Michael Friedländer

Michael Friedländer was born in Jutrosin, Poland, the son of a Talmudic scholar and grandson of a rabbi, giving him the grounding to be a fine Hebraist. His university education was in Berlin, where he studied Oriental and Classical Languages alongside Mathematics.

In 1865 he was invited to London to become principal of the recently-established Jews College. This had been founded in 1851 for the triple purpose of training Anglo-Jewish ministers, readers and teachers; offering a day-school for Jewish boys; and serving as a beit hamedrash, or study centre. It was located at the time at 10 Finsbury Square, in Moorfields, and Friedländer and his family had their living accommodation at the same address. They were only a short step there from the Chief Rabbi, Nathan Marcus Adler, who doubtless took an interest in and encouraged the college.

The beit hamedrash and the day school were never a success and soon closed, but the higher education remit (as we would call it today) prospered. It relocated in 1881 to be closer to University College London, so allowing students to combine their religious studies with a degree course, and it still thrives today, in Hendon, now known as the London School of Jewish Studies.