Leo Baeck
Leo Baeck (May 23, 1873 – November 2, 1956) was an 20th century German-Polish-Jewish Rabbi, scholar, and a leader of Progressive Judaism.
Baeck was born in Lissa (then in the Posen province of Germany, now in Poland) and began his education near Breslau at the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary in 1894. He also studied philosophy in Berlin with Wilhelm Dilthey, served as a rabbi in Oppeln, Düsseldorf, and Berlin, and taught at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies). In 1905 Baeck published The Essence of Judaism, in response to Adolf von Harnack's The Essence of Christianity. This book, which interpreted and valorized Judaism through a prism of Neo-Kantianism tempered with religious existentialism, made him a famous proponent for the Jewish people and their faith. During World War I, Baeck was an army chaplain in the German Imperial Army. In 1933, after the Nazis seized power, Baeck worked to defend the Jewish community as president of the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden.
In 1943, he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he was named honorary president of the Ältestenrat or Council of Elders. During the war, numerous American institutions offered to help him escape the war and immigrate to America. Leo Baeck refused to abandon his community in the camps and declined the offers.
After the war, Baeck relocated to London, taught at Hebrew Union College in America, and eventually became Chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. It was during this time he published his second great work, This People Israel, which he partially penned during his imprisonment by the Nazis.
In 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry was established, and Baeck was the first international president of this institute. The asteroid 100047 Leobaeck is named in his honour.
He died on November 2, 1956, in London, England.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Baker, Leonard (1982) Hirt der Verfolgten : Leo Baeck im Dritten Reich Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-12-930760-5 (in German);
- Baker, Leonard (1978) Days of sorrow and pain : Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews Macmillan, New York, ISBN 0-02-506340-5 ;
- Neimark, Anne E. (1986) One man's valor : Leo Baeck and the Holocaust E.P. Dutton, New York, ISBN 0-525-67175-7 (for juvenile audience);
External links
Institutions named in honor of Leo Baeck
- Leo Baeck College - rabbinical school in London
- Leo Baeck Education Center - junior high and high school in Haifa, Israel
- Leo Baeck Centre for Judaism, Melbourne - Synagogue and Community Centre
- Leo Baeck Day School - Preschool to Grade 8 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem
- Leo Baeck Institute London
- Leo Baeck Institute New York
- Leo Baeck Foundation- foundation with the help of Leo Baeck's family to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Leo Baeck's yahrzeit: to foster rabbinic training and interreligious dialogue .
- Leo Baeck Temple Reform congregation in West Los Angeles, CA
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