 1990 and is currently in its fourth printing. He is featured in the documentary films: The Lost Key (2014), The Jewish Journey: America (2015), and "Patterns of Evidences" (2017).

Friedman was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1946 to a Hasidic Ashkenazi Jewish family of Kohanim. His father, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Friedman, was a son of Rabbi Meir Yisroel Isser Friedman, the Krenitzer Rov. Yaakov Moshe Friedman was later arrested and tortured by the Soviet Czechoslovakian authorities due to his work with the Vaad Hatzalah, rescuing Jewish children from the Soviet Union. His mother was Miriam Friedman, a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov. In 1950, he moved with his family to the United States. He received his rabbinic ordination at the Rabbinical College of Canada in 1969.

In 1971, inspired by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Friedman as a shliach ("emissary") cofounded the Bais Chana Women International, an Institute for Jewish Studies in Minnesota for women with little or no formal Jewish education. He has served as the school's dean since its inception. From 1984 to 1990, he served as the simultaneous translator for a series of televised talks by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Friedman briefly served as senior translator for Jewish Educational Media, Inc. In 1990, HarperCollins published Friedman's first book, Doesn't Anyone Blush Anymore?, which included a blurb from Bob Dylan. He has since published numerous other books, including The Joy of Intimacy, לא בקשתי לבא לעולם (lit. "I didn't ask to come to the world") in Hebrew, and Creating a Life That Matters, which he co wrote. He has also authored numerous educational books for children, including Who Needs Me? and A to Z Meant to Be: Seeing the Hand of the Creator in Everything That Happens. Friedman has lectured in cities throughout the US, as well as London, Hong Kong, Cape Town, and Johannesburg in South Africa, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, and a number of South and Central American cities. In a written response to a question regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Friedman implied that Israel should "kill men, women, and children". He later clarified that this was meant only in the case where they were using "men, women, and children" as weapons of war. Friedman is the most popular rabbi on YouTube, with over 450,000 subscribers as of February 2024.

Manis Friedman is a Kohen. He is the brother of the Jewish singer Avraham Fried and father of Jewish singer Benny Friedman. Many of his 14 children serve as Chabad Shluchim.

Friedman was quoted that survivors of child sexual abuse are not as deeply damaged as some claim and should learn to overcome their traumatic experiences. Friedman's comments were received poorly by advocates who saw his statements as trivialising the experiences of the victims. Friedman subsequently issued an apology for the offensive remarks.

According to the Australian Jewish News, Friedman, in a speech in the 1980s, framed the Holocaust as part of a divine plan. Friedman reportedly stated “Who in fact died and who remained alive had nothing to do with the Nazis,” and “not a single Jewish child died because of the Nazis they died in their relationship with God.” According to the paper, Friedman's statements were not well received by local Holocaust survivors.

According to Friedman, the love between spouses must overcome the differences between the two parties, generating greater intensity in the relationship. By contrast the love between other family members are predicated upon the commonness the two parties share. Friedman further states that husband and wife, male and female, in essence always remain strangers; for this reason the acquired love in the relationship is never entirely consistent.

On fidelity in marriage, Friedman is quoted stating "If you help yourself to the benefits of being married when you are single, you're likely to help yourself to the benefits of being single when you're married."

Sociologist Lynn Davidman interviewed a number of students studying under Friedman in 1983. She quotes Friedman saying that a woman "violates herself" if she were to refrain from having children and that birth control is a "violent violation of a woman's being". Friedman insisted that the teenage angst experienced by girls stems from the fact that they are already biologically and psychologically ready for marriage but their urges are held back; he believes that, in a perfect world, girls getting married as young as fourteen would be optimal, though that's obviously not realistic in today's society. According to Davidman, Friedman's position on femininity differed entirely from the values of his students.