Arthur Löwenstamm


Rabbi Dr Arthur Löwenstamm was a Jewish theologian, writer and rabbi in Berlin and in London, where he came in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
He was the last rabbi of the Jewish community of Spandau, Germany, which comprised 600 members in 1933.

Early life and education

Arthur Löwenstamm was born on 20 December 1882 in Ratibor, Upper Silesia, German Empire, which is now Racibórz in southern Poland. His parents were Natan Löwenstamm, a shopkeeper, and his wife Johanna Zweig. He was the eldest in the family and had a brother, Kurt, a sister, Gertrud, and another brother, Ernest.
Löwenstamm attended the Royal Gymnasium in Beuthen, Upper Silesia, from 1893 to 1902. He studied philosophy at the University of Wrocław and completed his university studies, obtaining a doctorate, in Erlangen, Bavaria in 1905. He studied theology and trained for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau.

Career

After passing his rabbinical examinations in 1910, Löwenstamm served as rabbi with the Jewish community in Pless in Upper Silesia. 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 the synagogue, on Lindenufer in Spandau's Old Town, was set on fire. Löwenstamm was tortured, imprisoned and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, from which he was eventually released. After his release from Sachsenhausen, he found refuge in the United Kingdom in February 1939 but was interned for several weeks as an "enemy alien".
After the war, Löwenstamm gave private lessons to several students, including Jakob Josef Petuchowski and Hugo Gryn. From May 1945, he was Research Director at the Society for Jewish Studies and a member of the Association of Rabbis from Germany to London.

Personal life

In Breslau in 1911, he married Gertrud Modlinger, the daughter of Markus Modlinger and his wife Recha. They had two daughters, Erika who moved to London in 1936 and Gerda who emigrated to Britain in 1938. Their grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Britain and in Israel.

Death and legacy

He died in Morris Feinmann House, Manchester 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 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. A memorial plaque was placed on the pavement in front of Löwenstamm's former home at Feldstraße 11, in Spandau, on 9 November 2005.
On 15 August 2002 a street in Spandau was named Löwenstammstraße.

Publications

Löwenstamm was a Biblical scholar, specialising in Samaritan and Karaite literature. He wrote commentaries on Dutch philosopher and jurist Hugo Grotius and the German philosopher Hermann Lotze:
He also co-wrote a history commemorating 50 years of B'nai B'rith in Germany: