Leo Baeck College

The Leo Baeck College in London is a rabbinical seminary, the Liberal, Reform and Masorti rabbis forms for all European countries and ordained. Even Jewish religion teachers are trained. In North London there has classrooms, offices, student lounges, one of the leading Judaica libraries in Europe with over 50,000 volumes and an archive of about 80,000 tracts and sound recordings.

History

In 1933 there were in Great Britain 9 liberal or Reform congregations. 1945, the number had risen due to the many immigrants from Germany to 16 in 1956 to 32 The rabbis of the former municipalities were at the American Hebrew Union College, but especially at the College of Jewish Studies in Berlin and the Jewish - Theological Seminary been trained in Wroclaw. After the Second World War, the European establishment was now destroyed in Germany. The American Reform Judaism was now grown so strong that it had rabbis defect itself.

The Orthodox Jew 's College in London rejected the inclusion of non- Orthodox students and the universities did not provide sufficient opportunities for training rabbinic personalities. In the 50s, the Reform congregations and liberal communities in Britain were therefore convinced of the need to create their own opportunities for training of rabbis. The liberal synagogues established a Minister's Training Scheme, the Reform congregations a Leo Baeck Scholarship Fund. But was called an institution into being with the establishment of the Jewish Theological College until September 30, 1956. Founding director was a native of Germany Rabbi Dr. Werner Van der Zyl. Actually, Rabbi Leo Baeck had been designated for this office, but a serious illness prevented this, and as Leo Baeck died on November 2, 1956 a few months later, was the Jewish Theological College in his honor in Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the training of rabbis, Ministers and Teachers renamed.

It began its work with a half dozen students, two full-time salaried faculty and four part -time faculty in an area of ​​West London Synagogue. The first teachers were mostly teachers of the Academy for the Science of Judaism in Berlin, as rabbi Ignaz Maybaum, Aryeh villagers, Ellen Littmann. The large amount of German works in the library of the college goes back to those first German lecturers.

In 1963 he moved to the College in the newly growing the West London Synagogue and now had their own classrooms, a library room and a student room. Since 1964, the College is under the sponsorship of the Reformsynagogues of Great Britain (now the Movement for Reform Judaism ) and the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues (now Liberal Judaism ). In 1967 the first woman was admitted to the rabbinical program. Her name is Jacqueline Tabick. She was ordained in 1975 as the first woman rabbi at Leo Baeck College. In the same year Professor Dr. Hyam Maccoby Z. began the series of scholars who systematically built the library of the college to a unique collection of Judaica in Europe.

Its present premises in the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in North London related the Leo Baeck 1982. Four years later, was the Centre for Jewish Education established for the training and further training of teachers of religion, which merged in 2001 with the rabbi training, and today as the Department for Education and Professional Development works. It offers, among other things, video conferences for schools about Judaism.

Meanwhile, a total of 153 rabbis and rabbi at Leo Baeck College ordained, who officiate in various countries, especially in Great Britain, Germany, Holland, France, South Africa and the U.S., since 1999, in Russia and Ukraine.

The College publishes the journal "European Judaism. A Journal for the New Europe " out.

Principals ( Principals )

Graduates

• Bea Wyler (* 1951)