Lewysohn, Yehudi Leib Ludwig
LEWYSOHN, YEHUDI LEIB LUDWIG
LEWYSOHN, YEHUDI LEIB LUDWIG (1819–1901), rabbi and scholar. Lewysohn, who was born in Schwerzenz (Swarzec), Poznania, taught at Frankfurt on the Oder (1848–51) and served as rabbi and preacher in Worms (1851–59) and rabbi in Stockholm (1859–83). He was a regular contributor to the Hebrew press, particularly Ha-Maggid, and also wrote on Jewish subjects in German, English, French, and Swedish. Lewysohn's most important book, Zoologie des Talmuds (1858), was the first scientific attempt by a Jewish scholar to collate all talmudic and midrashic references to animal life. He published many addenda to this work, some in Hebrew periodicals and anthologies including Gan Peraḥim, 3 (1891); Nerha-Ma'aravi, 1, pts. 1 and 3 (1895); Kadimah, 1 (1899); Oẓar ha-Ḥokhmah ve-ha-Madda, 2 (1854); Ha-Miẓpeh; Oẓar ha-Sifrut (1887–1902); and G.A. Kohut (ed.), Semitic Studies in Memory of Rev. Dr. Alexander Kohut (1897). Lewysohn also published a book of epitaphs from the Jewish cemetery of Worms, Naf-shot Ẓaddikim (Ger., 1855); sermon collections in German and Swedish; and textbooks.
bibliography:
M. Reines, Dor va-Ḥakhamav (1890), 123–32; K. Wilhelm, in: hj, 15 (1953), 49–58.
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