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Leo Baeck Reading
The Institute is named for Rabbi Leo Baeck, the last leader of the Jewish Community in Germany under the Nazis, who survived Theresienstadt.
Hugo Steiner-Prag Machzor Printing Blocks Wide
Printing blocks designed by the illustrator Hugo Steiner-Prag for a Czech language Machzor, commissioned in 1936 by the prominent Czech industrialist Jírí Waldes.
CJH David Berg Rare Book Room
The LBI works with the other partners at the Center for Jewish History on exhibitions in the David Berg Rare Book Room and other spaces. Center for Jewish History.

About LBI

The Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin is a research library and archive focused on the history of German-speaking Jews. Its extensive library, archival, and art collections comprise one of the most significant repositories of primary source material and scholarship on the centuries of Jewish life in Central Europe before the Holocaust.

LBI is committed to preserving and expanding access to this rich body of material, and it has digitized millions of pages of documents, books, and artworks from its collections—from rare Renaissance-era books to the personal correspondence of luminaries and ordinary people alike. LBI also promotes the study and understanding of German-Jewish history through its public programs, exhibitions, and support for scholars.

The Leo Baeck Institute was founded in 1955 by leading German-Jewish émigré intellectuals including Martin Buber, Max Grunewald, Hannah Arendt and Robert Weltsch, who were determined to preserve the vibrant cultural heritage of German-speaking Jewry that was nearly destroyed in the Holocaust. They named the Institute for Rabbi Leo Baeck, the last leader of Germany’s Jewish Community under the Nazi regime, and appointed him as the Institute’s first President, overseeing independent centers in New York, London, and Jerusalem. LBI – New York is a founding partner of the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan and maintains an office in Berlin and a branch of its archives at the Jewish Museum Berlin.

The Schocken Library Spines

LBI preserves German-Jewish history through its extensive library, archival, and art collections.
Center for Jewish HIstory

LBI is a founding partner of the Center for Jewish History, where the public can access our collections and attend our public programs.
Jewish Museum Berlin aerial view

LBI is part of a network of independent institutions with locations in London, Jerusalem, and Germany.
1938 Projekt

LBI documents and engages the legacy of German-speaking Jews through exhibitions that draw on our unique collections.
German-Jewish History in the Now, Germans & Jews Discussion

LBI keeps the past present through lectures, panel discussions, screenings, and performances that invite reflection and debate.