Raphael Loewe
It is with great sadness that I report the death on Friday, May 27,
of Raphael Loewe, Goldsmid Professor of Hebrew Emeritus, University
College London. Born in Calcutta on April 16, 1919, he was educated
at the Dragon School, Oxford and the Leys School, Cambridge. From an
early age, he studied Hebrew with his father, Herbert Loewe, Reader
in Rabbinics at Cambridge, who gave him a firm grounding in
Rabbinics. He was a scholar of St John's College, Cambridge, where he
graduated in Classics. During the Second World War, he served in
North Africa and Italy. After the War, he held university
appointments at Leeds, Cambridge, Brown, and University College London.
The great-grandson of Louis Loewe, Sir Moses Montefiore's close
confidant and interpreter, Raphael Loewe was the the last in a line
of Anglo-Jewish hebraists, who attained mastery of both biblical and
rabbinic sources as well as the classics. His scholarship was devoted
to the history of biblical interpretation Jewish and Christian
Christian hebraism, Anglo-Jewish history, and above all, ancient and
medieval Hebrew poetry. A master translator who made no concessions
to a contemporary audience, he rendered Andalusian Hebrew verse into
the English of the Metaphysical Poets and FitzGerald's Rubáiyát into
classical Hebrew. His numerous publications include Ibn Gabirol, The
Ryland Haggadah, and The Meshal Ha-Qadmoni of Isaac Ibn Sahula. A new
volume, Shirim ve-tirgumei shirim ("Hebrew Poems and Translations"),
appeared earlier this year; it is a remarkable seventy-year
retrospective of Raphael Loewe's art (see below).
An Elder and Warden of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation,
Lauderdale Road, he did his utmost to maintain and enhance the proud
traditions of that venerable synagogue. Though he was enormously
erudite, Raphael Loewe was a very patient teacher, an extremely
generous colleague, and a most loyal friend. Devoted to family,
community, and his scholarly calling, he will be sorely missed. Yehi
zikhro barukh.
Daniel Frank
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
The Ohio State University
_______________________________________________________________________
Raphael Loewe, Shirim ve-tirgumei shirim ("Hebrew Poems and
Translations"). Israel: Haberman Institute, 2010. xxii+466 pp. 4 colour plates.
ISBN-13 978 0 950108667
Available from:
1. amazon.com
2. American Sephardi Federation Attn: Randall C. Belinfante,
Librarian/Archivist at rbelinfa...@asf.cjh.org
In UK: Society of Heshaim, Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation,
2 Ashworth Road, London W9 1JY. £30 (+ £4.50 p&p)
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and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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