# Shmuel Friedman (b.1756) <!-- AUTO:BEGIN — generated from GEDCOM; do not edit, overwritten on rebuild --> > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **6x great-grandfather** ![[I509761.jpg|220]] **Born** 1756 — [[Galicia]] **Died** 1831 — [[Kushnytsya]] **Parents** [[Shlomo Zalman Friedman]] · [[Unknown (154)]] **Spouse** [[Ela (d.1826)]] **Children** [[Meir Friedman (b.1815)]] · [[Avraham Friedman]] · [[Noach Friedman]] · [[Chaya Friedman]] · [[Chaim Friedman]] · [[Unknown Friedman (3)]] · [[Unknown Friedman (4)]] · [[Shlomo Yehuda Leib Friedman (d.1852)]] **Siblings** [[Nissen Tzvi Friedman]] · [[Levi Yitzchak Friedman]] **📸 Media — from MyHeritage** ![[I509761_1.jpg|180]] ![[I509761_2.jpg|180]] *GEDCOM I509761 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01* <!-- AUTO:END --> ## Narrative Shmuel Friedman stands near the head of the family's Subcarpathian line — one of the founding generation of the Jewish community of **[[Kushnytsya|Kušnica]]** (Kushnice) in Máramaros. He was born about 1756 in **[[Galicia]]**, the son of **R' Shlomo Zalman**, and moved south into the Máramaros hills, to Kušnica, where the family would remain for generations.[^grave][^tradition] He was already well established there before the century was out. The **1795 Jewish census of Máramaros county** lists him — "**Fridmon, Smulya**" — as **head of household in Kušnica**, at the head of a large and prosperous house: his wife, a widowed relative, three sons and three daughters, three further blood relatives, and a servant all under his roof.[^census] A household with a servant, in a mountain village, marks a man of some standing — consistent with the family's memory of him as one of the community's founders.[^tradition] His gravestone, still standing in the Kušnica cemetery, remembers him in the honorific language reserved for a learned man: "**a wholesome and upright man, the rabbi, our teacher Rabbi (הרב מוהר״ר) Shmuel, son of our teacher Rabbi Shlomo Zalman.**"[^grave] He married **[[Ela (d.1826)]]**, who predeceased him, and among his children were [[Meir Friedman (b.1815)]] and [[Shlomo Yehuda Leib Friedman (d.1852)]]. Shmuel died in Kušnica on **27 Menachem Av 5591** (August 1831), in about his seventy-fifth year.[^grave] A family tradition — carried in a *sefer yiḥusin* (genealogical scroll) that was destroyed in 1944 — traced his ancestry back to two of the towering rabbinic figures of Ashkenaz: the **Noda BiYehuda** (R. Yeḥezkel Landau of Prague) and the **Tosfos Yom Tov** (R. Yom Tov Lipman Heller). With the document itself lost in the Holocaust, that descent survives only as tradition, unverifiable now — but it is the kind of claim that a learned Máramaros family kept with care.[^tradition] [^grave]: Gravestone (*matzevah*) of Shmuel Friedman, Jewish cemetery of **Kušnica / Kushnytsya**, read directly from the photograph on this profile. Reads (best-effort): *"פ״נ / איש תם וישר / הרב מוהר״ר / שמואל ב[ן] / מוהר״ר שלמה / זלמן … מנחם אב / שנת תקצ״א לפ״ק"* — "Here lies a wholesome and upright man, the rabbi, our teacher Rabbi **Shmuel son of our teacher Rabbi Shlomo Zalman**, [died in the month of] **Menachem Av, year 5591**" (= August 1831). The MyHeritage profile gives the day as **27 Menachem Av 5591**. Confirms his father [[Shlomo Zalman Friedman]] and his rabbinic standing. [^census]: **1795 Jewish census (conscription) of Máramaros county** (*Zsidók Conscriptio in Máramaros megye, 1795*, Hungarian National Archives), record 163/1, indexed via JewishGen "Other Hungarian Census Records 1770–1850" — read directly from the index image. **"FRIDMON, Smulya," head of household** in **Kušnica (Kusnicza)**, Máramaros; household: wife; 1 widow(er); 3 sons; 3 daughters; 3 blood relatives; 1 servant. [^tradition]: Family tradition recorded on the MyHeritage profile: Shmuel "moved to Kushnice from Galicia" and was "one of the founders of the community in Kushnice"; and "a *sefer yichusin* that was destroyed in 1944 traced his ancestry to the **Noda BeYehuda** (R. Yechezkel Landau) and the **Tosfos Yom Tov** (Yom Tov Lipman Heller)." Unverifiable now that the scroll is lost; presented as tradition. ## Research - **1795 Jewish census of Máramaros (record 163/1).** Read directly (index). **Shmuel ("Smulya") Fridmon**, head of household in **Kušnica**; household of wife, a widow(er), 3 sons, 3 daughters, 3 blood relatives, 1 servant. Source: *Zsidók Conscriptio in Máramaros megye 1795* (Hungarian National Archives), via JewishGen. (Image I509761_1.) - **Gravestone (Kušnica cemetery).** Read directly. "The rabbi, our teacher Rabbi **Shmuel son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman**," "a wholesome and upright man," died **Menachem Av 5591 (1831)**. Confirms father [[Shlomo Zalman Friedman]] and rabbinic honorifics. (Image I509761_2.) - **Death:** 27 Menachem Av 5591 = August 1831, Kušnica (per MH + gravestone). Born ~1756 Galicia → aged ~75. - **Tradition:** founder of the Kushnice community; illustrious rabbinic descent (Noda BiYehuda / Tosfos Yom Tov) via a *sefer yichusin* destroyed in 1944. - **Wife:** [[Ela (d.1826)]] (d. before him). ## Evidence - **Gravestone, Kušnica cemetery** — "the rabbi, our teacher Rabbi Shmuel son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman," a wholesome and upright man, died Menachem Av 5591 (1831). His own memorial; fixes his father's name, rabbinic standing, and death. ![[I509761_2.jpg]] *Gravestone of Shmuel Friedman, Kušnica Jewish cemetery — "איש תם וישר … שמואל ב[ן] מוהר״ר שלמה זלמן … מנחם אב … תקצ״א" (a wholesome and upright man, Shmuel son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, died Av 5591 / 1831).* - **1795 Jewish census of Máramaros (record 163/1)** — Smulya Fridmon, head of household in Kušnica (wife, widow, 3 sons, 3 daughters, 3 relatives, 1 servant). Places him as an established householder there decades before his death. ![[I509761_1.jpg]] *JewishGen index of the 1795 Máramaros Jewish census — "FRIDMON, Smulya," head of household, Kušnica; household of wife, a widow(er), 3 sons, 3 daughters, 3 blood relatives, 1 servant (Hungarian National Archives, Zsidók Conscriptio 1795).* ## Open questions - **Son's name — Avrum Leib vs Shloime Leib.** The MyHeritage profile flags uncertainty over whether a son was "Avraham Leib" or "Shlomo Leib" (a matzevah photo shows "Shloime Leib"; but an "Avraham Leib" line has descendants). Possibly a confusion of a grandfather's name; needs the children's own records. - **Rabbinic descent (Noda BiYehuda / Tosfos Yom Tov).** The supporting *sefer yichusin* was destroyed in 1944; the claim cannot now be verified from that source. Whether any independent record supports it is open. - **Parents' fuller identity.** Father [[Shlomo Zalman Friedman]] is confirmed by the gravestone; the mother ([[Unknown (154)]]) is unnamed, and the Galician origin town is not specified.