Born in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1819, Moses Wiesenfeld immigrated to Baltimore in 1838. He was taken under the wing of Jonas Friedenwald, like Wiesenfeld a German Jewish immigrant, who had arrived in Baltimore eight years earlier and had done very well for himself, first as a peddler and then as a grocer. In 1843, Wiesenfeld married Friedenwald’s daughter Betsy, then seventeen, and the couple would have nine children. Their son David married Sarah Metzger, daughter of another German Jewish Baltimore family, Isaac and Fannie Metzger.

Success in business was not far off for Wiesenfeld, who founded what became a leading clothing wholesale firm in the south, Wiesenfeld & Co. In addition to Friedenwald’s support and advice, Wiesenfeld drew inspiration from another friend and prominent Baltimorean, Johns Hopkins to whom Wiesenfeld ascribed much of his success. He played a prominent role in Jewish charities in Baltimore, serving as president and later director of the Hebrew Benevolent Society.