New Library Acquisitions

porstmann_jahr-1914 — The years 1912 to 1916 were undoubtedly the most interesting in Ludwig Meidner's oeuvre, in which his connections with Dresden played a key role. It was there that he wrote his "Anleitung zum Malen von Großstadtbildern" in 1913, a fundamental blueprint for his work. In 1914, he spent the last months before the war in Dresden and had to experience how his apocalyptic fantasies were overtaken by the reality of war. It also takes into account his talent as a writer and the considerable range of Meidner's intellectual environment. This provides a vivid insight into the intellectual and artistic climate on the eve of the war.
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lowenstein_population-history-german-jewry — The late Steven Lowenstein was a brilliant social historian who, after retiring from his academic position at the University of Judaism, toiled for years—and up to his final days—to complete this monumental book, which is the definitive demographic history of German Jewry. Lowenstein took the research of Hebrew University demographer Professor Osiel Oscar Schmelz and brought it to life in the daily lived experiences of German Jews. The book is organized chronologically from Napoleon to German Unification (1815-1871), Imperial Germany and then the post- World War I era through the Nazi period. We know the ending of the story of German Jewry. Lowenstein’s great achievement is to document the extraordinary demographic resources that bespoke a vibrant German Jewish culture—and made that ending especially tragic.
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feller_imperial-imagination — Leo Baeck (1873–1956) was a rabbi, public intellectual, and the official leader of German Jewry during the Holocaust. The Jewish Imperial Imagination shows the myriad ways in which the German imperial enterprise left its imprint on his religious and political thought, and on modern Judaism more generally. This book is the first to explore Baeck's religious thought as political, and situate it within the imperial context of the period which is often ignored in discussions of modern Jewish thought. Baeck's work during the Holocaust is analyzed in-depth, drawing on unpublished manuscripts written in Nazi Germany and in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. In the process Yaniv Feller raises new questions about the nature of Jewish missionizing and the German-Jewish imagination of the East as a space for colonization.
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muller_juden-in-rabenau — In his new publication "Jews in Rabenau", Hanno Müller once again focuses on the fates of Jewish families, this time concentrating on the villages of Geilshausen, Kesselbach, Londorf and Rüddingshausen and also paying attention to the everyday life of Jewish schoolchildren in Grünberg at the time. Historical photographs, indexes of places and people, as well as printed letters create a concrete, true-to-life impression of Jewish families: childhood memories are illuminated and life stories are told - this documentation is intended to enable an in-depth commemoration of the numerous victims of the Holocaust.
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valeska_stars-ohne-glamour — Lette Valeska (Brunswick 1885-1985 Los Angeles) came from a wealthy, secular Jewish family. At the age of twelve, she began to photograph, but did not receive an artistic education. As a modern woman of the time, she worked as a secretary in Brussels for several years before marrying a Frankfurt entrepreneur in 1920. In 1937, she emigrated to New York. After separating from her husband, Lette Valeska moved to Los Angeles in 1938. Here she began to dedicate herself professionally to photography. The accompanying book to the exhibition of the same name presents the life and work of photographer Lette Valeska in the context of Hollywood photography of the years 1920-1960. Rarely did you get so close to the movie stars of the time.
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beer_karla-bloch — The recently published double volume "... denn ohne Arbeit kann man nicht leben" - Die Architektin Karola Bloch lets Karola Bloch speak for herself in a new way. It is a rediscovery and at the same time a new discovery in many respects. Previously unknown correspondence, unpublished articles and texts, photos, and insights into the life of a woman who had to fight all her life - and yet also despaired several times - now give readers a hitherto under-examined and often unexpected picture of a resilient character. The double volume is a milestone in Karola Bloch research and at the same time a respectful and critical appreciation of the life's work of the architect Karola Bloch, true to her motto "... because you can't live without work".
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hoffmann_nordecker-judenmord — On the night of March 2 to 3, 1884, the Jewish couple Salomon and Johanna Wolf were brutally murdered in the Upper Hessian village of Nordeck. The suspected perpetrator Konrad Hedderich, a highly indebted former blacksmith and farmer from the neighboring village of Roßberg, had been in business with the Jewish merchant Salomon Wolf for many years. He had lost his farm to the latter in a forced sale and had threatened that "Wolf would get his comeuppance". But why was Hedderich acquitted despite clear evidence in the trial before the Marburg jury court in October 1884, namely for "lack of evidence"? Stefan Gotthelf Hoffmann recalls the tragic end of the Jewish couple Wolf in his study "Der Nordecker Judenmord". He sheds light on the background to the murder and places the crime in the historical context of the burgeoning anti-Semitic peasant movement led by Otto Böckel in Hesse.
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heidemann_judische-gemeinde-buer — Around 1900, seven Jewish families came to Buer and Erle. In 1930, it was over eighty. Where have they used to, what did they deal with? Let yourself be involved in the facts and told stories spread out in this reading book: they bring us close to many individual fates of an immigrant group that came predominantly from the Sauerland and the Lower Rhine. The former city planner and designated building historian Lutz Heidemann went on a search for traces. He also found many historical photos, for example the Art Deco dome in the synagogue on Maelo Street. In addition, current images were included. This is how an attractive book was created, which allowed us exciting time travel through the Buer and Alder of the years before 1930 thanks to its many illustrations.
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herzog_sportler-in-suddeutschland — Numerous Jewish sports enthusiasts could already be found in German sports clubs as active athletes, officials, pioneers in journalism, doctors and mascots during the imperial era. Their services to the development of sport in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, their persecution under the Nazi regime, and their commitment in post-war Germany are increasingly attracting the attention of researchers. This volume builds on the current state of academic knowledge and presents new research findings. The focus is on football clubs in Swabia, Franconia, and Hesse as well as the "Stuttgart Declaration" of April 9, 1933, in which 14 top South German football clubs pledged, without being asked, to work against the regime "on the issue of removing Jews from sports clubs". Whether and to what extent they did so is comprehensively presented for the first time in this volume.
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hanak_leonard-bernstein-wien — A richly illustrated book that focuses on Leonard Bernstein's relationship with Vienna as a city of music on the 100th anniversary of his birth, paying tribute to the great conductor and composer as a political figure and at the same time exploring his Jewish roots. With contributions by Leon Botstein, Werner Hanak, Barbara Haws, Silvia Kargl, Friedemann Pestel, Simon Posch, Oliver Rathkolb and Danielle Spera, the catalog was published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at the Jewish Museum Vienna from October 17, 2018 to April 28, 2019.
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lessing-zeigt-lessing — The works of the Jewish-Austrian photographer Erich Lessing have made history and captured great historical moments. Lessing managed to flee to Palestine in 1939, but returned to Austria in 1947 and began working as a photographer for the Associated Press, and later for the famous Magnum agency. Lessing's legendary photograph of Leopold Figl and the Allied foreign ministers on the balcony of the Belvedere after the signing of the State Treaty became a symbol of the new Austria. For the exhibition, his daughter Hannah Lessing has made a very personal selection from her father's oeuvre. Magnificent photo reportages of Israeli landscapes and historically significant images of the attitude to life in the post-war period complement the well-known political documentary photographs.
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bannasch_exil-in-kinder — The 2023 Jahrbuch Exilforschung is devoted to the mediation of exile and migration experiences in children's and youth media from a child's perspective. In addition, textual and visual narrative processes of exiled authors and artists who worked in various media such as (illustrated) children's and youth books, picture books or photo books for young readers are examined. At the intersection of literary studies, art history, and pedagogy, it will be shown how the complex experiences of exile and migration are reflected in literature and art for children and young people.
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The LBI Library collects publications related to the history and culture of German-speaking Jews as outlined in its Collection Development Policy. A rotating selection of recent highlights from among our new acquisitions are featured on this website, as well as a link to a comprehensive list of new acquisitions in our catalog.

Books from the LBI Library Collection can be used onsite in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History, currently by appointment. The reading room is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Visits must be scheduled in advance through a research account and book requests need to be placed in advance . If you are not sure whether an on-site visit is necessary for your research interests or for visit updates, please reach out! The reading room librarians are available at inquiries@cjh.org.

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