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Welcome to the Leo Baeck Institute London

The Leo Baeck Institute London is devoted to the study of German-Jewish history and culture. The LBI is an independent charity and aims to preserve and research this history by organizing innovative research projects, Fellowship programmes, and public events. Through the lens of German-Jewish history, the Institute seeks to address some of the most pertinent issues of the present time.

Upcoming events

Hermann Beck
Thu, 02/20/2025 - 19:00

Hermann Beck has just been announced winner of the Yad Vashem Book Prize 2024 for his book Before the Holocaust: Antisemitic Violence and the Reaction of German Elites and Institutions during the Nazi Takeover.

 

Nicholas Courtman
Thu, 03/27/2025 - 17:30

Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has allowed former citizens, whose citizenship was revoked by the Nazis due to their Jewish faith or ‘race’, to reclaim it. Yet, over the past 75 years, there have been significant changes regarding which German Jews – and which descendants – can enjoy that right. This talk tracks those developments, from the restrictive, often antisemitic decisions made in the 1950s, to attempts to uphold those regulations in the following decades, through to the 2021 reform of the German Nationality Act that finally redressed such exclusions.

Erin Hochman
Thu, 05/22/2025 - 17:30

Due to the horrors of the Third Reich, we have come to think of German nationalism as inherently antisemitic, racist, antidemocratic, and violent. This talk challenges this conventional interpretation. It shows how the defenders of the Weimar and First Austrian Republics used the großdeutsch idea, the notion that Austria should be part of a German nation-state, to create a democratic nationalism. Unlike their conservative and right-wing opponents, these republicans did not view democracy and Germany, socialism and nationalism, or Jew and German as mutually exclusive categories. As…

Lisa Pine
Thu, 07/10/2025 - 17:30

Hitler and the history of the Nazis remain extremely popular topics and ones that never cease to attract people’s interest, even fascination. It is crucial to comprehend the nature of Mein Kampf, the mindset of its author, Adolf Hitler, and the ideology he espoused that brought untold tragedy to millions of people – death, destruction, genocide and war. The book presents a dangerous set of ideas, regrettably ones that still have followers today, one hundred years after Mein Kampf was originally penned. This lecture focusses on some key themes of the text, as well as…

Frank McDonough
Thu, 10/23/2025 - 18:30

Writing on the Wall: The Unfolding Persecution of Jews 1933 to 1939

This lecture looks at the response of Jews to incidents of persecution and humiliation from Hitler coming to power in 1933 through to the outbreak of the Second World War. It will argue that while the Holocaust could not be predicted the level of persecution escalated during the period.

 

Professor Frank McDonough is an internationally renowned expert on the Third Reich. He was born in Liverpool, studied history at Balliol College, Oxford and gained a PhD from…

LBI News

Eighth international multidisciplinary conference, to be held at Birkbeck, University of London, and The Wiener Holocaust Library, London, 7-9 January 2026

Deadline: 31 March 2025

The conference will be held in-person only, with no opportunity to attend virtually.

The Leo Baeck Institute London is delighted to announce that its renowned publication series, Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts, is now available open access, offering free and unlimited digital access to our collection of publications.

The Leo Baeck Institute London proudly presents its 2025 Lecture Series: "Belonging and Exclusion". This series explores German-Jewish experiences over four lectures throughout 2025:

The LBI London is now on Bluesky! Follow us for updates on our research, events, publications, and more: https://bsky.app/profile/lbilondon.bsky.social

 

 

 

The Leo Baeck Institute London is pleased to announce an important update to its online presence: our website has a new academic URL, lbilondon.ac.uk. This new web address, effective immediately, reflects our status as a UK research institute.

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Library of Lost Books

We are thrilled to announce that the Leo Baeck Institute’s Library of Lost Books project has been awarded the prestigious Grimme Online Award in the category of Kultur und Unterhaltung. This recognition highlights the dedication and hard work behind the project, which aims to relocate books from Berlin’s Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, closed by the Nazis in 1942.
The award ceremony, held on 16th October at the Grimme Institute, was a wonderful occasion to celebrate this…
We’re thrilled to announce that our innovative project, Library of Lost Books, has been shortlisted for the prestigious PR Report Award 2024 in two categories: Politics & Society/Non-Profit and Content Communication/Integrated Communication and Content Strategy.
The Library of Lost Books project focuses on rediscovering and bringing attention to books and manuscripts that were lost or destroyed by Nazis during the Holocaust. Its integration of digital history methods and interdisciplinary…
We are excited to share the news that the Library of Lost Books has been nominated for this year’s Grimme Online Award, a prestigious German media prize.
Votes are now open so please help us by voting and sharing with others. Your support will make all the difference!
Vote here: https://w1.grimme-online-award.de/goa/voting/ext_voting.pl 
And read more details about our nomination: https://www.grimme-online-award.de/2024/nominierte/nominierte-detail/d/library-of-lost-books