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The Leo Baeck Institute London is devoted to the study of German-Jewish history and culture. The LBI is an independent charity and aims to preserve and research this history by organizing innovative research projects, Fellowship programmes, and public events. Through the lens of German-Jewish history, the Institute seeks to address some of the most topical and timely questions of our times.
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Leo Baeck Institute Lecture Series 2021 – Conceptions of Heimat in Jewish Visual History and Culture – Natasha Gordinsky and Katja Petrowskaja
Leo Baeck Institute Lecture Series, London 2021
Conceptions of Heimat in Jewish Visual History and Culture
A lecture series organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in cooperation with the German Historical Institute London.
This season’s series examines the German-Jewish and European-Jewish notion of Heimat and its diverse and changing visual representations and interpretations during the course of history. It looks at the subject through a prism of visual media, such as the arts, photography, film and fashion, as well as literature and social media, etc.
For more information on the lecture series please refer to the leaflet here.
We are delighted to resume our LBI Lecture Series on Zoom. Dr Daniel Wildmann (Director, Leo Baeck Institute London) has the pleasure of warmly inviting you to the fourth lecture in this series:
Dr Natasha Gordinsky
Haifa, Israel
Dr Katja Petrowskaja
Berlin, Germany
‘Your Heimat is our Nightmare?’: Post-Soviet Poetic Interventions in German Culture
6.30pm, October 14th 2021
In the past decade post-Soviet Jewish writers, poets and artists who live and work in Germany have played a crucial role in the ongoing debate on the various forms of migrant belonging in contemporary German culture. This lecture seeks to grasp the poetics of (non) belonging. Natasha Gordinsky will explore how different artists represent and de-stabilize performatively the meaning of Heimat, and reflect on this highly charged concept, both in German and Soviet contexts, in a dialogue with Kiev born German writer Katja Petrowskaja.
Dr Natasha Gordinsky is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa and currently a visiting scholar at the University of Potsdam. She is an author of two books.
Dr Katja Petrowskaja holds a PhD in Literary Studies from the Russian State University in Moscow and works in Berlin as an author and free-lance journalist for press and radio. Her first book Maybe Esther (2014) was translated into 20 languages and has won several prestigious literary prizes.
This lecture will be held online via Zoom on Thursday, October 14th 2021 and will start punctually at 6.30pm (UK time).
To join the event please click this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83079866533?pwd=N0JSZEswV3pHdXAxNVpuVC9kMFlFQT09 at the appointed date and time, wait to be admitted by the host and follow the instructions on your screen. If you have any difficulty joining us on the night, please contact volunteer@leobaeck.co.uk and a member of staff will be able to assist you.
Admission is free but we would welcome if you could inform us of your intention to participate prior to the event by emailing us on info@leobaeck.co.uk. This would help us to prepare in advance for participant numbers and management.
Holiday Closure
The Leo Baeck Institute will be closed on Tuesday, 7th September and Wednesday, 8th September for Rosh Hashanah and on Thursday, 16th September for Yom Kippur. We wish you the very best for the holidays!
LBI Film Club
The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel
‘The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel’ (2016)
Welcome to another screening at the LBI Film Club! Our latest offering is part of an online celebration on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Wilfrid Israel Museum in the Kibbuz HaZorea, in collaboration with the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, the Goethe Institute Israel, the Stiftung Warburg Archiv Hamburg and the Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden Hamburg. We hope that you will continue to enjoy our selection of interesting and thought-provoking films linked to the immensely diverse, rich and multi-faceted Jewish experience.
The LBI Film Club’s sixth offering is:
The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel (Israel, 2016)
The film tells the remarkable story of Wilfrid Israel – a wealthy Jewish businessman and owner of Berlin’s largest department store in the 1930’s, who was involved in the saving of tens of thousands of Jews and played a key role in the Kindertransport operation. Israel was a member of one of Germany’s most prominent Jewish families and acquainted with some of the most influential figures of the 20th century, yet little is known about his personal life and heroic endeavours. Why did his story remain untold? What was there to hide?
Further LBI Film Club screenings will be announced via our LBI website, Facebook page (Leo Baeck Institute London), Instagram (@leobaeckinstitutelondon), and Twitter (@lbi_london) in the future. Please keep checking!