LEWIN, LOUIS

LEWIN, LOUIS (1868–1941), German rabbi and historian. Lewin, who was born in Znin (province of Posen (Poznan), Poland), graduated from the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary. He served as rabbi in several communities of his native province and neighboring Silesia such as Inowroclaw (Hohensalza), Pinne, Kempen, and Kattowitz (1905–25), and as head of a boarding school in Breslau (1925–37). In 1937 he settled in Palestine. Lewin made important contributions to the history of the Jews in Germany and Poland. He published Aus der Vergangenheit der juedischen Gemeinde Pinne (1903); Geschichte der Juden in Lissa (1904); and Die Landessynode der grosspolnischen Judenschaft (1926). Lewin's numerous studies on local history appeared in learned and regional periodicals. He also contributed articles to the history of Jewish physicians "Juedische Aerzte in Grosspolen" (in JJLG, 9, 1911, 367–420). His valuable library, including many manuscripts, passed to Yeshiva University, New York. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Heilperin, in: KS, 19 (1943), 114–6, a list of his works; A. Heppner and I. Herzberg, …Juden … in den Posener Landen (1909–29), 478, 520, 687, 1032; G. Kisch, in: HJ, 4 (1942), 177–8; 5 (1943), 85. (Israel Halpern)