Biennial LBI Lecture

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…

Between 1933 and 1941, Simon May’s mother and her two sisters pushed the boundaries of assimilation among German Jews to their limits. They resorted to conversion, aristocratic marriages, and ‘Aryan’ certificates, which likely saved them from the death camps. However, this marked the defeat of the hope that such strategies would secure acceptance for Jews in German and European society. It led to a unique vulnerability, as these three women – and many others like them – distanced themselves from their cultural roots, leaving them emotionally defenceless when disaster struck. This self-…

On the Eve of Departure: Art and Exile 

During the talk Edmund de Waal discussed the telling of family stories through words and sculpture, touching on his writing of The Hare with Amber Eyes and works by Paul Celan and Walter Benjamin.  

Edmund de Waal is an artist and author of The Hare with Amber Eyes

Organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, School of History. The lecture took place at Queen Mary University of London, Arts Two Lecture Theatre on the 23rd…

In his recent book "Anti-Judaism: The History of a Way of Thinking," David Nirenberg argued that Anti-Judaism should not be thought of as some archaic or irrational closet in the vast edifices of Western thought.  Instead, he suggested, it was a powerful conceptual tool, one that played an important role in helping many people make sense of the complex world they lived in.  In this lecture he will explain how Anti-Judaism became so central, and describe some of the work it has done in shaping the ways in which past peoples interpreted the worlds they lived in.

Through the person of David Nassy, Jerusalem Regained explores the adventures of a former Portuguese converso in the seventeenth century, from his arrival in Amsterdam and his participation in the Dutch world of geographical learning, his stay in Dutch Brazil, to his support for the return of the Jews to England, and his leadership in projects for Dutch colonization, especially in Suriname.  

What were the sources for his urge for Jewish colonization? What hopes were fulfilled? What contradictions were faced for Jews in establishing an ideal village based on the labor of…