This is a surprising find: E. Meyer not only supported Edelstein's friend, he might have played some role as a visa-sponsor. That sort of relationship seems very close, not merely an incidental acquaintance.
Albert I. Baumgarten, "Elias Bickerman and Hans (Yohanan) Lewy : The Story of a Friendship" in
Anabases Anabases. Traditions et réceptions de l'Antiquité [2011],
pp.:
One basis for this friendship was that both Bickerman and Lewy faced career difficulties in Berlin, perhaps because they were Jewish. In Bickerman’s case, after a very successful doctorate, he did not pass on his first try at Habilitation. The formal reasons were the disappointing nature of the Habilitationsschrift and its sloppy presentation. However, this failure may have also had something to do with Bickerman being perceived as an “uppity” foreign Jew, who needed to be taught a lesson. Another possibility is that Bickerman may have irked Eduard Meyer (1855-1930) by accepting a subvention from the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, in which Meyer played a leading role, while refusing Meyer’s offer to help obtain German citizenship10.
10 See further Baumgarten, Elias Bickerman as a Historian of the Jews: A Twentieth Century Tale [2010], p.86-111.
Baumgarten [2010] documents a good deal
more about this very close teacher-student relationship in his biography. Meyer arranged for Bickerman to get an important
scholarship, for example.
I've discussed Ludwig Edelstein's relationship to E.Bickerman c.1925, elsewhere. That Bickermen had been close to Eduard Meyer, as a mentor and even confidant
at the very same time, is an important connection. I am unaware if or how well Ludwig Edelstein also knew Eduard Meyer, either through Bickerman or otherwise, but this definite 'proximate relationship' is at least noteworthy.