International Presence

Leo Baeck Institute – New York is one of three independent branches of LBI International, which includes centers in Jerusalem and London as well as a working group of scholars in Germany. Internationally, the LBI is guided by officers in the United States, England and Israel, and its financial affairs are managed from an office in Frankfurt with the assistance of a German circle of friends and supporters. Its activities, conducted primarily by its individual branches, include collections, research, publications, scholarly conferences, and lectures.

The international officers of the LBI coordinates the institutes' collective activities and represent the LBI to agencies of the German government.

In 2013, LBI – New York established a branch office in Berlin to maintain and deepen relations with scholars, Jewish Communities, government and corporate sponsors, and the wider public in Germany. Since the early 2000’s, researchers have had access to LBI materials at the Jewish Museum Berlin, where LBI maintains duplicate copies of its microfilm collections. Approximately three quarters of the collections are available on over 4,500 microfilms at the Jewish Museum Berlin Reading Room.

The Leo Baeck Institute, London publishes the LBI Year Book, internationally recognized as the leading publication in its field, as well as the Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen, and organizes a variety of scholarly conferences. It also offers fellowships to scholars, runs a joint MA program in European Jewish history with Queen Mary University of London and generally promotes research on German-Jewish history and culture at universities in the United Kingdom.

In May 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) was founded in Jerusalem by a diverse group of intellectuals and well-known public figures of German-Jewish origin. Among them were Martin Buber, Shmuel Hugo Bergman and Ernst Simon. The picture above taken in the mid 1950s shows them on the terrace of Buber’s house in Jerusalem. Today, the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem is proud to continue the work of its founders.

In recent years, LBI Jerusalem has expanded the original mission and added new activities and programs of relevance to contemporary Israeli society by encouraging a dialogue focusing on the experiences and traditions of German and Central European Jewry. LBI Jerusalem considers research to be its foremost priority and since its inception, has published many studies on German and Central European Jewry in Hebrew, English, and German. Other publications include the following series: the Hebrew “Bridges” −Studies in the History of Central European Jewry, “Innovations” −Studies in the History of German and Central European Jewry, as well as the German “Jüdischer Almanach”. In order to promote and support academic research, LBI Jerusalem has developed a wide range of programs and seminars, such as its “International Summer Research Seminar”. The Institute also awards research grants to young scholars in the field of Central European Jewry and continues to explore new ideas for supporting graduate and postdoctoral students.

Academic and cultural events have also become an integral part of LBI Jerusalem. We make great efforts to share our research both with the Israeli academic community and with the general public. The international conferences, as well as the lectures, literary cabarets, and film evenings of the LBI Jerusalem are tailored to both academic and general audiences.

The LBI Jerusalem maintains an archive consisting primarily of papers and documents of Central European Jews who immigrated to Israel. In addition, we are currently developing a film library on the history of Central European Jewry as well as a project documenting the biographies of Israelis of Austrian origin via video-interviews and a detailed database.

As a non-profit association, the Freunde und Förderer des LBI support the activities of the three institutes financially and organizationally from Frankfurt a. M. and Berlin, for example with exhibitions or publications. The association strengthens the cooperation with German research institutes, cultural institutions and ministries, represents the interests of the LBI and addresses the German public.

This working group consists of scholars living in Germany who active in the field of German-Jewish history and culture. It organizes conferences and seminars in German-Jewish history at annual meetings of the association of German historians.