Hershey Friedman's gift of giving nets Divine dividends

Photos: Moshy Friedman Photography

Blessed with tremendous wealth from the time he loaned his last dollar of savings to a struggling friend, Reb Hershey Friedman was already involved in a hundred mosdos, had funded buildings for yeshivos and sponsored a multi-million-dollar seforim publishing venture. Meatpacking wasn’t exactly on his agenda — so why did he step up to the plate nearly 15 years ago and agree to purchase the largest kosher meat plant in the US?

The year was 1980. The global economy was in a tailspin, and along with the rest of the business world, one young man in Montreal was struggling financially, his company about to sink. This fellow had a friend named Hershey, whom he knew to be kind and sympathetic, and so he turned to him for help. This was a desperate move, considering that Hershey himself had a total of $7,000 in his savings account and was fighting for his own struggling business to boot. But sure enough, Hershey got back to his friend with a check — for $7,000, a loan with no hard due date.

Over 40 years have passed since then, and the number of shuls, yeshivos, kollelim, and so many projects sporting the name “Friedman” are incalculable. The sheer dollar figures flowing from this philanthropic family boggle the mind. “Still,” says Reb Hershey Friedman today, “I believe it was all in the zechus of those $7,000.”

It’s a statement that really tells the whole story. His real estate projects dot the globe, and his plastics manufacturing company is one of the largest in North America. But all of that pales in comparison to the size of his heart. The millions shrink back in the face of the magnanimity — they look so small, almost as small as $7,000.

It will soon be 15 years since Hershey Friedman’s purchase of Agriprocessors, the prominent kosher meat producer raided in 2008 by government agencies. The company suffered a near-fatal blow in the process, and it looked as if the decades of meat production running in rural Postville, Iowa, and the community the Rubashkin family created around it would come to an end.

But just then, in stepped Hershey Friedman. He purchased the entire business, renamed it Agri Star, paid off the debts and, in short order, the production lines whirred back to life. In truth, he had no desire to get into the meat business — he was heading enough ventures — but he was asked to intervene, and so he stepped up to the plate. To some, it might have looked like just another foreclosure deal, a profitable opportunity for the seasoned and ambitious entrepreneur. But with such a widely diversified portfolio, the last thing on Hershey Friedman’s mind was meat production.

So why did he do it?

The answer predates the question by several decades; what began in 1980 continues until today. Forty-three years and more than $7,000 later, the story of Hershey Friedman continues to evolve and inspire.