Lillian Simon Freehof (1906 – November 24, 2004) was an American writer.

Biography

Lillian Simon was one of four children, and grew up in a town outside of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

where the majority of her neighbors were of

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n descent. Her father was printer of a newspaper, and early in her life she worked for him as a

proofreader Proofreading is a phase in the process of publishing where galley proofs are compared against the original manuscripts or graphic artworks, to identify transcription errors in the typesetting process. In the past, proofreaders would place co ...

. She attended the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

and, later, the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, studying psychology and taking a degree in English. Secretary of the K. A. M. Temple in

, she married rabbi

Solomon Freehof Solomon Bennett Freehof (August 8, 1892 – June 12, 1990) was a prominent Reform rabbi, posek, and scholar. He served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Beginning in 1955, h ...

in 1934. That year, he became rabbi of the Rodef Shalom congregation in

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, remaining in the role until 1966. Besides serving as ''rebbetzin'', Lillian took to writing, producing a number of works for children that drew upon the ''

aggadah Aggadah (, or ; ; 'tales', 'legend', 'lore') is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic texts that incorporat ...

''. She also wrote ''The Right Way'' (1957), a book to teach ethics in religious schools. She was possessed of a talent for

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, as well, and produced books on

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

for an adult audience. In the 1930s, she led other women of Rodef Shalom in the task of developing programs aimed at the blind; this included creating services using

Braille Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

prayer books, a program which would serve as a model for others throughout the United States. She also wrote short plays about Jewish holidays designed to be performed in the synagogue. She served with the

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and with a variety of other charities, and was at one time on the national board of the Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. The Freehofs had no children.

Selected works

*''The Bible Legend Book'' (1948) *''Candle Light Stories'' (1951) *''Stories of King David'' (1952) *''Second Bible Legend Book'' (1952) *''The Captive Rabbi: The Story of R. Meir of Rothenburg'' (1965) *''Embroideries and Fabrics for Synagogue and Home'' (1966)

Awards

* 1953:

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

for ''Stories of King David''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freehof, Lillian 1906 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American women writers American religious writers American women religious writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Writers from Illinois Writers from Pittsburgh 20th-century American Jews Rebbetzins University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Pittsburgh alumni American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women