Perel Loew, [Maharal's wife]

Not the daughter of Schmelkes, according to recent scholarship. 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.

Disagreement about the year of birth - 1516 vs. 1528 (according to Judith Nathan's data).

The Maharal's marriage to his wife Pearl has been surrounded by the Loew family chronicler, Meir Perles, with romance. The bride's father, a well known Prague merchant, suffered business reverses shortly after the couple was engaged. Thus he could not meet the terms of the financial arrangements in favor of the young couple, as had been stipulated. Thereupon he offered to cancel the engagement. The Maharal, however, was not interested in financial settlement and he persisted in his love for Pearl. There was a long delay in the wedding, while the bride established herself in a bakery shop in order to help support the family. The marriage finally occurred in 1544. Bride and groom, according to the same chronicler, were then 32 and 28 years old respectively.

Their marriage was a very happy one, and they were blessed with seven children, six daughters and a son. All six daughters married into prominent Prague families. His son, Bezalel, became rabbi in Cologne, Germany, where he headed a rabbinical academy. The Maharal was deeply grieved when this son met an untimely death in 1600. The Maharal's public career took him to many parts of Central and Eastern Europe, but his heart was always in Prague, the home of his wife's family and of his own children.

According to another version, Pearl was the daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak Klober of Worms ?

One biography of Maharal - ויקיגניה - claims that the Maharal was married twice. His first wife was the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Haiut, and Lea & Feigele were daughters of this marriage.

Her profile on Geni is: Daughter, Avraham Chayot

Most other biography versions of Maharal do not mention the first marriage and named Pearl as the mother of all Maharal's children, including Lea and Feigele (see below).