Aryeh Abraham Frimer (; born November 24, 1946) is an American-Israeli Active Oxygen

Chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and specialist on women and

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

Biography

Aryeh Abraham Frimer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, to Rabbi Dr. Norman E. Frimer and Esther Miriam Frimer on November 24, 1946, but spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated summa cum laude with honors from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

(

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

;

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

) with a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1969. During his undergraduate years he also studied at

Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh (, lit. ''Vineyard in Yavne Yeshiva'') is a youth village and major yeshiva in southern Israel. Located near the city of Ashdod and adjacent to Kvutzat Yavne, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Yavne Regional Council ...

in Israel and then Yeshivat Eretz Israel, Brooklyn NY, with Rabbi Judah Gershuni (one of the last students of

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as HaRav Kook, and also known by the Hebrew-language acronym Hara'ayah (), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. H ...

) - ultimately receiving

Rabbinic Ordination ''Semikhah'' () is the traditional term for rabbiinic ordination in Judaism. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 CE. Si ...

. While a graduate student in organic chemistry at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with Prof.

Paul Doughty Bartlett Paul Doughty Bartlett (August 14, 1907 – October 11, 1997) was an American chemist. Life and career Bartlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Indianapolis. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1928. After his graduation ...

, he was a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and

Danforth Foundation The Danforth Foundation was one of the largest private nonprofit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It closed its doors in 2011 after 84 years of operation and more than a billion dollars in grants distributed. Background Establishe ...

Fellow. He was also appointed Assistant to the Hillel Director, serving as Rabbi to the Harvard-Radcliffe Orthodox ''Minyan'' from 1969-1974. Upon completing his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1974, Aryeh and his family moved to Israel becoming a Post-Doctoral Fellow at The

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

with Prof. Dov Elad. He then joined the faculty of

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

in 1975, where he is the Ethel and David Resnick Professor of Active Oxygen Chemistry and former Chemistry Department Chairman. From 1982-1983, Frimer was appointed Visiting Medical Scientist at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

in Upton, Long Island, NY. From 1990-2004, he spent a sabbatical year and consecutive summers as a National Research Council Fellow and an Ohio Aerospace Institute Senior Research Associate at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park, Ohio, Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a s ...

in Cleveland, Ohio. In June 2015, he received Bar Ilan University's Excellence in Teaching Award, and in October 2015, he became a professor emeritus. Aryeh and his wife Esther (Neiman) Frimer have four children and twelve grandchildren and live in

Rehovot Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

, Israel.

Scientific Interests and Publications

Frimer's research interests include: (1) The

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

of active oxygen species: singlet and triplet molecular oxygen,

peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of Chemical compound, compounds with the structure , where the R's represent a radical (a portion of a complete molecule; not necessarily a free radical) and O's are single oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms are joined ...

s, oxy-radicals and

superoxide In chemistry, a superoxide is a compound that contains the superoxide ion, which has the chemical formula . The systematic name of the anion is dioxide(1−). The reactive oxygen ion superoxide is particularly important as the product of t ...

anion

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

. (2) The organic chemistry of active oxygen species within organic media, liposomal lipid bilayers, and biomembranes. (3) The preparation of high temperature thermo-oxidatively stable aerospace polymers. (4) The preparation, characterization and neutralization of "green" reduced sensitivity high energy compounds. (5) The formation and chemistry of lithium-oxygen species in Li-O

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batteries. Frimer has published 150 scientific articles, reviews and books in the area of active oxygen chemistry, and given presentations at more than 120 scientific meetings. In 1985, together with Prof. Ionel Rosental, he edited two special issues of the Israeli Journal of Chemistry on "Active Oxygen Chemistry". In the same year, the Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) published his four volume series on "Singlet O

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Rabbinic Studies and Writings

In addition to his scientific work, Frimer has lectured on Judaism, Zionism and Jewish Identity for officer training courses of the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

. He has also published some 60 Torah articles and lectured internationally on various aspects of Jewish tradition and

Halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...

(Jewish law). He is known most prominently for his scholarly writings on the status of women in Jewish ritual and law. He serves on the Rabbinic Board of the Rabbi Jacob Berman Community Center – Tiferet Moshe Synagogue in

, Israel. The Community Center maintains a website with more than 80 recorded lectures by Frimer given predominantly from 1997-2000 at the Tiferet Moshe Synagogue. The site contains assorted published papers, audio files, source material and unedited lecture notes on women and Jewish law. Frimer has published, ''inter alia'', on women and

minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( ''mīnyān'' , Literal translation, lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain Mitzvah, religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism ...

, women's ''megilla'' readings, women in Jewish leadership roles, on questions of liturgy and ritual, and Orthodox Feminism. Together with his brother Dov, Frimer has published several seminal papers on Women's Prayer (Tefilla) Groups and Partnership Minyanim including the issue of women's ''aliyyot''.,“Women's Aliyyot: le-Khattehila, be-di-Avad and bi-She’at ha-Dehak” Aryeh A. Frimer, Hakirah, The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, 22 (Spring 2017), pp. 151-170
PDF version

Biography

Scientific Interests and Publications

Rabbinic Studies and Writings

References

See also