Leo Baeck was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi era. After the Second World War, he settled in London, in the United Kingdom, where he served as the chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry was established, and Baeck was its first international president. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) is the international umbrella organization for the various branches of Reform, Liberal and Progressive Judaism, as well as the separate Reconstructionist Judaism. The WUPJ is based in 40 countries with 1,275 affiliated synagogues, of which 1,170 are Reform, Progressive, or Liberal and 105 Reconstructionist. It claims to represent a total of some 1.8 million people, both registered constituents and non-member identifiers. The WUPJ states that it aims to create common ground between its constituents and to promote Progressive Judaism in places where individuals and groups are seeking authentic, yet modern ways of expressing themselves as Jews. It seeks to preserve Jewish integrity wherever Jews live, to encourage integration without assimilation, to deal with modernity while preserving the Jewish experience, and to strive for equal rights and social justice.
"Wissenschaft des Judentums" refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.
Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, or Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, was a rabbinical seminary established in Berlin in 1872 and closed down by the Nazi government of Germany in 1942. Upon the order of the government, the name was officially changed to Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums.
Moritz Güdemann was an Austrian rabbi and historian. He served as chief rabbi of Vienna.
Ludwig Philippson was a German rabbi and author.
Fritz Bamberger was a German Jewish Scholar, educator and magazine editor who directed the school system for the education of Jews in pre- World War II, was the editor-in-chief of Coronet starting in 1942, and taught and wrote in the areas of philosophy and intellectual history.
The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 by the Leo Baeck Institute of New York City, an international research institute devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. It is the highest recognition the Institute bestows upon those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Rachel Bernstein Wischnitzer, was a Russian-born architect and art historian.
Deborah Hertz is an American historian whose specialties are modern German history, modern Jewish history and modern European women's history. Her current research focuses on the history of radical Jewish women.
Arthur Löwenstamm was a Jewish theologian, writer and rabbi in Berlin and in London, where he came in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking Jewish émigrés at a conference in Jerusalem in 1955. The other Leo Baeck institutes are Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem and Leo Baeck Institute London, and the activities of all three are coordinated by the board of directors of the Leo Baeck Institute. It is also a founding partner of the Center for Jewish History, and maintains a research library and archive in New York City that contains a significant collection of source material relating to the history of German-speaking Jewry, from its origins to the Holocaust, and continuing to the present day. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded by the institute since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Selma Stern-Täubler was one of the first women to become a professional historian in Germany, and the author of a seven-volume work The Prussian State and the Jews, her opus magnum.
Arno Nadel was a Lithuanian musicologist, composer, playwright, poet, and painter.
The Leo Baeck Institute London is a research institute dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history, politics and culture, founded in 1955. It belongs to the international Leo Baeck Institute with further research centres in New York City, Berlin and Jerusalem.
The Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem for the Study of German and Central European Jewry, founded in 1955, is a research institute based in Jerusalem, Israel. While affiliated with the Leo Baeck Institute and its affiliates in New York/Berlin and London, it is an independent organization under Israeli law. Since 2019, the institute has been led by Galili Shaḥar.
Mark Wischnitzer was a scholar of Jewish history.
Arnold Paucker, OBE was a Jewish German-English historian. He was the long-time editor of the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, published by the Leo Baeck Institute London.
Herbert Arthur Strauss was a German-born American historian.
