LOEWINGER, DAVID SAMUEL

LOEWINGER, DAVID SAMUEL (1904– ), Hungarian biblical and talmudic scholar and bibliographer. Loewinger was born in Debrecen, Hungary. While still a student he published with D. Friedmann the Alphabet of Ben Sira (1926) from a manuscript and Darkhei ha-Nikkud ve-ha-Neginot (1929, 1969²), ascribed to Moses ha-Nakdan. He also contributed the commentary on Habbakuk to A. Kahana's edition of the Bible (1930). From 1931 he lectured at the Budapest rabbinical seminary on Bible and Talmud and became its director in 1942. After World War ii he was responsible for the reconstruction of the seminary and the resumption of its scholarly activities. In the prewar years Loewinger was one of the editors of Ha-Soker (1933–40) and *Magyar Zsidó Szemle and also edited a number of jubilee volumes, e.g., on S. *Hevesi (Emlékkony, Hg. and Heb., 1934), E. Mahler (Dissertationes in honorem Dr. E. Mahler, 1937), M. Guttmann (Jewish Studies in Memory of M. Guttmann, 1946), and I. Goldziher (I. Goldziher Memorial Volume 1, 1948). In Germánia prófétája ("The Prophet of Germany," 1947) Loewinger attempted to trace Germany's Nazi antisemitic ideology to F. Nietzsche. With A. *Scheiber he published Ginzei Kaufmann (Genizah Publications in Memory of D. Kaufmann, 1949).

After immigrating to Israel in 1950, Loewinger became the scientific secretary and then director of the Institute of Microfilms of Hebrew Manuscripts at the National and University Library in Jerusalem. He was also associated with various projects relating to the Bible text. He specialized in the problems of Bible manuscripts, particularly of the famous Bible codex Keter Aram Ẓova ("Aleppo Codex"; in Textus, 1 (1960), 59–111). With others he prepared several manuscript catalogs, which were published by the Institute, including the catalog of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Vatican library (list of photocopies in the Institute, part 3: Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican, Jerusalem, 1968, Heb.). With B.D. Weinryb he published Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Library of the Juedisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau (1965).