The Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) was founded in 1955 to document the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Its Archives and Library offer the most comprehensive collection of documents, memoirs, photographs, and books dealing with the culture and history of Jews in German-speaking lands from earliest times until the present. The materials are mostly in German, with some in Hebrew, and many in English.
LBI’s collections are bountiful sources of material for German-Jewish genealogical research. Archival holdings include family collections, as well as larger genealogical collections assembled by historians. Almost all include family trees, vital records, community histories, biographies, and other materials relevant to family and community research. Because LBI Archives has digitized nearly 75 percent of its collections (and is committed to digitizing 100 percent in the near future), much of this material is viewable from your home computer. Library collections include community histories, newspapers, biographical dictionaries, and surveys of archives in Germany.
The lists on the following pages (click on the Leo Baeck Institute tab above) are a selection of the major library and archival holdings relevant for genealogical research. The list does not include family and community histories, vital records, and biographies. However, these can be identified by doing a simple keyword search on the family surname or ancestral town in the CJH’s online catalog at search.cjh.org. Books marked Reading Room can be found in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room, and those marked Genealogy Institute in the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute. Both rooms are located on the 3rd floor at the Center for Jewish History. For a more extensive list, see: Guzik, Estelle M. Genealogical Resources in New York. New York: Jewish Genealogical Society, 2003. Genealogy Institute Z 5313 .U6 N523 2003
Address:
Leo Baeck Institute
15 West 16th Street,
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 744-6400
E-mail Form: lbi.org/ask