Leo Baeck Institut

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The Leo Baeck Institut (LBI) is an independent research facility with the aim to document and research Jewish history, legacy and culture in the German speaking countries with facilities in Jerusalem, London and New York. Founded 1955 in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Ernst Simon and Robert Weltsch, the Institut bears the name of Leo Baeck, an important representative of the German Jewish community. The New York Leo Baeck Institut awards the Leo-Baeck-Medal.

As a research center, LBI promotes different publications, the most important periodical being the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book (LBIYB) (since 1956). A Synthesis of the research production of the last foru decades is to be found in Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit (1996/97). Since 1996 the Jüdische Almanach is published as well.

While the facilities in Jerusalem, London and New York work in the centers of German-Jewish emigration Michael Brenner in Munich leads a research working group for Jewish studies and since 2001 the Jewish Museum Berlin hosts a part of the New York archiv.

The recent Leo Baeck Programme promoted by Stiftung „Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft“ comprises

1. Microfiche documentation of German Jewish legacy in New York; 2. Training teachers enabling and promoting school projects about German-Jewish history 3. the Leo Baeck Institut London (Sternberg Centre) and further foundations support the Leo Baeck Fellowship Programme of Studienstiftung to support postgrade studies about the German speaking Jews in central Europe and emigrated abroad.

[edit] References

Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, publs. by John A. S. Grenville und Raphael Gross, London 1956-1999 and New York 2000 ff., ISSN 0075-8744.
Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit, publs. by Leo Baeck Instituts, Michael A. Meyer and (coop.) Michael Brenner, München 1996-1997, ISBN 3-406-39705-0
Christhard Hoffmann (Publs.), Preserving the Legacy of German Jewry. A History of the Leo Baeck Institute 1955-2005 (= Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts, Bd. 70), Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-16-148591-2.
Ruth Nattermann, Deutsch-jüdische Geschichtsschreibung nach der Shoah. Die Gründungs- und Frühgeschichte des Leo Baeck Institute, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-89861-331-3.
Herbert A. Strauss, Die Leo Baeck Institute und die Erforschung der deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte, in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft, Bd. 9 (1983), S. 471-478.