Leo Baeck Institute - New York

08/24/2026

Martin Buber (1878–1965) was a Jewish philosopher, writer, and educator best known for his “philosophy of dialogue” – the idea that human life is shaped through genuine encounter and relationship.

Born in Vienna, Buber became an honorary professor of the history of religion at the University of Frankfurt in 1930. He left his position after Adolf Hi**er became chancellor in 1933 and emigrated to Palestine in 1938. In 1955, he was among the founders of the Leo Baeck Institute.

The LBI’s Martin Buber holdings include more than 1,000 letters and nearly as many pages of handwritten material, with a particular focus on the first three decades of the twentieth century, the years in which Buber developed many of his most influential ideas.
Among the collection’s most important materials are records of Buber’s close friendship and collaboration with philosopher Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929). After meeting in 1914, the two worked together on literary and educational projects, including their influential German translation of the Hebrew Bible, Die Schrift, and their connection to the Freies Jüdisches Lehrhaus in Frankfurt.

The collection includes letters, cards, notes, and manuscripts that trace their conversations about philosophy, politics, teaching, family life, Buber’s journal Der Jude, and the practical work of translating the Bible. It also holds notebooks connected to the Buber-Rosenzweig translation – many dictated by Rosenzweig after illness left him paralyzed. The first volume appeared in 1925; Buber completed the translation in 1961.
Through these papers, the Leo Baeck Institute preserves not only Buber’s ideas, but the friendships, collaborations, and intellectual labor behind them.

📸 Martin Buber, undated. Photograph by Gertrude Samuels. Leo Baeck Institute, Martin Buber Collection, AR 10; F 11514.

08/24/2026

There Is A Little Cafe Down The Street is a musical piece composed by Hermann Leopoldi, with a German text as well as an an English text, in 1932. We continue looking at the life and work of Hermann Leopoldi, a theme on our page the past weeks.

The song tells about people falilng in love in a small cafe near the Vienna Woods, in the 17th district of the city. Out of the way, they drink black coffee and listen to an English waltz while they fall in love in this discrete location. The song suggests that they are having an affair. A true example of the romantic and sentimental Viennese popular music Hermann Leopoldi was so famous for.

You can listen to the song here, and see the text to the song in the comment section (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQuXsleF_6A&list=RDBQuXsleF_6A&start_radio=1

(Painting by Ron Hicks.)

08/24/2026

Stefan Zweig working at the War Archive during the First World War, having been classed as unfit for front line service. Zweig, like most Jews in Vienna, at first supported the war. Part of this was to fight for an empire that had increasingly supported their rights as full citizens and their upward mobility in society. Zweig himself, as the war continued, became a pacifist and critical of both the First World War and, from then on, all war in general.

Photo: ONB

08/23/2026

The work of Sigmund Freud affected culture far and wide. This includes fashion.

Designer Galliano created this “horse-woman” dress in 2000, probably with Freud in mind. Complete with a saddle and tail, the outfit probably refers to the case of “Little Hans,” who had a fear of horses. Freud stated that this was because Hans had unresolved Oedipal issues with his father. Later the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan argued against this theory, saying that Hans’s issues stemmed from unresolved Oedipal issues with his mother. We can see, perhaps, what theory Galliano sided-with. Today analysts generally criticize Freud’s diagnosis of “Little Hans.”

Photo: Vogue

08/23/2026

A drawing of actor Albert Bassermann by Walter Langhammer, date unknown. Private collection.

Born in 1867 in Mannhein, Bassermann started acting on the stage eventually moving to Berlin and working with Max Reinhardt. He was one of the first actors in Germany to transition from film to screen. He starred in over 40 films, both silent and sound, in Germany. In 1908 he married his fellow actress Else Schiff.

In 1933 the N***s seized power and started pressuring Bassermann to divorce Schiff, who was Jewish. He refused and the couple went into exile. During the following years, Bassermann intermittently worked at theaters in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In 1939, he went to the USA, where he started off his Hollywood career. He received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the 1940 Hitchcock film “Foreign Correspondent.” He also acted on Broadway.

After the war, he returned to Europe, most notably Switzerland, where his career in film and stage continued. He died in Zurich in 1952.

The artist, Walter Langhammer, was a professor and artist in Graz, Austria. Following the N**i Anschluss in 1938 he fled with his wife to India, where they settled in Bombay and he became the art critic for The Times of India as well as continued his painting career. He was an important figure as well in fostering young Indian artists in the group that came to be known as The Progressives. Due to poor health, the Langhammer’s returned to Europe after the war, settling in London.

08/22/2026

Happy Saturday!

A Berlin Kneipe around 1925. Place and photographer unknown — unfortunately!

08/20/2026

Seemann, Künstler, Kneipen-Wirt: Jack Bilbos Lebensgeschichte ist pures Kino. Anlässlich des diesjährigen Mottos "Crime" im Rahmen der begegnet ihr in Kurzführungen sein Gemälde „Das rote Kleid“ – im Anschluss erwartet euch ein Filmscreening der "Dreigroschenoper" in der Mackie-Messer-Lounge.

🔗 Infos & Tickets in den Kommentaren

08/20/2026

This year's European Days of Jewish Culture (EDJC) begin on September 6.

The European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage AEPJ, one of our members, has coordinated this event at the European level since its inception. The goal is to highlight the diversity and richness of Judaism and its local, regional and national historical importance. This year’s theme is LOVE, reflecting the central role of love in Jewish tradition and its profound ties to interfaith dialogue and cultural and social exchange.

A list of all activities by our members as well as the link to the full EDJC program can be found on our website aejm.org or via the links in the comments. Feel free to add anything we might have missed in the comments below this post.

If your institution plans to participate in the European Days of Jewish Culture, you can add your events to the extensive list of diverse activities. You will also find the link in the comments.

08/20/2026

A little background!

With a father (Leopold) who was a committed entertainer and pianist, Hermann, along with his older brother, was destined to pursue a life in entertainment. He was born in 1888 as Hersch Kohn; the family changed its last name to Leopoldi in 1921, when Hermann was already 33 years old. Leopold gave both of his sons extensive musical training. As a teenager Hermann was an accompanist and bar pianist, and put on his own shows in a unique style of musical comedy, accompanying his songs on the piano. During the war, Leopoldi enlisted, and was employed as a pianist and entertainer in variety shows that played for soldiers on the front.

In 1922, the two Leopoldi brothers, along with Fritz Wiesenthal, opened the ‘Kabarett Leopoldi-Wiesenthal’. In a city exploding with cabaret, it was recognized as one of the most successful venues, and it hosted well-known Austrian cabaret artists including Fritz Grünbaum. Despite enthusiastic reviews, however, the cabaret was forced to close in 1925 due to growing debt. Hermann nonetheless managed to continue his career, going to Berlin as a new home-base and touring Europe.

When they arrived in Berlin in 1925 they found a new home in the Nelson Cabaret. The trio became immediately popular - almost a craze, really - in the cabaret scene of Berlin.

The Nelson Cabaret was an important place in the Berlin scene. Rudolf Nelson (actual birth name Lewysohn), came from a poor family in Berlin. He became a pianist and performer, becoming increasingly popular in the early 20th century. In 1920, he opened the Nelson-Theater on Kurfürstendamm (associated with the Sans Soucis restaurant), together with Kurt Tucholsky. The revues he staged there were legendary, presenting numerous top stars of the period, including Leopoldi and his trio, Josephine Baker, The Weintraubs Syncopators and comedian Max Ehrlich. During these years, Nelson also composed revues for Berlin’s famed Metropol-Theater in the Admiralspalast. Nelson was later to flee to the Netherlands, where he survived the war in hiding, returning to Berlin and continuing his career after the war.

The first image is a card advertising the Leopoldi-Wiesenthal cabaret from the 1920s. The second image is a photograph of Rudolf Nelson with fellow performers in Berlin in 1928.

You can check the comment section below for music performed by the Leopoldi-Wiesenthal Cabaret in this time period, as well as music composed by Rudolf Nelson.

08/20/2026

Fashion at the LBI: Julie Elias

In Weimar Berlin, fashion was more than clothing: it was a way of imagining modern life. Julie Elias (1866–1943) was a Berlin fashion journalist whose reviews and commentary appeared in both mainstream and Jewish publications.

In her article “Die veränderte Silhouette” (“The Changed Silhouette”), Elias traced a season of contrasts. Daywear, she wrote, favored “sportliche Sachlichkeit” – a sporty practicality, softened by fantasy buckles, delicate buttons, scarves, ribbons, bows, and lingerie trim. Skirts and jumpers, blouses, short jackets, and long or three-quarter-length coats defined the daytime wardrobe; afternoon dresses, longer and more bell-shaped, began to prepare the way for evening.

Eveningwear, however, announced the fashion to come. Designers raised the belt and lengthened the skirt, transforming the female silhouette at once. In the evening, Elias wrote, imagination returned: materials, invention, and personal charm could take center stage. Velvet, moiré, and crêpe satin moved between afternoon and evening, while “evening ensembles” required their own carefully chosen outer layers.

Elias did not simply report on trends. She interpreted fashion as a changing language of modern womanhood – one that balanced movement, practicality, elegance, and self-expression. As a Jewish woman writing in Berlin’s vibrant fashion press, she was part of a generation that helped shape and popularize the look of the Weimar era.

The Leo Baeck Institute preserves Elias’s fashion writing and books, including her Taschenbuch für Damen. Together with a portrait by Max Liebermann and an illustration by Emil Orlik, these materials bring her work and the visual culture she documented back into view.

🖼️ Images: Portrait of Julie Elias (1866–1943), by Max Liebermann. Jewish Museum Berlin.
🎨 Emil Orlik, illustration for Julie Elias’s Taschenbuch für Damen, 1924. Leo Baeck Institute Library Collection, PT 2609 L48 T3 1924.
📄 Julie Elias, “Die veränderte Silhouette,” Das Jüdische Magazin. LBI Library, B213.