[5] While an undergraduate student at Columbia, he used his summer break to join the volunteer organization Mahal and fought alongside Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
To join the Israeli army, he lived in a Displaced Persons camp in Marseilles under an assumed name, then saw combat with the 79th Armored Battalion.
[2][6][7] After obtaining his advanced degrees, Lowenstein reported for United Press International, El Paso Times, and CBS Morning News.
[8] From 1976 to 1994, Lowenstein served as the dean of University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications.
[6] In 2011, Lowenstein received the Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award for his project, the Machal and Aliyah Bet Archives, which documented the lives of American volunteers who died during the 1948 war.