Leo Baeck Institute London

On 12 May 1965, the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel formally established diplomatic relations – just two decades after the Shoah. At the time, this step was fraught with tension and controversy, particularly among Holocaust survivors and in Israeli public life, but it marked a profound turning point in the postwar world.

In the decades since, German-Israeli relations have developed into a multifaceted partnership, encompassing politics, culture, science, and education. Youth exchanges, academic collaborations, and joint cultural initiatives have helped connect new generations and build mutual understanding.

Lina Morgenstern (1830–1909) was a pioneering German social reformer, feminist, writer, and pacifist, whose influence shaped public welfare and women’s rights in 19th-century Germany. 

Gerhard J. Rekel is an award-winning Austrian author and filmmaker, born in Graz in 1965. His books include a biography of the Berlin social reformer Lina Morgenstern. In the interview, Rekel discusses Morgenstern’s remarkable life and enduring influence.

On this day in 1933, university students across Germany burned over 25,000 books deemed ‘un-German’ in a chilling display of state-sanctioned intolerance. Jewish writers were especially targeted – among them Lion Feuchtwanger, Sigmund Freud, and Stefan Zweig – alongside political critics and international voices such as Helen Keller.

The burnings, cheered on by Joseph Goebbels in Berlin’s Opera Square, marked the symbolic beginning of a campaign to erase Jewish and dissident thought from German cultural life. As Heinrich Heine, himself a Jewish writer, warned in 1821: ‘Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people’.

Today, we remember the power of words – and the dangers of silencing them.

We’re delighted to announce a major milestone for the Leo Baeck Institute London: our digitised pamphlet collection is now available online via DigiBaeck!

Spanning more than 2,400 items, this treasure trove of German-Jewish history and culture covers everything from early Zionist movements and literary works to rare periodicals, biographies, and responses to pivotal moments such as the Holocaust and the Balfour Declaration, and includes works by Heinrich Heine, Martin Buber, Theodor Herzl and Rosa Luxemburg and many more.

You can explore the collection in detail through these resources:

This Yom HaShoah, we pause to remember the six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered during the Holocaust, as well as the countless others who suffered under Nazi persecution. We honour not only the memory of the victims, but also the courage of those who resisted, and the resilience of survivors.

As we reflect on this day, we reaffirm our collective commitment to combating antisemitism, prejudice, and hatred in all its forms. The legacy of Yom HaShoah is not only one of remembrance, but also a call to action: to ensure that ‘Never Again’ is not just a promise, but a reality for future generations.

As part of the Leo Baeck Institute’s 70th anniversary celebrations, we spotlight the life and thought of Hermann Heller (1891–1933), a leading German constitutional scholar and social philosopher, celebrated for his defence of democracy and opposition to National Socialism. Heller’s idea of ‘democratic socialism’ combined social justice with a rejection of authoritarianism, and he argued that democracy must ensure social equality to remain legitimate.

The international project Library of Lost Books, spearheaded by the Leo Baeck Institutes in Jerusalem and London, has been awarded the Bronze Prize in the category Activation and Mobilisation at the prestigious German PR Awards 2025. The accolade recognises the project’s innovative approach to engaging global audiences in its mission to recover Nazi-looted Jewish books.

The award highlights the project’s success in fostering global collaboration and raising awareness about cultural restitution. For more details on this year’s winners, visit the official German PR Awards website: https://pr-preis.de/gewinner-2025/

The Herlingen Haggadah (Seder Haggadah shel Pesah), written and illustrated by Aaron Wolf Herlingen in Pressburg (modern-day Bratislava) in 1729–1730, is a cherished piece of Jewish history. This beautifully illustrated book has a fascinating story to tell: it was part of a daring rescue mission during the Second World War, when Alexander Guttmann smuggled it, along with other precious texts, out of Nazi Germany to the United States in 1940.

The Leo Baeck Institute London is pleased to announce the launch of our new brochure which outlines our work on the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry.

Printed copies will be available at all LBI events, while a digital version can be downloaded at https://www.lbilondon.ac.uk/brochure.pdf, or please view the flipbook version below.