Leo Baeck Institute works to preserve and promote the history and culture of German-speaking Jews.
Aufbau
Help LBI keep the past present with a financial donation or by contributing historical materials.
LBI collections grew out of our founders’ effort to salvage the material and intellectual culture of German-speaking Jews that was nearly lost in the Holocaust. Today, these collections are an essential resource for scholars, genealogists, families, educators, students, and the public. Browse highlights of the collections below, or see our research and reference guidelines for information on using LBI’s collections online or in the Center for Jewish History.
From 1929 until his emigration to the United States, Albert Einstein spent the summer months in a wooden house in the village of Caputh, just outside of Berlin. There he ...
LBI has digitized the entire series of “Aufbau”, the leading journal for German-speaking Jews worldwide, founded in 1934 by the German-Jewish Club in New York and published until 2004.
A commitment to Austrian-Jewish history has been central to the Institute’s mission since its foundation in 1955. Approximately 30 percent of the archival and library holdings relate to Austrian history. ...
The Leo Baeck Institute holds an extensive collection of official decrees that were issued in early modern times by various principalities and city states throughout the German speaking world. They ...
DigiBaeck is your gateway to LBI's digital collections, a growing treasury of artifacts that document the rich heritage of German-speaking Jewry in the modern era.
The Edythe Griffinger Art Catalog provides online access to over 1,200 items in LBI's Art and Objects Collection, with more added continually.
This collection of more than 300 books, book covers, and individual graphic designs shows the scope and development of the eclectic design talent of George Salter. George Salter is recognized ...
The Leo Baeck Institute’s survey of archival material related to Jewish Bukovina And Transylvania (JBAT) is an ongoing archival survey project aimed to increase awareness of and access to archival ...
The opera soprano Judith Sander - born as Gisela Judith Ring in Berlin - was already a presence in concert halls and opera stages in Austria and Switzerland, when the ...
A curated selection of additional documents and links related to the Kindertransport to complement LBI and Yeshiva University Museum's exhibition.
The LBI works with other libraries and consortia to integrate our collections into their search portals so that they are discoverable in context with other similar materials.
Lazarus Morgenthau wrote his memoirs in a mixture of high-German and his native Bavarian dialect, telling the story from his birth in 1815; his work as a tailor in the Swabian town of Hürben.
Newly Available Collections The Leo Baeck Institute is continually collecting new archival materials related to the history of German-speaking Jews. Please see in the following a list of recent acquisitions, ...
The LBI Library collects new scholarship and other works related to the history of German-speaking Jews. A rotating selection of recent highlights from among our new acquisitions appears above, and ...
LBI's collection of newspapers and magazines includes 1,600 titles ranging from Enlightenment-era pamphlets to congregation bulletins to papers published by German-Jewish exiles in the 20th century.
The Leo Baeck Institute’s Photograph Collection contains over 25,000 photographs documenting the history of German-speaking Jewish communities, families and businesses from all over the world. The photos portray prominent members ...
The LBI's rare book collection consists of ca. 3,000 volumes primarily in the field of German Judaica, dating from the earliest period of printing in the 15th century through the Third Reich.
A selection of rare and unique items from the LBI Archives.
“The Rare Book Collection of Frank L. Herz” focuses on the famous Renaissance controversy between the Christian Hebraist and lawyer Johannes Reuchlin, who introduced the study of Hebrew to Germany, ...
The LBI archives preserve over 2,000 memoirs, 25,000 photographs, and millions of pages of correspondence, genealogical materials, and business and civil records that touch upon virtually every aspect of the German-Jewish experience. Entrusted to LBI by refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe and their descendants, these papers document the lives and work of luminaries such as Albert Einstein and Joseph Roth as well as ordinary people from all walks of life since the 18th century.
LBI’s 80,000-volume library is internationally recognized as the world’s foremost collection focused on the history of German-speaking Jews. Rich in rarities including early Renaissance-era pamphlets, first editions of works by Moses Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, and Franz Kafka, and limited edition art books, the Library also collects the latest scholarship in the field. A comprehensive collection of periodicals encompasses publications ranging from congregation bulletins to the major émigré paper, Aufbau.
Library Collection Development Policy
From engravings depicting Jewish life in German lands in the 16th century to abstract works by German-Jewish émigrés in the second half of the 20th century, the works in the art collection complement the archival and library collections as a visual record of German-Jewish history. Among the thousands of paintings, sculptures, watercolors, drawings, and prints are many fine works of great artistic and historical significance. More importantly, the art collection in its totality forms an unparalleled documentation of the material culture of German-speaking Jewry.