Joseph Frieberg, business leader and philanthropist, is a Canadian founder of the Israel Tennis & Education Centers, and serves today as Chairman of the ITEC’s fundraising arm in Canada.
For Joe and Budgie Frieberg, the Israel Tennis & Education Centers have been much more than a chosen charity. The organization represents a life’s work and personal commitment that melded the couple’s passions for Tennis, Israel and Children ‘ with a belief that a vision can become reality. An industrialist and business visionary, Mr. Frieberg believed that the game of tennis, made accessible to every child in Israel, could help shape the next generation of Israelis, whose parents had thus far (1976) been consumed with defense aspects of their young country. The same capacity for vision, leadership and energy that drove the Friebergs to become the largest metal furniture manufacturers in Canada, was applied to the Israel Tennis & Education Centers, and along with a small group of Canadians, they raised the funding that built Canada Stadium and the Israel Tennis & Education Center in Ramat Hasharon in 1976, where the Davis Cup is played to this day.
Mr. Frieberg has been an active leader and generous supporter of a number of Canadian charities. He is a founder of Armour Heights Lodge (B’nai Brith), a Governor of the Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto, a founder of York Racquets Tennis Club, and serves as Chairman of the State Hermitage Museum Foundation of Canada; an organization established to create a closer relationship between the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and Canadian Art Institutions. He is the holder of the Centennial Medal, awarded by the Governor General of Canada.
Joe and Budgie, married for 58 years, live in Toronto and have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.