Appointed acting rabbi of the Lwów Reform Synagogue in 1920, Freund began his education in a cheder. He later studied with Rabbi Szulim Gabel in Brzozów, Rabbi Gedalji Schmelkes in Przemyśl, and others, absorbing vast Talmudic knowledge already in his youth. In 1903 he graduated from state secondary school in Sanok and entered a rabbinic seminary in Vienna, where he also studied philosophy at that city’s University. There, in the summer semester of 1907, he attended musicology classes with Guido Adler.
Having completed his studies, he came to Lwów and found employment as a religious education teacher in a secondary school. He remained in Lwów in 1914–15, and later joined the faculty of Lwów’s Tora teachers’ college. In 1917–18 he was a rabbi in the Austrian army. On his return to Lwów, he took up teaching in secondary schools again.
He wrote a number of research publications, including The Ethics of the Talmud (Lwów, 1922). He was actively involved in the Humanitarian Association 'Leopolis,' which constituted a branch of the international Independent Order B'nai B'rith.