Actually, I don't quite know what to make of it. To me this sounds like a rabbi who has given up. Note that Rabbi Lewin famously reflected on three of his rabbinic positions "In London hatte ich Geld und keine Juden, in Mannheim Juden und kein Geld, in Berlin kein Geld und keine Juden," or "In London I had money but no Jews, in Mannheim Jews but no money, in Berlin no money and no Jews."
Incidentally, here is an interesting image of his father, R. Aryeh Leib Lowenstamm of Amsterdam (who was Chacham Tzvi's son-in-law, and thus R. Yaakov Emden's brother-in-law):
