Loewenstamm

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LOEWENSTAMM

LOEWENSTAMM , 18^th-century family of Dutch rabbis. aryeh loeb ben saul loewenstamm (1690–1755) was born in Cracow, where his father saul had been rabbi; in 1707 Saul was appointed Ashkenazi rabbi of Amsterdam in succession to Moses Judah b. Kalonymus Kohen (known as Leib Ḥarif), but he died in Glogau on the way to take up his position. That same year Aryeh Loeb married Miriam, the oldest daughter of Ẓevi Hirsch Ashkenazi (the Ḥakham Ẓevi), then rabbi of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck. He accompanied his father-in-law to Amsterdam but later went to Poland, where he was appointed rabbi of Dukla and subsequently of Tarnopol (1720). This appointment was obtained by the intervention of the government, influenced by Loewenstamm's relatives, to have the incumbent deposed so that he could be appointed. As a result, his appointment was not received favorably by the community, and he himself was deposed shortly thereafter. He served as rabbi of Rzeszow (1724–28) and then of Glogau (1734–39), where he was involved in the dispute with regard to Moses Ḥayyim *Luzzatto, against whom he issued a ban in 1735, at the request of the rabbis of Venice. In 1740 he was appointed rabbi of Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Loewenstamm left no works. Some of his responsa, novellae, and notes, however, are to be found in the responsa of his father-in-law (no.76); in Mordecai of Dusseldorf's Ma'amar Mordekhai (Bruenn, 1790; nos. 62, 63); in David Meldola's Divrei David (Amsterdam, 1753; nos. 10, 53, 81); and in his son Saul's Binyan Ari'el (see below). In 1711 he published, together with Shemariah b. Jacob of Grodno, a second edition of the responsa of Moses Isserles, to which he added a kunteres aḥaron. He is also mentioned in the takkanot and minutes of the *Council of Four Lands. He took an active part in the Emden-Eybeschuetz controversy. Naturally siding with his brother-in-law, Jacob *Emden (the son of Ashkenazi), he was unsparing in his language against Eybeschuetz (see J. Emden, Sefat Emet (1876), 16).

Loewenstamm had two sons: one, known as Hirschel b. Aryeh Loeb *Levin, was rabbi of Berlin. The other, saul (1717–1790), born in Rzeszow, succeeded his father as rabbi of Amsterdam, having previously served as rabbi of Lakacz, Hungary, and Dubno, Lithuania. In Amsterdam he devoted himself to the yeshivah established by his father. Ḥ.J.D. Azulai, who met him in Amsterdam, refers to him in glowing terms. In 1754 he participated in the session of the Council of Four Lands in Jaroslaw. Saul Loewenstamm's most famous work is his Binyan Ari'el (Amsterdam, 1778), which is divided into three parts: on the Pentateuch, on the Five Scrolls, and comments on various talmudic passages. His glosses to tractate Niddah were published in the Amsterdam edition of the Talmud (1765). Saul was succeeded as rabbi of Amsterdam by his son jacob moses (1747–1815), previously rabbi in Filehne (Poznania) and Cleves. When the "progressive" congregation Adat Yeshurun appointed as their rabbi Aaron Moses Isaac Graanboom, a proselyte whose father was also a proselyte, Loewenstamm debarred him from the rabbinate because of his association with Reform tendencies. Jacob's son, jehiel aryeh loeb (d. 1807) was appointed rabbi of Leeuwarden, and died in his father's lifetime.

bibliography:

Michael, Or, no 535; A.L. Landshuth, Toledot Anshei ha-Shem u-Fe'ulatam be-Adat Berlin (1884), 72–75, 111, 118f.; Ḥ.N. Dembitzer, Kelilat Yofi, 1 (1888), 128a–136b; 2 (1893), 83a–b; S. Buber, Anshei Shem (1895), 37–40, 234; I.T. Eisenstadt and S. Wiener, Da'at Kedoshim (1897–98), 105f., 113, 121f.; J. Emden, Megillat Sefer, ed. by D. Kahana (1897), 65–69, 154; P. Pesis, Ir Dubna ve-Rabbaneha (1902), 22f.; H.Z. Margoles, Dubna Rabbati (1910), 14f.; J. Maarsen, in: HhY, 6 (1922), 15–19, 134–58; Z. Horowitz, Kitvei ha-Ge'onim (1928), 74–81, 115, 136; idem, Le-Korot ha-Kehillot be-Polanyah (1969), 138, 181–96; Halpern, Pinkas, index, s.v.Aryeh Loeb b. Sha'ul; idem, Yehudim ve-Yahadut be-Mizraḥ Eiropah (1969), 396f.; eg (1955), 31–34; Rzeszów Jews Memorial Book (1967), 43ff.