Friedman died at the age of seventy. He was part of a small but influential Jewish community in Natchitoches Parish,<ref name=jewish>{{cite web|url=
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lanatchi/Jewish.htm
|title=Jewish Cemetery, Natchitoches, Louisiana|publisher=rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=September 8November 12, 20092019}}</ref> one of whose members, the Kaffies, founded the oldest still standing hardware store in Louisiana. A long-time member of Congregation Gemiluth Chassodim in nearby Alexandria, he is interred next to his wife, Elizabeth H. Friedman (October 12, 1912 – July 3, 1969), at the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches. There is an accompanying marker identified as "Infant" Friedman, November 7, 1945.<ref name=jewish/> The couple had a surviving son, Sam Friedman, a businessman and attorney who in 2009 reopened the Roosevelt Hotel in [[New Orleans]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.myneworleans.com/Louisiana-Life/July-August-2009/Roosevelt-Returns/|author=Paul F. Stahls, Jr.|title=Roosevelt Returns: This downtown New Orleans hotel has a long and colorful past -- and future|date=July–August 2009|publisher=myneworleans.com|accessdate=September 9, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref> Friedman had a namesake nephew, Sylvan I. Friedman, of New Orleans, son of Friedman's brother, Harry Friedman, Sr.
Leon Friedman (1886-1948), a native of Natchez, Louisiana, and probably the uncle of Sylvan Friedman, served in the Louisiana House from Natchitoches Parish from 1932 to 1940.<ref name=lahouse/>