Leo Baeck Memorial Panel: LBI At 70

About the Lecture

Bridging Generations, Disciplines, and the Atlantic: LBI at 70

As they began their salvage of the material and intellectual legacy of European Jewry, the Leo Baeck Institute's founders hoped to assemble a narrative of the German-Jewish past that was comprehensive, synthetic, and "free from apologetic or tendentious coloring." Today, the collections of the LBI inform a corpus of scholarship that surely surpassed the founders' wildest expectations in scope, but whose "coloring" has also changed as much as society and the academy. The 66th Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture will assemble a panel of scholars to discuss the evolution of the field of German-Jewish history over seven decades and its prospects for the future. At the center of their discussion will be the LBI as an institution that has both shaped and been shaped by the many turns of intellectual history. Featuring Michael Brenner (American University / University of Munich), Elisheva Carlebach (Columbia), Raphael Gross (German Historical Museum, Berlin), Marion Kaplan (NYU), and Helmut Walser-Smith (Vanderbilt).

After the lecture, visitors will have the opportunity to view LBI's anniversary exhibit, 70 Years of LBI: Bridging Generations.

This event will take place in-person at the Center for Jewish History and will be followed by a reception. If you are not able to attend the live event, the panel will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

The Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture is endowed by Marianne C. Dreyfus and Family, the descendants of Rabbi Leo Baeck