Brajesh Gerald “Jerry” Friedberg was born on August 11, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Poland.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Cornell University in 1960 with Honors. In the summer of 1960, he took a bus from New York to Alabama, where he joined forces with a coalition helping to register Black voters. In his own words:
An officer of South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division led me through a hostile crowd and into a jail, where I was fingerprinted, "mugged," interrogated extensively by as many as six men at once, and, finally, confined to a prison cell. The charge was "excessive speed for conditions," an indictment neither valid nor relevant. The event, and the incidents surrounding it, were part of a grim battle in the struggle between black and white.
He then became a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Government and received his Doctorate in Political Science from Harvard University in 1965.
He worked as an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of California, Davis from 1964-68. He was a therapist, specializing in Gestalt and Encounter techniques from 1966-71; an Associate Professor in Political Science/Psychology/Child Education and Director of the Teacher Training Program at Fordham University from 1968-70; the Director of Lorillard Children's School in the Bronx, New York, from 1969-70; and the Director of Arrakis Educational Center in Jeffersonville, New York from 1970-71. He moved to California in 1971 and owned the Pt. Arena Volks Shop until 1975. He moved to Arkansas in 1975, where he was Founder/Coordinator of the Whole Earth Foods Coop in Chimes, Arkansas.
In 1976, Brajesh met Shyama Beth Friedberg, and they were married from 1977 until her death in 2016. He and Shyama moved to California together and became involved with the founding of Mount Madonna Center in 1978. They spent the remainder of their lives in service to and in this community.
In 2005, he and Shyama traveled to New Orleans to help those suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. After her death in 2016, he joined an NGO working with a persecuted Burmese ethnic group that had taken refuge in Thailand.
In 2018, Brajesh met Alexandra (Xan) Hart and they wed in 2020, spending their final years in absolute bliss in having found each other.
As to Brajesh’s service at Mount Madonna Center, one friend wrote “he held the positions of Program Director (now held by three or four people), President of Mount Madonna Institute (MMI), volunteer in the fire brigade, member of the Panchayat, Hanuman Fellowship board member, and MMC administrator – ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!”
Brajesh was also instrumental in the founding and development of Mount Madonna School at its crucial initial stages. He served as Principal for five years and was a key member of the school’s executive committee for many years after that. One little-known fact is that he also taught auto shop in the early days.
Brajesh was deeply committed to family and friends, showing up whenever and wherever needed. He served as a mentor, friend and supporter to many.
From another friend, “Deeply caring, a man of principle and integrity, willing to consider and reflect, Brajesh was a true community organizer who valued thoughtful process, compromise, and speaking individual truth while promoting group will and wisdom. An ethical and deeply spiritual practitioner, he was a firm believer in established values; once there were agreements, he’d stand firmly by them with full committed action. He had endless capacities for sharing love and compassion. We honor and recognize his generosity of spirit, his willingness to appreciate others, and certainly his humor.”