Rabbi Leo Baeck: Living a Religious Imperative in Troubled Times
March 1, 7:00 pm
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An animated discussion about Professor Michael Meyer’s new biography of Rabbi Leo Baeck. Rabbi, educator, intellectual, and community leader, Leo Baeck (1873-1956) was one of the most important Jewish figures of prewar Germany. The publication of his 1905 Das Wesen des Judentums (The Essence of Judaism) established him as a major voice for Liberal Judaism. He served as a chaplain to the German army during the First World War and in the years following, he expressed his commitment to the belief in a vibrant place for Jews in a new Germany. This hope was dashed with the rise of Nazism, and from 1933 on, and continuing even after his deportation to Theresienstadt, he worked tirelessly in his capacity as a leader of the German Jewish community to offer his coreligionists whatever practical, intellectual, and spiritual support remained possible. Following the Holocaust, Baeck lived in the UK but also taught rabbinical students at the Hebrew Union in Cincinnati. Today his name is enshrined in the Leo Baeck Institutes in New York, London, Berlin, and Jerusalem as well as in Jewish schools in Haifa and Toronto. His theology remains relevant for Jews in our time.
Michael A. Meyer is the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. Meyer is the author of more than 200 articles and reviews as well as numerous books, including Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism.
A lifelong Reform Jewish educator, Eric Petersiel came to The Leo Baeck Day School over 20 years ago, and has served as Head of School for 13 years, is the longest-serving Head of School in the school’s almost 50-year history. Eric is deeply engaged in the Reform movement, having served as the final President of PARDeS-Day Schools of Reform Judaism, speaking at multiple URJ and RJCC Biennials over the years and serving on faculty at the URJ Camp George since its inception. A member of Holy Blossom Temple, his role as the Head of an institution named for Rabbi Leo Baeck and his deep roots with the Reform movement make him a keen student of the history of liberal Judaism and a humble steward for its transmission to over 600 future Jewish leaders on a daily basis.
Purchase the book with a 20% discount online! http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16195.html and enter promo code PP20 during checkout.
