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The Library of Lost Books launches in the Czech Republic

12 May 2025
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The Library of Lost Books team has reached another milestone! We are proud to announce that the Czech version of the exhibition is now live!

We would like to thank the Jewish Museum in Prague for the warm and enthusiastic welcome of the Library of Lost Books in the Czech Republic. The museum hosted the launch of the project in Prague on 11th April. We were welcomed by the museum’s deputy director Michaela (Misha) Sidenberg. The evening commenced with a lecture about the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies by Michal Bušek, the head of the Jewish Museum Prague’s library department. The LBI Jerusalem’s director, Dr Irene Aue-Ben David and the LBI London’s deputy director, Kinga Bloch introduced the Library of Lost Books (www.libraryoflostbooks.com). We were honoured that so many dignitaries (the Austrian Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Dr. Bettina Kirnbauer; Helena Vagnerova and Dale Kreisher from the Office of Public Affairs of the US Embassy in Prague; Deputy Chief of Mission of the Israeli Embassy Roni Abramson) and many other guests made time to attend the event to welcome the Library of Lost Books in the Czech Republic.

We are grateful to the wonderful team at the Jewish Museum Prague that organized everything so perfectly. And we are very much looking forward to the activities and educational programmes that will take place in the coming weeks, organized by Zuzana Pavlovská, the head of the educational department of the Jewish Museum Prague and her team. We hope that the impressive number of 4355 Hochschule books that Michal Bušek and his colleagues have located at the museum’s library will be joined by many more interesting finds in the libraries of the Czech Republic.

We celebrate this milestone with gratitude for all those that were and are involved in the creation and realization of the Library of Lost Books: first of all the curator and mastermind of the library Bettina Farack who was missed in Prague and the wonderful team of the design agency Goldener Westen navos - Public Dialogue Consultants GmbH.

The LBI London is greatly looking forward to the next launch event in our calendar – the Library of Lost Books is coming to London in June! With the support of our partner, the Wiener Holocaust Library, we have the unique opportunity to introduce the project to the British public in the heart of London with a physical exhibition that launches on 6th June 2024. Watch this space for news about our activities surrounding the UK launch of this international citizen science project and our local collaborators, such as the Leo Baeck College, the V&A, Queen Mary University of London, Senate House Library, and many other organizations joining our quest in the search for a Nazi looted library.

The Library of Lost Books is a joint project by the Leo Baeck Institutes Jerusalem and London and the Friends and Supporters of the Leo Baeck Institute in Berlin. It is generously funded by the Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft (EVZ).

The Library of Lost Books has arrived at the Jewish Museum Prague
Maisel-Synagogue: first stop on the tour of the Jewish Museum in Prague
Zuzana Pavlovská, educational department (JMP)
Zuzana Pavlovská and Michal Bušek setting up the exhibit with their team at the educational centre, JMP
Library of Lost Books exhibit at the Jewish Museum Prague
Exhibit at the library of the Jewish Museum Prague
Jewish Museum Prague, Library
Launch Event, Library of Lost Books Prague
Launch Event, Library of Lost Books in Prague
Michal Bušek giving a lecture on the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums
Kinga Bloch giving a tour of the Library of Lost Books
Czech Instructions for Book Detectives
Irene Aue-Ben-David (LBI Jerusalem), Michal Bušek (Jewish Museum Prague), Kinga Bloch (LBI London) with some of the 4355 Hochschule books found in Prague
Jewish Museum Prague
Street vendor's display of Golem figures

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