Israel Lovy was born in a town near Danzig in 1773. He received his formal Jewish education at a Yeshiva in Glogau, where his father officiated as a hazzan. From a young age, Lovy traveled as a hazzan serving communities in Moravia, Bohemia, Saxony, and Bavaria. In 1799, Lovy settled in Fürth were he continued his musical and secular education, becoming accomplished in violin, cello, piano, and becoming proficient in French and Italian. Lovy served as a hazzan in Mainz, Strasbourg and London before finally settling in Paris in 1818 as the chief hazzan for the newly formed Reform Synagogue, Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth. In 1822, the Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth introduced the use of a choir and organ and commissioned Lovy to compose a new rendition of the service to compliment these reforms. These compositions for choir and organ, along with other earlier works, were published in 1862 in the posthumous collection, Chants religieux pour les prieres hebraique.
