Yehuda ben Betzalel Loew [MaHaRaL of Prague] - Adding sources for the Maharal's Ancestry

Started by Randy Schoenberg on Saturday, March 16, 2019
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It would be very good if someone could add some sources to the Maharal's ancestors. It's time we started determining where all the information comes from.

Agreed.

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Randy Schoenberg
Do you mean the Maharal himself or his brothers as well?

I remeber to have seen a source in which it is quoted that the Vilner Goen Rabbi Elie Ben Shloime-Salmen Kremer, descended from the Maharal in Praue. So did also Rabbi Elies brother Isaskhar, who adopted further the family name Klaczko, the same I have. I found no evidence to descend myself from the Isaskhar branch of Klaczkos in Vilna. I am therefore not necesarily involved. But I would like to know more about the descendants of the Maharal.

Currently, the profile for NOT Maharal's Gt.gt.gd.father? יהודה בן בצלאל {או בן יצחק} Loew, The Elder is still connected as his ancestor. However, the notes on the profile (and the article Matias posted) suggest that he's actually died in 1539. There was a discussion about this in 2017 but it doesn't seem like anything was decided then.

I am going to dive in and start cleaning up the Maharal tree based on recent scholarship. I'll start with Alexandr Putik's article on thee Maharal's family and genealogy that was published in the big catalogue from the Jewish Museum in Prague in 2009. He refutes and disproves lots of the old genealogies that everyone had relied on for centuries.

The citation is A. Putik and D. Polakovic (2009) 'Judah Loew ben Bezalel, Called Maharal * A study on his genealogy and biography', in P. Demetz (ed) Path of Life. Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel ca. 1525*1609, Academia, Prague, pp29-83.

Please read Also the link I posted Randy Schoenberg

There is some confusion between these two with husbands with the same name. The children are different generations so they are not the same.

wife, Zecharia Mendel Kloizner, "the Elder" [Maharal sister #5]

Yuta Klausner (dau. rabbi Chaim Loew), Maharal niece

Need some documentation. The younger Zechariah Mendel is the grandson of the older. I wonder if someone just confused the wife of the younger one with the wife of the older one?

Moshe Loew [of Posen] is not listed in the genealogy by Putik

Also his mother Sarah (?) Bezalels is not listed by Putik as a wife of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Bezalels

Loew really isn't a surname so we need to remove that. I am not touching the Hebrew but maybe someone can do that.

Randy Schoenberg

According to Wikipedia, the family name can be written in several ways:
Löw, Loewe, Löwe, or Levai
In Hebrew:ליווא

We're better than Wikipedia. There are several hundred years of misinformation that we need to clear up. I've started severing the false connections. Stay tuned!

The source of some of the confusion is apparently that both of the Maharal's grandfathers were named Chaim. The mother's father is the one that is famous, but everyone probably wished it was the father's father, so they confused them.

Putik also finds that the Maharal's wife Perla is not the daughter of Schmelkes family.

Perel Loew, [Maharal's wife]

I do not understand something: after the move you made: This is my great grandfather (2 th)
The algorithm now shows me this:
King David is Rabbi Shraga Feivel Wajngot's 93rd great grandfather.
Why when I test myself to King David, the algorithm takes me not through my great-grandfather, but through the first husband of my great-grandmother (1 th)
I would be very happy to explain, and how to correct it

Randy Schoenberg
Even when I examine the connection between my father and King David, this is what the algorithm shows:

Izrael (izo) Wartski, (HaCohen) z "l is King David of Israel's 96th great grandson
On the other hand when I check my connection to King David, the algorithm takes me through my grandmother's first husband (1 th) how to fix it?

Randy Schoenberg - do we know what wife order is Sarah Chajes (1?)
*Perel Shmelkes-Reich died 1610, 1 year after the Maharal - MaHaRaL of Prague - המהר״ל מפראג

Yes, Putik says Sarah Chajes is likely the first wife. There is a whole discussion on the fact that the Maharal is too old (over 30) when he marries Perel, since there is some opinion where he writes that a boy must marry at age 20, so he concludes that Perel is the second wife.

Thanks :)

I am proposing to sever the deep ancestry of the Maharal, which appears to be invented and without any reasonable source. I am sure people will be upset, but if you disagree, please follow the discussion at https://www.geni.com/discussions/194554 and add some sources to the profiles.

To be clear, I am proposing to sever the Maharal's maternal grandfather Chaim from his father.

Chaim of Issenheim, [Maharal Mat-Gd.father]

Randy Schoenberg - If Shmelkes-Reich is not the father of Perel, who is? Why is this disputed?

Thank you

It’s disputed because there is no evidence for it. Do you have any?

Is there an alternative hypothesis?

On Perel's tombstone it is written that she was the daughter of Rabbi Shmuel

Although this implies that the reference is to Shmelkes-Reich, however, there are many people named Rabbi Shmuel, and it is certainly possible that her father was someone else...

It is possible that there are records in the cemetery, or perhaps in the city hall, I have never been there, but whoever is and is willing to check, may find records

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