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The Feuchtwangers and Britain
From Weimar to Hope - Exile from the Interwar to the Postwar Period

INTERNATIONAL FEUCHTWANGER SOCIETY CONFERENCE

Senate House, University of London, September 13-15, 2024

London, United Kingdom

We are happy to inform you that the eleventh biennial meeting of the International Feuchtwanger Society (IFS) will take place September 13-15, 2024, in London, United Kingdom.

The conference is jointly organized by the Leo Baeck Institute London, the Research Centre for German & Austrian Exile Studies, University of London, and the International Feuchtwanger Society.

The Leo Baeck Institute wishes Shana Tova to all who celebrate! May this year be filled with good health, happiness, and peace.

The Institute will be closed on Friday, 15 September for Rosh Hashanah and on Monday, 25 September for Yom Kippur. We wish you the very best for the holidays!

Image: Rosh Hashanah Postcard (from around the 1920s) courtesy of the Jewish Museum, London. You can learn more about the history of Jewish New Year Postcards and the museum’s collection here.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2024 Leo Baeck Institute Year Book Essay Prize is Matthew Johnson for his article Off-Translation: Bertha Pappenheim’s Yiddish-German. The article will be published early, in our 2023 volume of the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book.

The Leo Baeck Institute London warmly welcomes its new director, Dr Joseph Cronin. Dr Cronin took up the post on 1 September and we look forward to a dynamic new era for the Institute under his leadership.

Dr Cronin specialises in research into Jewish life in Germany after the Holocaust. After graduating with a BA and MA from Durham University, Joseph conducted his PhD at the University of London between 2012 and 2016 with a LBI studentship in Modern Jewish History. During that time, he was fortunate to meet many of the institute’s former directors and chairpersons, including Arnold Paucker and Peter Pulzer. Joseph’s first monograph, published in 2019, is titled Russian-speaking Jews in Germany’s Jewish communities, 1990–2005.

On this day, the Leo Baeck Institute London commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956), a remarkable individual whose life and teachings continue to resonate with people around the world. As we reflect on his enduring legacy, we honour his profound impact on Jewish thought, his tireless pursuit of social justice, and his unwavering commitment to dialogue and understanding.

The below articles from the second edition of the Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (1957) were published shortly after his death and give deep insight into Leo Baeck’s life and work.

New Innovative Project: "Have you seen this book?" combines a virtual online campaign with parallel physical exhibitions addressing both the Nazi theft and the rescue of a German-Jewish library. This collaborative initiative of the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem and the Leo Baeck Institute London is funded by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).