Leo Baeck Institute (LBI), the premiere research library and archive devoted exclusively to documenting the history of German-speaking Jewry, has completed the digitization of its entire archive, which now provides free online access to primary source materials encompassing five centuries of Jewish life in Central Europe.

• DigiBaeck - Highlights from the Archive
  

Enlarge image Pictured: Albert Einstein, Moses Mendelssohn, Franz Rosenzweig, WWI era photograph by Bernhard Bardach, memoir detail, Estelle Sternberger's "Anglo-Jewish Hour" on WLIB, Terezin Dream by Norbert Troller... (© LBI/DigiBaeck)

The project, named DigiBaeck (www.lbi.org/digibaeck), offers a digital gateway to LBI's growing collections. It already includes 3.5 million pages of material that ranges from the personal papers and photographs of luminaries like Albert Einstein and Moses Mendelssohn to letters, diaries, recipes, and other ephemera chronicling the lives of everyday people over five centuries. The collection encompasses documents in German and over a dozen other languages, and many pieces in the collection include English translations.

• "German-speaking Jews accomplished breakthroughs in so many fields – from science to medicine and art and architecture – so it is appropriate that this archive is the first to present itself in its entirety on the Internet," said Carol Kahn Strauss, Executive Director of Leo Baeck Institute. "Before the Nazi seizure of power, Jews in Germany probably had better opportunities for success than Jews anywhere else in the world. As a new Jewish community once again flourishes in Germany, it is all the more important to ensure it also has broad access to this past."

Enlarge image Jüdisches Ceremoniel (1726), a beautifully illustrated description of Jewish religious ceremonies, rites of passage and feast days intended as a primer on Judaism for 18th century German audience. Its author, Paul Christian Kirchner, was a convert from Judaism who sought to persuade other Jews to follow his example and believed that an informed German public would be more effective at winning converts. (© LBI/DigiBaeck) To create DigiBaeck, Leo Baeck Institute partnered with Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library that offers permanent storage of and free public access to digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly three million public-domain books.

"I founded the Internet Archive with a mission to provide free access to all printed materials in our libraries around the world through digital means," said Brewster Kahle, founder of Internet Archive. "I found a like-minded partner among the leadership of the Leo Baeck Institute who keenly understood that digital access is essential in fostering not simply the ease of scholarship, but a general heightened awareness of the culture that they have so painstakingly preserved for more than half a century."

• A DigiBaeck launch was held on October 16, 2012 at at the Center for Jewish History in New York and was streamed live online at:
• DigiBaeck: German-Jewish History Online.