Joel Löwe

Joel Löwe (born in 1760; died Breslau, February 11, 1802) was a German-Jewish Biblical commentator. He signed his name in Hebrew writings as Joel Bril, Bril being an acronym for "son of R. Judah Löb".

At the age of twenty he went to Berlin, where he received instruction from Isaac Satanow, who was a follower of Moses Mendelssohn. In Berlin Löwe met Mendelssohn, his acquaintance with whom soon ripened into friendship. Mendelssohn's influence was doubtless instrumental in securing for Löwe the position of tutor in the house of the influential David Friedländer. Löwe became a most intimate friend of another prominent Mendelssohnian, Isaac Abraham Euchel, whose first work, a Hebrew biography of Mendelssohn, contains a dedicatory letter addressed to Löwe. At the close of his life Löwe was principal of the Wilhelms-Schule in Breslau.

Löwe was an excellent Hebraist, grammarian, and exegete, and, like most Mendelssohnians, was also a "Schöngeist" (bel esprit). Jointly with Aaron Wolfsohn he edited "Ha-Meassef," in which periodical he published a large number of poems and essays.