Stories from the Lost and Found - The Library of Lost Books at Leo Baeck College Library
An original exhibition in the Lily Montagu Reading Room at Leo Baeck College, London
26th November 2026 – 22nd October 2027
Curated Dr Kinga S. Bloch in collaboration with Cassy Sachar and the citizen scientists of Leo Baeck College
This exhibition marks the conclusion of the Library of Lost Books Project (2023-2025), an international initiative led by the Leo Baeck Institutes in Jerusalem and London, together with the Friends of the Leo Baeck Institute Berlin. The project sought to trace the present-day whereabouts of a German-Jewish library confiscated by the National Socialists in 1942.
Drawing on the work of citizen scientists across three continents, the project examined library and archival collections for traces of the now-dispersed library of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, 1872–1942). The Hochschule was once situated in Berlin’s academic quarter on the river Spree and was the first institution to pursue Jewish studies in Germany. Through the dedication of volunteers who examined hundreds of books in libraries around the world, the project team has gathered information on the whereabouts of 4,865 volumes from a library that once contained 60,000 items.
The Library of Leo Baeck College was among the first partner institutions to host Library of Lost Books search days. It holds a collection of 250 books from the Hochschule, including rare Judaica that were saved from Nazi Germany by courageous employees of the institute such as the Herlingen Haggadah (1729–1730). Research undertaken here with the help of citizen scientists has offered valuable insights into the composition of the Hochschule library, particularly its efforts to assemble an archival collection documenting Jewish learning and institutional life in Europe and beyond.
The exhibits shown in the Lily Montagu Reading Room trace the networks that once linked the Hochschule to organisations and individuals worldwide that supplied materials for its archival collection. It explores a selection of representative primary sources that were once systematically collected at the Hochschule library to preserve information about Jewish social and religious history: records of organisations devoted to Jewish learning and communal life, alongside rare items that illuminate different aspects of German-Jewish experience. As the Leo Baeck College marks its 70th anniversary, the exhibition celebrates the unique inheritance the college’s founding generation brought from Berlin to the London.
Visiting
Entry to the exhibition is free. Visitors are welcome when the library is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10am-4pm until 16th December 2026. 2027 open dates will be released in the new year. Visitors are welcome at other times by appointment. Please email us library@lbc.ac.uk to make an appointment or for further details. Visitors are asked to bring photo ID. See our webpages here for further details about security and access arrangements.
Roundtable: Looking back and beyond the Library of Lost Books
Join us for the exhibition opening event at Leo Baeck College, revisiting the the work of Bettina Farack, Dr Irene Aue-Ben-David and Dr Kinga S. Bloch. The women behind the Library of Lost Books (2023-2025) project will address learnings from the implementation of Bettina Farack’s ground-breaking idea to invite the public in a global search for a German-Jewish library that was confiscated by the Nazis and dispersed after 1945. In conversation with Cassy Sachar of Leo Baeck College Library, they will discuss their experiences in creating this pioneering citizen science project and bringing it to libraries and archives across three continents, with a particular focus on its implementation here at Leo Baeck College in London. The roundtable will be moderated by Dr Joseph Cronin, Director of the Leo Baeck Institute London.
6pm, 26th November 2026 at Leo Baeck College, Finchley, London. Booking is essential, please RSVP using the form below.
To attend the roundtable launch event for Stories from the Lost and Found, please fill in the form below.