The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking Jewish émigrés at a conference in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

in 1955. The other Leo Baeck institutes are Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem and

Leo Baeck Institute London The Leo Baeck Institute London is a research institute dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It researches the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry from the 17th century to the present day. The i ...

, and the activities of all three are coordinated by the board of directors of the

Leo Baeck Institute The Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955, is an international research institute with centres in New York City, London, and Jerusalem that are devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Baeck was its first intern ...

. It is also a founding partner of the

Center for Jewish History The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museum, ...

, and maintains a research library and archive in New York City that contains a significant collection of source material relating to the history of German-speaking Jewry, from its origins to

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, and continuing to the present day. The

Leo Baeck Medal The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 by the Leo Baeck Institute of New York City, an international research institute devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. It is the highest recognition the Institute b ...

has been awarded by the institute since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.

History

The Leo Baeck Institute New York is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking Jewish émigrés at a conference in

in 1955. The other Leo Baeck institutes are Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem and

, and the activities of all three are coordinated by the board of directors of the

. Under its first executive director, Max Kreutzberger, Leo Baeck Institute New York established itself as the institute's library and archive. The library collection began with books that had been looted from Jewish libraries and collectors, and were recovered by Allied forces in World War II and restituted to Jewish libraries. Later in the 1950s, Kreutzberger and his staff began acquiring books and manuscripts from New York booksellers, and solicited donations of the personal papers and libraries of

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

émigrés in New York. By 1960, when Leo Baeck Institute New York moved into a townhouse at 129 East 73rd Street on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, the collection included some 30,000 books, 250 unpublished memoirs, and extensive archives. Significant private donations secured in the first two decades of the Leo Baeck Institute's existence included the literary estates of German philosopher

Constantin Brunner Constantin Brunner (1862–1937) was the pen-name of the German Jewish philosopher Arjeh Yehuda Wertheimer (called Leo). He was born in Altona (near Hamburg) on 27 August 1862. He came from a prominent Jewish family that had lived in the vicinity ...

, Austro-Hungarian novelist and theatre critic

Fritz Mauthner Fritz Mauthner (22 November 1849 – 29 June 1923) was an Austrian novelist, theatre critic and satirist. He was an exponent of philosophical scepticism derived from a critique of human knowledge and of philosophy of language. Mauthner was bo ...

, German theologian and philosopher

Franz Rosenzweig Franz Rosenzweig (, ; 25 December 1886 – 10 December 1929) was a German theologian, philosopher, and translator. Early life and education Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany, to an affluent, minimally observant Jewish family. His fa ...

, and Austrian journalist and novelist

Joseph Roth Moses Joseph Roth (2 September 1894 – 27 May 1939) was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga ''Radetzky March'' (1932), about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his novel of Jewish life ''Job'' ( ...

. By the 1990s, Leo Baeck Institute New York's Upper East Side townhouse could no longer efficiently or safely accommodate its collections, and LBI president

Ismar Schorsch Ismar Schorsch (born November 3, 1935 in Hanover, Germany) is the Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and the Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish history.Hüngheim">alemannia-judaica to family Schorsch and the syna ...

began discussions with other Jewish centers of scholarly research in New York aimed at a partnership in a shared facility. In 1993, Leo Baeck Institute,

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

Yeshiva University Museum The Yeshiva University Museum is a teaching museum and the cultural arm of Yeshiva University. Along with the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and the YIVO Institute for Jewish ...

, and the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and ...

announced plans to jointly establish the

in the former

American Foundation for the Blind The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is an American non-profit organization for people with vision loss. AFB's objectives include conducting research to advance change, promoting knowledge and understanding, and shaping policies and practice ...

building on West 16th Street in Manhattan. Leo Baeck Institute New York moved its administrative offices and collections to the Center for Jewish History in 2000. Today, Leo Baeck Institute shares library infrastructure (storage, reading room, digital and conservation labs, and information systems) as well as programming and exhibition facilities with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Yeshiva University Museum, American Jewish Historical Society, and

American Sephardi Federation The American Sephardi Federation, a founding member of the Center for Jewish History, is a non-profit Jewish organization that strengthens and organizes the religious and cultural activities of Sephardic Jews, preserves Sephardic heritage, traditi ...

Presence in Germany

Berlin Jüdisches Museum und der Libeskind-Bau (cropped)

In the 1990s, Leo Baeck Institute New York deepened its ties with the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

, and received increased financial support from the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

government and private sources in Germany such as publisher

Axel Springer Axel Cäsar Springer (2 May 1912 – 22 September 1985) was a German publisher and founder of what is now Axel Springer SE, the largest media publishing firm in Europe. By the early 1960s his print titles dominated the West German daily press ma ...

. Preliminary discussions about an official presence of Leo Baeck Institute New York in Germany began by the 1970s at the latest, and concrete plans for such a presence were initiated by German-born American

Michael Blumenthal Werner Michael Blumenthal (born January 3, 1926) is a German-American business leader, economist and political adviser who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979. At age thirteen, Blumenth ...

proposing that the Leo Baeck Institute establish a presence at the new

Jewish Museum Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses ...

in 1998. In late 1999, the board of LBI International reached an agreement with the Jewish Museum Berlin to establish an office in the museum, and house microfilm copies of the Leo Baeck Institute archives there in order to provide easier access to the collections for researchers in Europe. In 2013, Leo Baeck Institute established an administrative office in Berlin.

Components

The Leo Baeck Institute New York includes a library, an archive, an art collection, and an exhibition centre. Its offices and collections are housed in the

, a centralized partnership with other Jewish organizations that share one location, with separate governing bodies and finances, but collocate resources. in New York City. * Leo Baeck Institute's library collection: 80,000 volumes which range from collected works associated with the 16th century Reuchlin-Pfefforkorn debate over the banning of Jewish books to recent scholarship in the field of German-Jewish studies. * Leo Baeck Institute archive: Over 4,000 linear feet of family papers, community histories, personal correspondence, genealogical materials, and business and public records of German-speaking Jews from the 18th century to the post-WWII era. * Leo Baeck Institute art collection: 8,000 pieces of art that include works created or collected by German-speaking Jews from the 16th through the 20th centuries

Collections

The bulk of Leo Baeck Institute New York's archives are the personal papers of German-speaking Jews. The library contains over 80,000 volumes. In October 2012, Leo Baeck Institute New York announced that it had digitized nearly its entire archival holdings and a large portion of its art collections and rare books as part of the DigiBaeck project. The DigiBaeck digital collection portal includes nearly 75% of the Leo Baeck Institute's holdings, including archival materials, memoirs and manuscripts, art and objects, books and periodicals, photographs, and audio recordings.

Highlights

Robert von Mendelssohn Collection, 1770-1785 (3513249448)

* First editions of philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

and poet and writer

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

* Early 16th century writings, including

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

, and

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

, as well as a comprehensive collection of periodicals published from the 18th to 20th centuries * Limited editions of 20th century artists’ portfolios and several illustrated 18th-century books on

Jewish customs ''Minhag'' ( he, מנהג "custom", classical pl. מנהגות, modern pl. , ''minhagim'') is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, ''Nusach'' (), refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers. Etym ...

in the rare book collection.

Digitization

* Freimann Collection: Digitation of recovered partial volumes of the ''

Wissenschaft des Judentums "''Wissenschaft des Judentums''" (Literally in German the expression means "Science of Judaism"; more recently in the US it started to be rendered as "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies," a wide academic field of inquiry in American Universities) ...

'' (''Science of Judaism'') in coordination with

Frankfurt University Library The Frankfurt University Library (German: ''Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main'', or ''Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg'') is the library for the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany. Overview It originated in th ...

, funded by a joint grant from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

and the German Research Foundation (''Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG'')

Notable people featured in the archive

Karl Otten Karl Otten (29 July 1889 Oberkrüchten – 20 March 1963, Minusio) was a German expressionist writer and broadcaster. Karl was an anti-militarist activist during the First World War, but was arrested for his actions. On 16 November 1918 he sign ...

, German expressionist writer and broadcaster

Fellowships, seminars, and medals

In addition to the archival processes of acquiring, cataloguing, and preserving, Leo Baeck Institute New York promotes study by sponsoring several fellowships for scholars working the field of German-Jewish history, holding seminars, and creating exhibits. Leo Baeck Institute New York also annually awards the ''

'' to individuals whose humanitarian work promotes tolerance, social justice and upon those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy. It is the highest recognition the institute bestows. Some past recipients include German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

, German Ambassador

Wolfgang Ischinger Wolfgang Friedrich Ischinger (born April 6, 1946) is a German diplomat who served as chairman of the Munich Security Conference from 2008 to 2022. From 2001 to 2006, Ischinger was the German ambassador to the United States, and from 1998 to 200 ...

, businessman and journalist

Mathias Dopfner Mathias, a given name and a surname which is a variant of Matthew (name), may refer to: Places * Mathias, West Virginia * Mathias Township, Michigan People with the given name or surname ''Mathias'' In music * Mathias Eick, Norwegian Jazz Musici ...

, economist and former president of the World Bank James D. Wolfensohn, German Minister of the Interior

Otto Schily Otto Georg Schily (born 20 July 1932) is a former Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany, his tenure was from 1998 to 2005, in the cabinet of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Earl ...

, sex therapist talk show host and Holocaust survivor Dr.

Ruth Westheimer Karola Ruth Westheimer ( Siegel; born June 4, 1928), better known as Dr. Ruth, is a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper. Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish fami ...

(Dr. Ruth), German President

Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician (SPD). He was the president of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998. In the ...

, and business leader, economist, and political adviser

W. Michael Blumenthal Werner Michael Blumenthal (born January 3, 1926) is a German-American business leader, economist and political adviser who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979. At age thirteen, Blumenth ...

Exhibitions

*
Destination Shanghai: The Jewish Community of Shanghai, 1936-1949.
' May–April, 2013. *
Transcending Tradition: Jewish Mathematicians in German-Speaking Academic Culture.
' July 29, 2013- January 5, 2014.

References

External links

*
DigiBaeck
- digitized collections portal
Leo Baeck Institute (London) records
Guide to the records of Leo Baeck Institute London. AR 6682 *

at GLAM-Wiki initiative
Leo Baeck Institute
at

Google Art Project Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

{{Authority control Archives in the United States Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Germany Cultural history of Germany German-Jewish culture in Germany German-Jewish culture in New York City German-Jewish culture in the United States History organizations based in the United States Jewish education in Germany Jewish German history Jewish history organizations Jewish organizations based in the United States Jews and Judaism in Germany

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Non-profit organizations based in New York City Organizations established in 1955 Research institutes established in 1955 Research institutes in New York (state) Social history of Germany Yekke 1955 establishments in New York City