Arthur Löwenstamm

Rabbi Dr Arthur Löwenstamm (also spelt Loewenstamm) (20 December 1882 in Ratibor, Upper Silesia – 22 April 1965 in Manchester, England) was a Jewish theologian, writer and rabbi in Berlin and in London, where he came in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Rabbi Dr

Arthur Löwenstamm
Personal
Born
Arthur Löwenstamm

20 December 1882
Ratibor, Upper Silesia, German Empire
Died22 April 1965 (aged 82)
Manchester, England
ReligionJudaism
NationalityGerman until 1939; British
SpouseGertrud Modlinger
ChildrenErika Reid and Gerda Weleminsky
ParentsNatan Löwenstamm and Johanna Zweig
DenominationReform Judaism
OccupationTheologian, writer and rabbi
PositionRabbi
SynagogueSpandau Synagogue (1917–38)
OtherRabbi, Jewish community in Pless, Upper Silesia, 1911–17
BuriedHoop Lane Jewish Cemetery in Golders Green, London
ResidencePless and Spandau, Germany; Richmond, Surrey; Manchester
SemichaJewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, 1910

He was the last rabbi of the Jewish community of Spandau, Germany, which comprised 600 members in 1933.[1]

Early life and education

Arthur Löwenstamm was born on 20 December 1882 in Ratibor, Upper Silesia,[2] German Empire, which is now Racibórz in southern Poland. His parents were Natan Löwenstamm (1856–1937), a shopkeeper, and his wife Johanna Zweig (1851–1936).[3] He was the eldest in the family and had a brother, Kurt (1883–1965, whose son Heinz A. Lowenstam became a noted paleoecologist and great-granddaughter Lisa Goldstein also became a rabbi), a sister, Gertrud, and another brother, Ernest (1887–1888).

Löwenstamm attended the Royal Gymnasium in Beuthen (now Bytom), Upper Silesia, from 1893 to 1902.[4] He studied philosophy at the University of Wrocław and completed his university studies, obtaining a doctorate, in Erlangen, Bavaria in 1905.[4] He studied theology and trained for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau[5] (now Wrocław in western Poland).

Career
Memorial plaque in front of Löwenstamm's former home at Feldstraße 11 in Spandau; Geographic coordinates: '52°32′41″N 13°12′6″E
Plaque commemorating the synagogue at Spandau. The plaque, on the site of the former synagogue in Spandau's Old Town, was sculpted by Volkmar Haase
Löwenstammstraße, a street in Spandau that is named after him

After passing his rabbinical examinations in 1910,[3] Löwenstamm served as rabbi (from 1911 to 1917) with the Jewish community in Pless (now Pszczyna) in Upper Silesia.[3] On 6 December 1916 he was appointed as Spandau Synagogue's first permanent rabbi. Löwenstamm took up his duties on 1 April 1917 and continued until the autumn of 1938. In this role he also gave religious instruction at Spandau's Kant-Gymnasium. He was a member of the Union of Liberal Rabbis in Germany.

On 9 November 1938 (Kristallnacht) the synagogue, on Lindenufer in Spandau's Old Town, was set on fire.[6][nb 1] Löwenstamm was tortured, imprisoned and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp,[7] from which he was eventually released. After his release from Sachsenhausen, he found refuge in the United Kingdom in February 1939[8] but was interned for several weeks as an "enemy alien".[9]

After the war, Löwenstamm gave private lessons to several students, including Jakob Josef Petuchowski[10] and Hugo Gryn.[11] From May 1945, he was Research Director at the Society for Jewish Studies[2] and a member of the Association of Rabbis from Germany to London.

Personal life

In Breslau in 1911, he married Gertrud Modlinger (born 14 February 1887 in Gleiwitz, died 3 January 1952 in Richmond, Surrey),[2][3] the daughter of Markus Modlinger and his wife Recha (née Freund). They had two daughters, Erika who moved to London in 1936 and Gerda who emigrated to Britain in 1938.[3][9] Their grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Britain and in Israel.

Death and legacy

He died in Morris Feinmann House, Manchester[1] on 22 April 1965 and was buried at Hoop Lane Jewish Cemetery in Golders Green, London. His archives were donated to the Leo Baeck Institute New York[9][12] and to the Wiener Library in London.

At the initiative of the Spandau Borough Council, a memorial tablet was unveiled in 1988 on the site of the former synagogue.[13] A memorial plaque was placed on the pavement in front of Löwenstamm's former home at Feldstraße 11, in Spandau, on 9 November 2005.[14]

On 15 August 2002 a street in Spandau was named Löwenstammstraße ("Löwenstamm Street").[15]

Publications

Löwenstamm was a Biblical scholar, specialising in Samaritan and Karaite literature.[11] He wrote commentaries on Dutch philosopher and jurist Hugo Grotius and the German philosopher Hermann Lotze:

  • Lotzes Lehre vom Ding an Sich und Ich an sich. Breslau: H. Fleischmann Verlag. 1906. ISBN 978-1-147-34747-0. Republished by Nabu Press: Charleston, South Carolina, 2010; paperback, 60 pages.
  • "Hugo Grotius’ Stellung zum Judentum (Hugo Grotius's attitude toward Judaism)" in Festschrift zum 75-jährigen Bestehen des jüdisch-theologischen Seminars Fraenkelscher Stiftung, Vol. II. Verlag M. & H. Marcus: Breslau, 1929; pp. 295–302, ASIN B005HKEZA4
  • "Jüdischer Lebinsstil", Gemeindeblatt für die jüdischen Gemeinden Preussens: Verwaltungsblatt der Preussischen Landesverbandes jüdischer Gemeinden, 1 November 1934 (cited on p. 229 in Rebecca Rovit: The Jewish Kulturbund Theatre Company in Nazi Berlin), University of Iowa Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1-60938-124-0

He also co-wrote a history commemorating 50 years of B'nai B'rith in Germany:[16]

  • Alfred Goldschmidt, Arthur Löwenstamm and Paul Rosenfeld: Zum 50 jährigen bestehen des Ordens Bne Briss in Deutschland: UOBB. Frankfurt am Main: Kauffmann, 1933. OCLC 2976130

Further reading
  • Ernst Gottfried Lowenthal (1982). Juden in Preussen. Ein biographisches Verzeichnis. (Jews in Prussia. A biographical directory.) Dietrich Riemer Verlag, Berlin, p. 143. ISBN 3-496-01012-6.
  • Carsten Wilke and Katrin Nele Jansen (2009). Die Rabbiner im Deutschen Reich 1871–1945. (The rabbis of the German Reich 1871–1945.) K. G. Saur Verlag, Munich. ISBN 978-3-598-24874-0.

See also

Notes
  1. Frederic Zeller (1924–1994), who was then a Jewish teenager in Spandau, gives an eyewitness account of the burning of the synagogue in his memoir, in which (pp. 137–138, 142 and 155) he also recalls Rabbi Löwenstamm.
    Frederic Zeller (1989). When Time Ran Out: Coming of Age in the Third Reich. London: W H Allen. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-0-491-03614-6.

References
  1. "News from Germany: Spandau memorial tablet" (PDF). AJR Information. 32 (4): 5. April 1977. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  2. Jon Epstein and David Jacobs (2006). A History in our Time: Rabbis and Teachers Buried at Hoop Lane Cemetery. Movement for Reform Judaism. p. 19.
  3. Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (editors) (1980). International Biographical Directory of Central European Emigres 1933–1945. Band 1: Politik, Wirtschaft, Öffentliches Leben. Munich and New York City: K. G. Saur Verlag. p. 455. ISBN 9783110970289. Retrieved 8 August 2017.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. Arthur Lowenstamm (1906). Lotzes Lehre vom Ding an Sich und Ich an sich. Breslau: H. Fleischmann Verlag. ISBN 978-1-147-34747-0.
  5. Jacob Petuchowski; edited by Elizabeth R Petuchowski and Aaron M Petuchowski (1998). Studies in modern theology and prayer. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. p. xiiii. ISBN 978-0-8276-0577-0.
  6. Alois Kaulen and Joachim Pohl (1988). Juden in Spandau vom Mittelalter bis 1945 [Jews in Spandau from the Middle Ages until 1945]. Edition Hentrich Berlin. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-3926175595.
  7. Astrid Zajdband (2014). "German Rabbis in British Exile and their influence on Judaism in Britain" (PDF). Doctoral thesis. University of Sussex. p. 51. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  8. Alois Kaulen and Joachim Pohl (1988). Juden in Spandau vom Mittelalter bis 1945 [Jews in Spandau from the Middle Ages until 1945]. Edition Hentrich Berlin. p. 167. ISBN 978-3926175595.
  9. Cord Hasselblatt (with additional material by Mone Kraft) (4 July 2006). "The life of Dr Arthur Löwenstamm". Evangelische Kirche in Spandau. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  10. Hans Herman Henrix, "Jakob J Petuchowski (1925–1991): Rabbi, Scholar, Ecumenist" in: Albert Gerhards and Clemens Leonhard (editors), Jewish and Christian Liturgy and Worship: New Insights Into Its History and Interaction (2007), p. 8, Brill, Leiden; Boston, ISBN 978-90-04-16201-3
  11. Hugo Gryn; Michael Shire (editor) (2012). "A Timeless Teacher, Leo Baeck (London) Lodge, B'nai B'rith London Symposium, B'nai B'rith Hillel House London, 30 May 1973". European Judaism. 45 (1). ISSN 1752-2323.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  12. Timothy Ryan Mendenhall (21 February 2013). "Guide to the Arthur Loewenstamm Collection, 1905–1935". Leo Baeck Institute New York. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  13. Arthur Löwenstamm, Retrieved 1 April 2013
  14. "Weil das Erinnern wichtig ist..." Evangelische Kirche Spandau (in German). Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  15. "Lṏwenstamm Street". Berlin street directory. Kauperts. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  16. "1933, German, Book edition: Zum 50 jährigen bestehen des Ordens Bne Briss in Deutschland: U.O.B.B. / [Alfred Goldschmidt, Arthur Löwenstamm, Paul Rosenfeld]". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 12 April 2013.

Further reading
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