Abraham Friedman was born on April 14, 1891, in Zloczow, Galacia (Ukraine). He was hired by the Winnipeg Police on September 24, 1913, as a Plain Clothes Constable and Interpreter. He identified as Hebrew and his religion Jewish. He was married and had previously worked as a Conductor for the Winnipeg Street Railway Account. His starting salary was $75/month, or $900/year, which would have been standard.

Little else is known about Friedman or his background as only a single application page remains of his employment. His name may have been anglicized when his family arrived in Canada or he may have changed it afterwards due to legal troubles.

While the Jewish policeman has not been studied in Winnipeg, in London, England, Jewish men and women were involved in the policing of the city in official, quasi-official, and unofficial capacities. There were practical reasons for having Jewish constables. There was a select number of occupations that brought Jewish men and women into association with their gentile neighbours. Jewish peddlers, porters, and dealers naturally came in contact with a variety of people. Importantly, there was another vocation that similarly allowed Jewish men to participate in the wider London world: policing. Jewish and gentile peace officers co-operated and worked together in companionship not seen in other trades.

According to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, the first Jews to settle permanently in Winnipeg were three brothers in 1877-1878. By 1881 the Manitoba census indicated that there were twenty-one Jewish families in Winnipeg. They had established themselves in numerous trades and enterprises, including jewelers, tobacconists, peddlers, dry goods merchants, tailors, clothing merchants, a clergyman and a physician.

By June 10, 1882, some three hundred and forty new Jewish immigrants had arrived, escaping from the Russian pogroms of 1881 and 1882. This influx permanently altered the socio-economic and cultural life of Winnipeg Jewry. However, like so many other immigrants they were confronted with numerous difficulties such as adapting to a different and challenging socio-economic, political, cultural and linguistic environment, and confronted living and working conditions that would tax their moral fortitude and resolve.

By 1911, the overwhelming majority of the approximately 9,000 Jews in Winnipeg, largely working and lower middle class, lived in the North End with a small number of wealthier Jews residing in the central and southern parts of the city. Many were Yiddish speaking. In his book “Winnipeg 1912”, Jim Blanchard noted that the highest concentration of Jews was north of the CPR in an area bounded by Selkirk and Jarvis avenues and Main and Robinson streets. Among non-Jews it was known as the New Jerusalem or the more pejorative “Jew Town” while Jews referred to it as Mitzraim, the Hebrew word for Egypt, also meaning “narrow places,” in other words—a place from which to escape.

By 1914, a total of 180,000 immigrants from provinces in the Austro-Hungarian Empire had left their homeland for Canada. Most settled in Manitoba and areas of the Northwest that later became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Fluency in a foreign language would create opportunities for Friedman and others to assist the police with translation, interpretation and investigations in the growing immigrant communities.

Based on the timing of Friedman’s appointment, it was likely the result of the murder of Sarah Feinstein on August 1, 1913, in her home at 520 Magnus Street. Mrs. Feinstein, a prominent member of the Jewish community, had been shot in the head at close range as she lay in her bed at about 2:15a.m. in the morning. The working theory of the police, according to the Winnipeg Tribune, was “the culmination of certain anti-semitic feeling which is more or less rampant amongst certain of the foreign element in the district”. The murder remains unsolved to this day and is the subject of a book by her great grandson.

Friedman’s career was uneventful until 1918. He investigated thefts, robberies, stabbings, burglaries, murder and bigamy. In one interesting case, he observed and arrested Sam Korpas at 2a.m. on November 3, 1916, after he saw him leave 98 Hallet Street in the North Point Douglas area. His suspicions were drawn to Korpas, who was white, as he stood out in an area known as “Coloured Row.” As it transpired, Korpas had just broken into the residence and stolen the wallets and cash of the occupants – Zygumnd Sperzik and John Monaxter. Korpas pled guilty five days later and was sentenced to two years in jail.

Friedman’s policing career ended abruptly on October 22, 1918, after being bound over for trial on charges of obstruction. Alegedly Friedman had induced Mike Kohut to leave Winnipeg rather than appear as a witness against Mike Ancon and Isodore Sadowski for pickpocketing him of $330. Kohut reported the matter to the Winnipeg Police and Friedman was arrested on October 15 by Detective Sergeant Jack Bishop. On October 22 Friedman was committed to trial by Police Magistrate Hugh John MacDonald and he was summaraily dismissed by the Winnipeg Police Commission.

On January 4, 1919, Kings Bench Judge John Philpot Curran found Friedman not guilty of the charge. Although Friedman had testified on his own behalf that the whole matter was a frame-up by the police because he was Jewish – favoritism, petty hatred, prejudice and unfairness”, stating that “all the men concerned, including Kohut, the man whose pockets had been picked, were in league together and that the Inspector of Detectives [George Smith] was at the head of the plot” – Judge Curran simply found that the witnesses were not credible and there was no motive for the alleged offence according to the Winnipeg Tribune.

Notwithstanding his acquittal, Friedman was not taken back on the police force. However, his legal troubles were far from over.

On November 27, 1919, Friedman and Nathan Segal appeared in court for trying to dissuade John J. Samson from running in the civic election as a labour candidate in Ward 3. At the time, Segal was a candidate in Ward 5 and Friedman was the secretary of his nominating committee. It is unknown what benefit Friedman and Segal would derive from trying to dissuade Samson (who had been a Winnipeg police officer until he was dismissed during the 1919 Strike) from running for civic office. However, they were both convicted by Police Magistrate Robert Moore Noble and fined $50 plus costs. In addition they were disqualified as voters for the next seven years and prohibited from holding public office for the same time.

Magistrate Noble, in finding against both Friedman and Segal, felt that they had lied during their testimony before the court. As a result they were both arrested and charged with perjury after the trial concluded. Friedman was tried before Chief Justice Thomas Graham Mathers sitting with a jury on March 29, 1920. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Leave to appeal to the Manitoba Court of Appeal was dismissed on May 1, 1920.

It is unknown what happened to Friedman after his last arrest. There is at least one other Abraham Friedman/Freedman who lived in Winnipeg at the same time who was the same age. They are distinguished based on their occupation and date of marriage.  Anyone with confirmed information about what happened with Abraham (Adolph) Friedman is asked to contact the Winnipeg Police Museum.