Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Berlin, Germany)

The Herbert Strauss Collection documents the life and professional activities of Herbert Strauss, writer, historian, and teacher. The collection includes correspondence, court procedures, documents, lists, manuscripts and lectures, notes, photographs, printed materials, and a small amount of teaching materials. Materials constituting the collection reflect various aspects of Herbert Strauss’ personal life, teaching, research and writings in the fields of German-Jewish history and relations, Anti-Semitism, and assimilation. The collection includes both, personal and professional materials related to Herbert Strauss, with personal being by far the smaller.

Correspondence of Ismar Elbogen with individuals, including Elias Auerbach, Julius Bab, Leo Baeck, Salo Baron, Markus Brann, Martin Buber, Umberto Cassuto, Ludwig Feuchtwanger, Ludwig Geiger, Robert Raphael Geis, Louis Ginzburg, Ignaz Goldziher, Max Gruenewald, Moritz Güdemann, Julius Guttmann, Bernhard Kahn, Mordechai Kaplan, Adolf Leschnitzer, Lily Montagu, Claude Montefiore, Adolph Oko, Paula Ollendorf, Bertha Pappenheim, Felix Perles, Koppel Pinson, Peter Reinhold, Julius Rosenwald, Cecil Roth, Caesar Seligmann, Selma Stern-Taeubler, Henrietta Szold, Hermann Vogelstein, and Stephen Wise.

The collection holds mostly manuscripts of lectures given primarily at institutions of Jewish adult education. They were given by various scholars, lecturing on Judaism; Jewish history; Jewish philosophy; and other topics pertaining to Jewish culture.

This collection contains two volumes of biographical notes on individual congregation members that Warschauer created for use in eulogies, as well as a small amount of correspondence and biographical material on Warschauer himself.

Robert Raphael Geis (1906-1972) was a rabbi, educator, and Jewish theologian. He identified strongly with German liberal Judaism, but his keen interest in Jewish studies brought him close to leaders of conservative Judaism as well. Before the Second World War Robert Raphael Geis worked as a rabbi for the youth and Religion teacher in Munich and Mannheim, and as a rabbi in Kassel, Germany. After the war he served as a rabbi in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany. In the early 1960s, Raphael Robert Geis became engaged in the dialog of Protestant and Jewish theologians. The Robert Raphael Geis collection consists mainly of correspondence and writings. There are only a few personal documents. The writings consist of newspaper articles, reviews of books on Jewish topics and sermons for major Jewish holidays. The correspondence has two main foci: the periods before and after the Second World War. The first period is characterized by letters written by various leading figures of Jewish communities in Germany and is concerned with employment opportunities for young rabbis, as well as insights into inner workings of congregations. A large amount of letters from this period also come from Robert Raphael Geis' students. The correspondence written after the war centers on theological matters and the workings of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der "Juden und Christen" (Working Group of "Jews and Christians").

The collection contains photocopies and microfilm reels with items from the Leopold Zunz Archives at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.