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 by Dr Kinga S. Bloch in collaboration with Cassy Sachar and the citizen scientists of Leo Baeck College

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 70^th 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 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 Rabbi Daniel Lichman, Leo Baeck College alumnus and PhD candidate at the Leo Baeck Institute London.

6pm, 26th November 2026 at Leo Baeck College, Finchley, London. Booking is essential, please RSVP using the form on the Leo Baeck website (scroll to bottom of page)