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Baeck, Leo   Cerca

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Definition: Leo Baeck was born in Lissa, Germany, (later called Leszno, Poland) on May 23, 1873. In 1897, following studies at a Judaic college and a theological seminary in Berlin, Baeck became the rabbi of Oppeln, Germany (subsequently Opole, Poland). Baeck served as a rabbi in Düsseldorf from 1907 to 1912 and in Berlin from 1912 to 1942. During World War I, Baeck served as a chaplain in the army. Leo Baeck was a leader and member of numerous Jewish institutions in prewar Germany, including the general association of German rabbis, the B'nai B'rith lodge, the Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund), the Centralverein Deutscher Staatsbürger Jüdischen Glaubens (central union of German citizens of Jewish faith), the Palestine Committee, and the Jewish Agency. Baeck also published a number of scholarly religious works such as "Das Wesen des Judentums" ("The Essence of Judaism"). When the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933, Baeck was elected to serve as president of the newly formed Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden (Reich representation of German Jews; later called Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland). In 1943 Baeck was sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, where he became a member of the ghetto's Ältestenrat der Juden (Jewish council of elders). Following World War II Baeck immigrated to England and became head of both the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the Council of Jews from Germany. From 1948 Baeck taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and promoted research and teaching on Judaism throughout the United States and Britain. Leo Baeck died in London, England, on November 2, 1956. (en-US)

Fonte

Encyclopaedia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literature. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1995. Vol. 1, p. 787-788

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