Leo Baeck Institute London

The LBI London relocated to Senate House last month, bringing us closer to our academic partner Birkbeck and the venue for many of our lectures. Our move this time was a short one, just across the road from the premises we moved to after leaving Queen Mary University of London last year.

Senate House offers us a more permanent and prestigious home in central London, and strengthens our ability to support advanced research and public engagement with German-Jewish history and culture within a vibrant academic community.

The inaugural Eva Reichmann Memorial Lecture was held last Thursday evening at The Wiener Holocaust Library, as part of the Leo Baeck Institute’s international 70th anniversary celebrations. Dr Eva Reichmann was a pioneering historian whose work has profoundly influenced Holocaust scholarship and our understanding of antisemitism and persecution under the Nazi regime.

This photograph from the Leo Baeck Institute New York collection (F 13380) reveals the damage to a Jewish clothing shop in Magdeburg after the Kristallnacht pogrom on 9 November 1938. The shattered glass of the shop window stands as a stark symbol of the violence inflicted on Jewish businesses and the wider community that night. Locals are seen hurrying past the wrecked shopfront, a chilling reminder of the destruction that ravaged German Jewish life.

University of Southampton, Tuesday 14 April 2026

The Leo Baeck Institute London is pleased to present Das Hohelied, a booklet published in 1937 by the Jewish Community of Berlin for Passover. This pamphlet features the original text of the Song of Songs alongside a lyrical translation, with the hope that ‘this biblical jewel might inspire joy and deepen religious meaning among both young and old’. 

Accompanying the text is a report on the community’s work and commitments, together with an appeal for donations, emphasising that no one should have to observe Passover without a Seder meal and matzot.

Meet Leo Baeck Fellow Tamar Aizenberg, part of the 2024-25 cohort, whose research offers fresh perspectives on memory, family, and Holocaust history. 

Can you briefly describe your doctoral research project for a non-specialist audience? What drew you to this particular topic?

Next in LBI’s Meet the Fellows series, we are pleased to highlight Tekle Ekvtimishvili, whose research examines Networks of Protestant mission to the Jews in the 18th century and the roles of Jews and converts in these networks.

About Your Research

Could you briefly describe your doctoral research project in terms that anyone can understand? What attracted you to this subject?

Leopold Zunz (1794–1886) was a pioneering historian and religious scholar who fundamentally changed how Judaism was understood and studied. The Leo Baeck Institute spoke to Dr. Rachel Livne Freudenthal, a historian and expert in Jewish studies. Dr. Livne Freudenthal works at the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem and has published extensively on Jewish history, including works such as The Verein: Pioneers of the Science of Judaism in Germany (in Hebrew) and contributions to Jews in Berlin 1671–1945.