Samuel Löw Brill

Who was Samuel Löw Brill?

Samuel Löw Brill was a Hungarian rabbi and Talmudical scholar born in Budapest. He was educated by his father, Azriel Brill, who was teacher and associate rabbi at Pest, Hungary, and the author of several works in the Hebrew language. After having been carefully grounded at home in Hebrew studies, and graduating with honors from the Protestant Lyceum of his native city, he attended the Talmud schools at Eisenstadt [under M. J. Perls], Presburg [under Moses Sofer], and Prague, where he obtained, at the age of twenty-two, his rabbinical degree. In 1842-43 he was registered in the University of Berlin, where he attended the courses of famous teachers, such as Boeckh, the classical philologist, Ritter, the geographer, Leopold Ranke, the historian, Schelling, and others, and associated with Leopold Zunz and Michael Sachs.

Returning to his native city, he was appointed assistant rabbi in 1843, and associate rabbi in 1850. Although he did not come before the public at large either in print or on the platform, he soon became widely known by his Talmudic lectures, which he enlivened with material drawn from Hebrew and general literature. Among his earliest pupils were W. Bacher and I.