Leo Baeck Institute Collections

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Death Masks at the Center for Jewish History

By Lauren Gilbert
Director of Public Services, Center for Jewish History

Death Masks at the Center for Jewish History

Death masks, molded from plaster in the first hours after death before the features have stiffened or atrophied, were used for centuries to preserve the appearance of nobility and other eminent persons as models for posthumous sculptures or painted portraits. In the 19^th century,…

Center for Jewish History October 16, 2023

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Struggling Against Tyranny: The Gertrude Goldhaber Collection

“The vicious cycle which was originally created by the overt exclusion of women from mathematics and science must be broken… [I]t is of the utmost importance to give a girl at a very early age the conviction that girls are capable of becoming scientists.”

Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber (1911-1998) was a German Jewish nuclear physicist who made…

Center for Jewish History March 21, 2022

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The NYPL Librarian Who Spied on the Nazis

Florence Mendheim was a Jewish librarian for the New York Public Library, and in 1933 she went undercover to spy on Nazi-associated groups in the United States. Her collection, featuring a large amount of antisemitic propaganda, is held by the Leo Baeck Institute, and is an invaluable window into the spread of fascist…

Center for Jewish History March 19, 2019

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Echoes and Reflections at the Center for Jewish History

by James Nadel, Communications Outreach Associate

A month ago, the Center for Jewish History hosted “Echoes
and Reflections,” a traveling program for educational
professionals that focuses on Holocaust pedagogy. Echoes and Reflections was
originally co-designed by three of the world’s most significant Jewish
institutions: the Anti-Defamation League, Yad-Vashem (the Holocaust museum of Israel) and the…

cjh-blog-admin April 24, 2017

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Chasing history: the allure of the object

By Dong Eun Kim, Head Conservator, Center for Jewish History

Michael Simonson, Archivist and Registrar, Leo Baeck Institute

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In the previous blog post, the Werner J. and Gisella Levi
Cahnman Conservation Laboratory had received the Leo Baeck
Institute’s Metz Jewish Community Collection for assessment and treatment. The
Conservators in the lab were captivated by these artifacts; we felt…

cjh-blog-admin December 1, 2016

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By Lauren Gilbert Director of Public Services, Center for Jewish History

Death Masks at the Center for Jewish History

Struggling Against Tyranny: The Gertrude Goldhaber Collection

“The vicious cycle which was originally created by the overt exclusion of women from mathematics and science must be broken… [I]t is of the utmost importance to give a girl at a very early age the conviction that girls are capable of becoming scientists.”

The NYPL Librarian Who Spied on the Nazis

By Dong Eun Kim, Head Conservator, Center for Jewish History

Michael Simonson, Archivist and Registrar, Leo Baeck Institute

Post 3

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By Lauren Gilbert
Director of Public Services, Center for Jewish History