[6] Harris Freiman had wanted his son to become a doctor, but Archie convinced him that a business career was a legitimate Canadian route to achievement and success.

[10] Archie Freiman's business methods were speculative and included signing for a year's worth of advertisement space with the Ottawa Citizen, a local newspaper, much to his partner's chagrin.

[14] Rather, taking the Talmudic precept to 'separate not thyself from the community' he had learned in Hebrew School to heart, Freiman spent a considerable amount of time, energy and money on charitable and philanthropic causes.

[17] He aided the poor through his support of the Salvation Army, the Jean D'Arc Institute, various Jewish charities and the Ottawa Council of Social Agendas.

[23] In December 1901, Freiman attended the Second Convention of the Federation of Zionist Societies, in Montreal, as an official delegate representing the Kingston Jewish Community.

In 1906, Freiman succeeded Samuel Bilsky as President of the Herzl Club and attended the Fifth Convention of the Federation of Zionist Societies, held in Toronto.

[25] Freiman attended the Tenth Zionist Convention in Montreal in 1909 and moved a resolution favouring the purchase of land in Palestine, having been appointed to study the proposal beforehand with others.

[28] During the conference Freiman and Louis Fitch moved a resolution, unanimously approved, that called for Jewish rights to be upheld in Palestine and Jews allowed to develop the land "without hindrance.

In December 1919 Freiman was elected Dominion Executive President of the Million Dollar Relief Campaign, an organization which helped Jews in Eastern Europe.

[33] On April 20, 1920, word reached Canada that Britain had received the Mandate for Palestine with the "express obligation of carrying out the Balfour Declaration.

World Jewry of to-day can be truly likened to a much-buffeted and battered ship that has weathered the storm of ages, of suffering and anxious hope, and now sails into the calm, placid waters of the home port.

[37] Freiman's first great challenge as president was in responding to the White Paper, a British government declaration that reduced the proposed size of the Jewish state by two-thirds through the removal of Transjordan.

The fund-raising Keren Hayesod Campaign, which Freiman founded in September 1924,[40] estimated in 1920 that twenty-five million pounds sterling could be raised by 1925, a goal that was not even half reached by 1945.

[41][42] Freiman had to deal with Canadian Jews, well established in Canada, who were uninterested in emigrating to Palestine and swung from extreme optimism and pessimism with respect to the future of Zionism.

At the Twenty-First Zionist Convention, taking place the following week, the proposal was brought forward after a speech by Ussishkin, who elaborated on the Jewish history of the region to be purchased.

The Jewish National Fund inscribed the name of the Canadian Zionist Organization into its fourth Jubilee volume of the Golden Book.

[57] Freiman's next challenge arrived in 1930 when a British Royal Commission of Inquiry formed to investigate violent Arab riots in Palestine concluded that Jewish immigration and development was the cause.

Freiman responded with optimism and suggested that better efforts be made to share Jewish perspectives with the British, as he was convinced they had an "inherent sense of justice and fair play" and lack of information was the cause of their conclusions.

[63] In September 1938, responding to the treatment of Jews in Germany, Freiman wrote that: In this battle between the forces for good and evil, we who have in the past provided the world with a rallying cry must do so again.

After recovering he gave his thoughts, condemning the Nazis as barbaric and oppressive, destroyers of civilization, and pledging his support and that of Canadian Jews to the democracies.

"[67] By 1943 Canada and the world had learned of the Nazi extermination of the Jews in Europe, and Britain had responded by allowing 30,000 Jewish immigrants into Palestine.

"[70] Freiman's final speech on Zionism was read aloud at the Twenty-Seventh Zionist Convention in Montreal, on January 30, 1944, he being too sick to attend.

His statement ended with a call for Jewish redemption: It is only consonant with the war aims of the United Nations that our suffering and sacrifices in these last years should be recognized by the equalization of our status with that of every other people, by being granted the opportunity to rebuild Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth within the framework of the British Commonwealth of Nations, thus assuring to us the opportunity of living our lives as normal people.

[71]On Sunday, June 4, 1944, Freiman and the greater Ottawa Jewish community attended Adath Jeshurun Synagogue for the unveiling of a tablet dedicated the memory of Rabbi J Mirsky.

It was attended by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had been a personal friend,[75] Ottawa mayor Stanley Lewis, representatives of the War Information Bureau, the Judiciary, Young Judea, the Canadian Jewish Congress, Histadrut, the Zionist Organization of America, the Red Cross, War veterans and an honor guard consisting of forty members of the Air Force.

[76] Rabbi Fasman gave the eulogy: The greatness of Archibald Jacob Freiman was not lodged in an ivory tower, was not embodied in a character that shunned realities and toyed with ideas far from the affairs of men.