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Comprising documents, including bound reports, volumes, and index cards as well as some photographs and single objects, the collection includes the organisational papers of the Leo Baeck (London) Lodges and their affiliated bodies. Spanning more than seven decades, the material covers the complete period of the Lodges’ existence. The preserved papers appear, however, to be incomplete and only part of an originally larger bulk of material.

The documents provide an overview of the organisational structures of the Leo Baeck (London) Lodges as well as their affiliated bodies, and allow insights into various aspects of their activities. This includes among others information on the recruitment of Lodge members and their individual backgrounds, procedures of self-organisation and decision making, objectives and beneficiaries of the Lodges’ charitable work, the financial foundations of their undertakings, and social and cultural events arranged by and for Lodge members.

Preserved documents from the early years throw light on the efforts of German-speaking Jewish refugees in London to establish the Leo Baeck Lodges and to support survivors of Nazi persecution through relief and welfare work. Material from later stages documents the Lodges’ growth and blending into British society, reflecting the impressive expansion of their charitable work for the Jewish community in London and the UK, Israel and Eastern Europe as well as aspects of internal Lodge life.