Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin

This collection includes personal and official documents of the Adolf Schwersenz family, including his professional work as a cantor, mainly during his time in Berlin. It contains sheet music used by Adolf Schwersenz, as well as newspaper clippings and letters.

The collection consists of various materials covering aspects of the Berlin Jewish community’s history from the 1880s to the 1990s, concentrating on documents from the community’s sole official congregation, “Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin”.

The collection focuses on David Friedmann’s press career in Germany before the Holocaust. It holds digital images of portraits and drawings, discovered by Miriam Friedman Morris and Detlef Lorenz in German newspapers and magazines from the 1920s and early 1930s, enriched with descriptions and e-mail notes about individual personalities. Also included are portraits representing the Jewish community in Berlin and its Kulturbund in 1935/36; as are materials about the Holocaust; and a Berlin Philharmonic exhibition in 2008/09.

An excerpt from David Friedmann’s “Tagebuch” at the LBI. “My art received a new stimulus at the end of 1923 when I was hired as a press artist by chance. That brought new life into my life. I had developed a specialty without noticing it, which found great recognition and acclaim from the press. My contemporary (aktuell) portraits. Snappy quick-sketches captured those portrayed while walking, standing, at the theater, performing sports, while moving, boxers, jumpers, wrestlers, runners, driving cars, riding bicycles, doing motor sports - I drew the arts - sciences, politics. Friedmann could be met everywhere, found everywhere until late into the night.” David Friedmann “Tagebuch,” Diary Entry May 7, 1945. (Translated from German.)

The Dora Segall Material holds papers of Dora Segall, who worked for the Leo Baeck Institute London and her husband Fritz, who was head of the Berlin-based Jüdische Künstlerhilfe. The bulk of the material consists of correspondence and related documentation pertaining to their professional capacities. Over half of the collection relates to Fritz Segall's work and documents the assistance provided to German-Jewish artists by the Künstlerhilfe. In addition to correspondence, the collection holds photographs, articles and clippings and reports.

Single issues of various German Jewish periodicals, published primarily from 1922 to 1942. Also included are one Yiddish paper (1927) and one German paper from Israel (1961).

This collection documents the work of Heinrich Stahl, chairman of the Jewish community in Berlin from 1933-1942. The collection contains eleven photo albums, most of which feature photographs detailing Jewish institutions such as children's homes and old-age homes, as well as an office of the Jüdische Winterhilfe. In addition, the collection contains correspondence, including from Stahl's time as chairman, clippings, and a few reports.

The Herbert Seeliger collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, photographs and clippings pertaining to Berlin’s Jewish community life. A large part documents Seeliger’s work on an extensive history of the Jews in Berlin.

The collection contains primarily manuscripts by Ismar Freund (partly published as hectographs by Peter Freund, Jerusalem) pertaining to German-Jewish history in particular in Prussia, and presumably written after Freund's immigration to Palestine in 1939. Some of the texts are based on research in the "Geheimes Staatsarchiv" ("Prussian Privy State Archives"). Titles include:

This collection holds the papers of the Berlin rabbi Julius Galliner. Many of the papers center on the activities of the Berlin Jewish Community and its members. The largest area of the collection is comprised of Julius Galliner's writings, including many of his sermons, but there is also a small amount of correspondence, educational and identification documents, and professional papers.

The collection comprises various official documents and correspondence of Julius and Bertha Hirsch née Fenster during the interwar-period and years of World War II.

The Leo Wolff Collection consists of personal documents of Leo Wolff and of papers pertaining to the organizations and communities in which he was engaged. Prominent topics are his work for Jewish communities in Germany and the negative influence of Zionism. The documents include biographical articles, family history articles, newspaper issues and clippings, minutes, correspondence, newsletters, notes, and by-laws.

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.

The collection comprises the personal documents, correspondence and manuscripts of Meier Spanier.

The collection contains various documents pertaining to Peter Freund and his activity as a rabbi, scholar, and writer.

The collection contains records from the administration and executive committee of the Berlin Community from 1933-1938.

This collection contains the records of the Union of Jewish Student Associations in Germany (Yiddish: Farband fun di Yidishe Studentn Fareynen in Daytshland; German: Verband Jüdischer Studentenvereine in Deutschland), an umbrella organization of associations of East European Jewish students who were pursuing their education in cities throughout Germany in the 1920s. Along with the Union's records are the records of two of its affiliate associations, the Jewish Student Association in Berlin and the Jewish Student Association in Jena. The student associations and the umbrella organization that they founded aimed to further Jewish cultural life among members; to provide material assistance to members in need; and to advocate for the interests of members vis-à-vis state and academic authorities. Included are administrative records such as bylaws, minutes, and announcements; materials documenting membership meetings of the Berlin association and conferences of the umbrella organization; petitions and correspondence from members concerning financial aid; materials documenting libraries maintained by the students, and other activities; and general correspondence. Among the correspondents are Jewish charitable and social-welfare organizations that contributed to the support of East European Jewish students through the student associations, including the Yidishe Velt-Hilfs-Konferents (Conférence Universelle Juive de Secours, Paris), the Verband der Russischen Juden, the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden, and the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Deutschen Juden, as well as the Jewish Community of Berlin, and Jewish communities in other cities in Germany. The collection also includes a relatively small amount of materials of mixed provenance documenting the activities of other associations and umbrella organizations of East European Jewish students, both in Eastern Europe and the West, the greatest portion related to interwar Poland, especially Vilna.

The collection consists of 6 boxes and 46 folders.

The Steven Schwarzschild Collection documents professional activities of Steven S. Schwarzschild, researcher, philosopher, rabbi and teacher. It also documents (to a much smaller degree) the personal lives of Steven Schwarzschild and his wife Lily. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, notes, off prints, photographs, printed materials, and writings. Documents comprising the collection shed light on Steven Schwarzschild’s education, and reflect various aspects of Steven Schwarzschild’s involvement with Judaism, as leader of Jewish congregations in Fargo, North Dakota and Lynn, Massachusetts; his academic career, research and writings in the fields of philosophy and theology.

Published articles by the lawyer and Jewish community leader Walter Breslauer on matters of interest for German Jewish refugees after World War Two, including legal matters; international law; questions concerning restitution for German refugees; articles about Jewish personalities; and articles about the Jewish community in Berlin.

The bulk of this collection consists of manuscripts, correspondence and clippings that were written and collected by Walter Breslauer in London, touching on his personal and professional memories as an administrative director of the Berlin Jewish community. Also included are items related to Walter Breslauer’s father, Bernhard Breslauer. The papers had been sent to the Leo Baeck Institute New York in 1970.