Immanuel Löw

Immanuel Löw (January 20, 1854 in Szeged -July 19, 1944 in Budapest ), was a Hungarian rabbi, scholar and politician. Löw was born in Szeged, Hungary, 20 January 1854, the son of Hungarian rabbi Leopold Löw. He was educated in his native town and in Berlin, where he studied at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums , graduating as rabbi and receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Leiptzag in 1878.

   In 1878 he succeeded his father as rabbi of Szeged, Hungary.  From 1889-1900, he published the collected writings of his father, in five volumes. The fine Szeged Synagogue built in 1903 was designed according to Löw's plans. In the 'white terror' of 1920-21 he was imprisoned for 13 months for alleged statements against Admiral M. Horthy. While in prison, he worked on his four volume work Die Flora des Juden (“The Flora of the Jews”), on terminology of plants in Jewish sources. He was a famous preacher and from 1900-1939, four volumes of his sermons were published. His scholarly renown rests on his rabbinic lexicography and studies of artifacts.  In 1883 he published a prayer book for Hungarian women and translated the Song of Songs and some psalms into Hungarian.

Löw’s fame as a scholar is based primarily on his pioneering work in the field of Talmudic and rabbinic lexicography and in the study of plant names. This special interest is apparent in his doctoral thesis Aramäische Pflanzennamen (Aramaic Plant Names) (1879) as well as in Meleager Meleagros aus Gedera und die Flora Aramaea (1883). Löw systematically explored the basics of plant terminology in different periods of the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, dominated the latest scientific methods in this field, made himself familiar with literary sources of plant names, and made careful use of manuscript material. With the help of Semitic languages, especially Syriac, he clarified many etymologies. He had great influence on future scholars, particularly Yehuda Feliks, who considered him one of the greatest scholars of Jewish botany. Both in the field of wildlife as well as minerals, he published more articles in scholarly publications. He wrote Mineralien der Juden (“Minerals of the Jews”), but his manuscript was during the Holocaust in 1944. A part of his literary legacy went on to the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem, and another part in the rabbinical seminary of Budapest. From 1927 Immanuel Löw represented the Neolog (non-Orthodox) communities of Hungary in the upper chamber of the Hungarian parliament. He was also a member of the Jewish Agency from 1926-1929. In 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Hungary, when he was 90, the Germans sent him to a brick factory and he was selected for deportation. Fortunately, he was accepted to be on the Kastner train, which was set to allow the Hungarian Jewish elite to escape the Nazis. But sadly, he died when he arrived in Budapest before he boarded the train. Selected Bibliography:

Aramaeische pflanzennamen, von Immanuel Loew. Mit unterstuetzung der K. Akademie der wissenschaften in Wien. Pp. 490. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1881

Der biblische 'ŻezŻob, von Immanuel Löw. Pp. 30. Wien: In Kommission bei A. Hölder, 1909 Die flora der Juden. 4 v. in 5. Wien: Leipzig, R. Löwit, 1924-34 Gesammelte Schriften / Leopold Low; hrsg. von Immanuel Loew. Nachdr. d. Ausg. Szegedin 1889-1900. 5 v. Hildesheim; New York : Olms, 1979. Rashuyot: mikhtamim ve-khatavot / me-et Libesh Lef u-veno `Imanu'el. Yerushalayim : [h. mo. l.], 698 [1937 or 1938] (in Hebrew)

Links http://web.archive.org/web/20041205024408/http://www.bh.org.il/Names/POW/Loew.asp http://siach-sade.macam.ac.il/siach/archive/4/index.asp?id=felix http://www.hazofe.co.il/web/katava6.asp?Modul=24&id=30154&Word=&gilayon=2267&mador=