BDE: Reb Volf Friedman, z”l, Proprietor of Legendary S & W

We are saddened to inform you of the passing of Reb Wolf Friedman, z”l, of Williamsburg, longtime owner of the S & W women’s clothing establishment in Boro Park and Williamsburg. He was 90 years old.

 Reb Wolf was an ardent Satmar chossid with every fiber of his being—and was dedicated to the Klal, as well as the individual, with a fierce love and commitment.

 He was born in Beregsacz, Hungary, in 1930, to his parents, Reb Yoel Zussman and Chana Malka Friedman, Hy”d.

 In an interview with BoroPark24’s Heshy Rubinstein, a number of years ago, Reb Wolf recalled his bar mitzvah in Auschwitz. “I arrived there at the age of twelve. But kindhearted Jews told me to exaggerate my age to fifteen—which saved my life. I was sent to the right,” he related.

 “He was a tzaddik... he had a heart of gold,” said a family member. “A true ehrliche yid who lived for Hashem, as well as for his fellow Yidden, an incredible talmid chochom, a ba’al tzeddakah of immense proportions who loved nothing more than to help a fellow Yid, no matter who they were.”

 Reb Wolf and his brother were sole survivors from an entire family, and their relationship was legendary; his brother’s children were like his own. “I’ve never seen such brotherly love and devotion,” recalled an acquaintance.

 Following the Holocaust, he used tenacity, and his trademark joy—a trait that never left him until his last days—to rebuild from the ashes. Through his successful business, he employed dozens of families in the community, and provided the women of our community with tzniyus clothing. A close talmid of the Satmar Rov, zy”a, he financed the printing of the Rebbe’s monumental Al Hage’ula v’al hatemurah—in which he outlined his philosophy as it related to Zionism and the Zionist State.

 He was always with a perpetual smile and a good word for anyone around him—an influence that they will remember with fondness for a long time to come.

 Yehi Zichro Baruch.

His levaya will take place this afternoon at 5:00 at the Satmar Shul on Rodney Street.