Louis Bernard Wolfenson was born and raised in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin and after receiving his BA in 1901, he was appointed Fellow in Hebrew. In 1902 he got his MA, and was reappointed as Fellow. During this time, he continued his studies, focusing mainly on Semitics, Hellenistic Greek, Sanskrit, and historical Greek grammar. Wolfenson moved to Baltimore in 1903 and studied Semitics, Sanskrit, Indo-European Comparative Philology, Egyptology, and Tagálog at Johns Hopkins University. In 1904 he was appointed University Scholar at John Hopkins and in 1905, Fellow in Semitics.