Louis Loewe (born 1809 in Zülz; died 1888 in Ramsgate)
He was born to a Jewish family in the town of
Biała. He studied in yeshivas in Leszno and Bratislava, and subsequently at the universities in Vienna and
Berlin. He specialized in oriental languages.
In 1833 he moved to
London. In 1837 he set out on a journey to
Egypt where he conducted research on the Egyptian and Ethiopian language. During the journey he took up deciphering of ancient inscriptions in Thebes, Alexandria and
Cairo. From Egypt he headed off to
Palestine, where in the Safed region he was assaulted by Druze marauders, who destroyed part of his notes. In Nablus he held research on Samaritans; in
Damascus he purchased a valuable collection of unique, antique coins. In
Constantinople he studied the manuscripts of Karaim and bought plenty of rare books. He wrote down the impressions from his journey in several articles published in 1839 in the Jewish weekly magazine called "Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums."
From 1839 on, he accompanied Moses Montefiore during all of his journeys, working as his personal secretary and translator. In 1840, together with Adolph Cremieux and Salomon Munek, he went to Egypt and
Turkey to investigate the case concerning the persecution of Jews. He visited Russia two times and
Palestine five times.
In 1856–1858 he worked at Jews’ College in
London. In 1861 he established in
Brighton a school for Jewish boys. He published a few books on oriental languages..
