Leo Baeck Institute Archives

The Leo Baeck Institute was founded in 1955 by leading German-Jewish émigré intellectuals including Martin Buber, Max Grunewald, Hannah Arendt and Robert Weltsch, who were determined to preserve the vibrant cultural heritage of German-speaking Jewry that was nearly destroyed in the Holocaust. They named the Institute for Rabbi Leo Baeck, the last leader of Germany’s Jewish Community under the Nazi regime, and appointed him as the Institute’s first President, overseeing independent centers in New York, London, and Jerusalem. LBI – New York is a founding partner of the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan and maintains an office in Berlin and a branch of its archives at the Jewish Museum Berlin. 

The Leo Baeck Institute is a not-for-profit research center open to the public. The vast majority of patrons who use LBI collections for private study, research, or scholarship can do so for free. There are however, two kinds of fees that LBI may charge for certain categories of use and special services: reproduction fees, and usage fees. While obtaining copies for research purposes will only incur reproduction fees, publication or exhibition of an item from LBI collections typically involves one fee for reproduction (such as a high-resolution digital scan) and a second fee for usage. Reproduction Fees: High resolution images or photocopies/low resolution scans can be requested for a fee. Please note that a large percentage of the collections are freely available in digital form as low resolution images already. Usage Fees: Publication or exhibition of items from LBI holdings for commercial usage may be subject to fees. Contact: To request a reproduction and/or permission for commercial usage of any item from the LBI collections, please contact Registrar Michael Simonson. Time Frame: Requests will be answered typically within 10 business days. Faster service is available upon request for an additional charge. Complete Policies and Schedule of Fees: [see here](https://www.lbi.org/collections/reproductions-and-permissions/). 

Contents of this repository at the Center for Jewish History can be found [here](https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/5). 

Lillian Goldman Reading Room: by appointment only Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute: Walk-ins are permitted, based on availability, though appointments are recommended.