Arthur Löwenstamm

Arthur Löwenstamm (also spelt Loewenstamm) (20 December 1882– 22 April 1965) 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 (1856–1937), a shopkeeper, and his wife Johanna Zweig (1851–1936). He studied theology and trained for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (now Wrocław in western Poland).

Career

Plaque commemorating the synagogue at Spandau. The plaque, on the site of the former synagogue in Spandau's Old Town, was sculpted by

After passing his rabbinical examinations in 1910, Löwenstamm was tortured, imprisoned and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, from which he was eventually released. After his release from Sachsenhausen, he and his wife found refuge in the United Kingdom in February 1939 but he was interned for several weeks as an "enemy alien".

After the Second World 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 to the Wiener Holocaust 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 ("Löwenstamm Street").

Publications Löwenstamm was a Biblical scholar, specialising in Samaritan and Karaite literature.

He also co-wrote a history commemorating 50 years of B'nai B'rith in Germany: Alfred Goldschmidt, Arthur Löwenstamm and Paul Rosenfeld: Zum 50 jährigen bestehen des Ordens Bne Briss in Deutschland: UOBB. Frankfurt am Main: Kauffmann, 1933, 203 pages.