Freeda Vitamins was started 92 years ago by a dedicated family with one goal: to make the world a healthier place, one person at a time

Before “gluten free” and “non-GMO” were buzzwords, Freeda Vitamins was started 92 years ago by a dedicated family with one goal: to make the world a healthier place, one person at a time. Running a business that boasts being the oldest kosher vitamin company in the world is a pretty neat designation. Meet Eliyahu Zimmerman, CPO of Freeda Health.

Who is Freeda? My grandmother, Lillian Freeda (her maiden name). She was born in 1904 and was the only Jewish woman in her class in pharmaceutical studies at Fordham University. My grandmother chose this fi eld because her father, Abraham Freeda, was a druggist. She decided to open a pharmacy so he could have a job for the rest of his life. My grandmother was brilliant and avant-garde in her approach to health and nutrition, challenging others to cut sugar and flour out of their diets before that was even a thing.

Was she a scientist or a businesswoman?

Freeda Pharmacy opened up on East 41st Street in Manhattan in 1928. (It eventually moved a few blocks away to Madison Avenue.) My grandmother worked in the back, and my grandfather, Charles Zimmerman, manned the front. When my father, Dr. Philip Zimmerman, grew up and began working in the pharmacy, he took things to the next level. He was a real visionary. But his goal wasn’t to make money; he wanted to teach people about vitamins and nutrition simply so they could be healthier. Besides semichah, he also had a chemistry degree, which gave him the scientific knowledge to improve the products. More than a businessman, my father was a man of chesed, using the business as a vehicle to help others.

How did he do that?

Mostly by making people feel heard! My father would first listen to people’s descriptions of their aches and pains, and then he would give nutritional and health advice that he felt would help alleviate their symptoms. He spent thousands of hours of his time advising people for free. For example, there was once a guy who described his symptoms, and my father told him that all he needed was to drink more water. He could have prescribed him some vitamins, but he didn’t. It was never about profit.