After completing the college-preparatory school in The Hague, Abraham Salomon Levisson enrolled at the Nederlands-Israëlitisch Seminarium and the University of Amsterdam, where he took a bachelor's degree in Semitic languages in 1927. He then studied at the rabbinical seminary and at the university in Berlin.
Levisson delivered sermons at the Beth Hamidrasj in Amsterdam and was a teacher at the Nederlands-Israëlitisch Seminarium in Amsterdam as well. His inaugural lecture about consequences and family life was published. In 1935 he was appointed chief rabbi of Friesland. This appointment included responsibility for the district of Drenthe. In 1941 he was also appointed chief rabbi of Gelderland. An announcement in recognition of this appointment appeared on the front page of the Joodsche Weekblad in July 1941.
Abraham Salomon Levisson founded the circle of Jewish academics in Friesland in an effort to retain Jewish intellectuals within the Jewish community. Chief Rabbi Levisson was one of the leaders in the Leeuwarden subcommittee of the committee for special Jewish interests. In the late 1930s Levisson became totally caught up with refugee relief. As chief rabbi of the Drenthe district, he often visited Camp Westerbork in 1939-1940, when the place was still a refugee camp.
//Het Joodsche Weekblad, 11 July 1941, 1;
M.H. Gans, Memorboek. Platenatlas van het leven der joden in Nederland van de middeleeuwen tot 1940(6e bijgewerkte druk; Baarn 1988) 802-803;
S. de Jong, Joods leven in de Friese hoofdstad 1920-1945. Voltooid verleden tijd (Leeuwarden, 1970) 36-37//
Biography