LEWIN, ADOLF

LEWIN, ADOLF (1843–1910), German rabbi and historian. Lewin, who was born in Pinne, Prussian Posen, studied in Breslau at the Jewish theological seminary and at the university there, obtaining his doctorate for the thesis Die Makkabaeische Erhebung (1870). He served as rabbi at Koschmin (from 1872), Coblenz (1878), and Freiburg im Breisgau (from 1885). Among Lewin's works are a prize-winning essay, "Die Religionsdisputation R. Jechiel von Paris…" (in MGWJ, 18, 1869); Juden in Freiburg im Breisgau (1890); and Geschichte der badischen Juden (1909). He contributed the section on the historical, geographical, and travel literature of the Jews in the rabbinic period to Jakob Winter and August Wuensche's well-known handbook Die juedische Literatur seit Abschluss des Kanons (in: 3, 1896, 287–473). In his many articles and book reviews for Jewish papers and periodicals, Lewin dealt with Jewish-Christian relations and antisemitism as well as with miscellaneous historical subjects. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Brann, Geschichte des Juedisch-Theologischen Seminars (1905), 179–80; G. Kisch (ed.), Breslau Seminary (1963), 425, incl. bibl.; Koebner, in: Ost und West, 10 (1910), 335–7; L. Jung (ed.), Guardians of Our Heritage (1958), 581–601. (Siegbert Neufeld)