Leo Baeck Institute London

Today we remember the life and legacy of Leo Baeck (1873–1956), one of the most important German-Jewish thinkers and leaders of the 20th century.

A rabbi, philosopher, and public intellectual, Baeck was a leading figure in Liberal Judaism and a tireless advocate for Jewish education and ethical responsibility. In 1933, following Hitler’s rise to power, he became president of the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden, the umbrella organisation representing Jewish communities in Nazi Germany. He remained in Germany throughout the war, was deported to Theresienstadt in 1943, and survived the Holocaust.

What does it mean to find a ‘piece of home’ in an archive? A new article in the Jüdische Allgemeine, Germany’s official Jewish newspaper, explores how personal stories and documents preserved at the Leo Baeck Institute continue to offer connection, memory, and meaning for families and researchers alike. 

Through moving examples, such as the artistic legacy of Holocaust survivor Yehuda Bacon and the wartime correspondence of Werner T. Angress, the article illustrates how the LBI’s ever-growing collections remain a living resource for understanding the past and shaping identity today.

We are pleased to present a new digital flipbook of Lina Morgenstern’s historic Illustrated Cookbook (1907) – a culinary artefact that helped shape Berlin’s social landscape in the early 20th century.

The digitised copy comes from the holdings of the Leo Baeck Institute New York and is reproduced here with their kind permission.

A new travelling exhibition featuring the LBI’s Library of Lost Books project has arrived in Dortmund, shining a spotlight on football’s entanglement with the National Socialist regime and inviting visitors to reflect on the importance of remembrance 80 years after the end of the Second World War.

The exhibition, titled Gedenkanstoß – denk Erinnerung weiter (“Kick-off for Remembrance – Take Memory Further”), is on display at the Deutsches Fußballmuseum until 19 May. Organised by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ), the project aims to make the lessons of the past relevant to new generations by connecting them to the world of football.

On 12 May 1965, the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel formally established diplomatic relations – just two decades after the Shoah. At the time, this step was fraught with tension and controversy, particularly among Holocaust survivors and in Israeli public life, but it marked a profound turning point in the postwar world.

In the decades since, German-Israeli relations have developed into a multifaceted partnership, encompassing politics, culture, science, and education. Youth exchanges, academic collaborations, and joint cultural initiatives have helped connect new generations and build mutual understanding.

Lina Morgenstern (1830–1909) was a pioneering German social reformer, feminist, writer, and pacifist, whose influence shaped public welfare and women’s rights in 19th-century Germany. 

Gerhard J. Rekel is an award-winning Austrian author and filmmaker, born in Graz in 1965. His books include a biography of the Berlin social reformer Lina Morgenstern. In the interview, Rekel discusses Morgenstern’s remarkable life and enduring influence.

On this day in 1933, university students across Germany burned over 25,000 books deemed ‘un-German’ in a chilling display of state-sanctioned intolerance. Jewish writers were especially targeted – among them Lion Feuchtwanger, Sigmund Freud, and Stefan Zweig – alongside political critics and international voices such as Helen Keller.

The burnings, cheered on by Joseph Goebbels in Berlin’s Opera Square, marked the symbolic beginning of a campaign to erase Jewish and dissident thought from German cultural life. As Heinrich Heine, himself a Jewish writer, warned in 1821: ‘Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people’.

Today, we remember the power of words – and the dangers of silencing them.

We’re delighted to announce a major milestone for the Leo Baeck Institute London: our digitised pamphlet collection is now available online via DigiBaeck!

Spanning more than 2,400 items, this treasure trove of German-Jewish history and culture covers everything from early Zionist movements and literary works to rare periodicals, biographies, and responses to pivotal moments such as the Holocaust and the Balfour Declaration, and includes works by Heinrich Heine, Martin Buber, Theodor Herzl and Rosa Luxemburg and many more.

You can explore the collection in detail through these resources:

This Yom HaShoah, we pause to remember the six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered during the Holocaust, as well as the countless others who suffered under Nazi persecution. We honour not only the memory of the victims, but also the courage of those who resisted, and the resilience of survivors.

As we reflect on this day, we reaffirm our collective commitment to combating antisemitism, prejudice, and hatred in all its forms. The legacy of Yom HaShoah is not only one of remembrance, but also a call to action: to ensure that ‘Never Again’ is not just a promise, but a reality for future generations.

As part of the Leo Baeck Institute’s 70th anniversary celebrations, we spotlight the life and thought of Hermann Heller (1891–1933), a leading German constitutional scholar and social philosopher, celebrated for his defence of democracy and opposition to National Socialism. Heller’s idea of ‘democratic socialism’ combined social justice with a rejection of authoritarianism, and he argued that democracy must ensure social equality to remain legitimate.