Leo Baeck Institute - New York

09/12/2026

Shana Tova!

09/12/2026

A scene fro m the 1939 film "Stagecoach," produced by Walter Wanger and starring John Wayne.

Walter Wanger was born into a German Jewish family - his birth name was Walter Feuchtwanger and his grandparents had immigrated to the United States. A two-time recipient of the Academy Honorary Award, he was active from the 1920s until his career concluded with the turbulent production of Cleopatra, his last film, in 1963. Strongly influenced by European films, Wanger developed a reputation as an intellectual, socially conscious film producer who spearheaded controversial but politically provocative message films and romantic melodramas. Throughout his career, he made eloquent statements about the social responsibilities of the filmmaker and his educational role in a democracy.

Wanger attended Dartmouth College, where he briefly headed their theatre department. Wanger next served in the U.S. Army during World War I as an aviation pilot. During the early 1920s, Wanger joined Paramount Pictures, where he acquired the rights to The Shiek (1921). He quickly became one of Paramount's top production executives before he left due to management disputes. In 1931, he became a vice president for Columbia Pictures until he resigned to work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

After he left MGM, Wanger formed his own independent production company, in which he produced films for Paramount and United Artists (UA). Meanwhile, he served twice as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1939–1945, with a brief interruption). In recognition of his service, he received an Academy Honorary Award in 1946.

In 1940, Wanger married actress Joan Bennett. In December 1951, believing she was having an affair with her talent agent Jennings Lang, Wanger confronted and shot Lang, who survived. Wanger pleaded guilty to assault and served three months in prison. The experience inspired him to produce the prison film Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954). Wanger later produced Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and I Want to Live! (1958), which won Susan Hayward an Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 1958, Wanger signed with Twentieth Century-Fox to produce Cleopatra (1963). The production endured numerous difficulties, including a heavily publicized extramarital affair between the film's stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Although the film eventually became a commercial success, Cleopatra effectively ended Wanger's producing career. He died of a heart attack in New York City in 1968, aged 74.

09/12/2026

ᴇɴɢʟɪsʜ ʙᴇʟᴏᴡ
[ᴅᴇ] Shana Tova aus dem Beit Ahawah-Kinderheim in Berlin! ✨
Dieses herzerwärmende Foto, das Teil der Sammlung des Leo Baeck Institute - New York | Berlin ist, zeigt eine Gruppe von Kindern, die allen ein süßes und gesegnetes neues Jahr wünschen, mit der Botschaft: „L'shana Tova“ 🍎🍯. Das Beit Ahawah-Kinderheim bot jüdischen Waisenkindern in Berlin Fürsorge und ein Gefühl der Gemeinschaft und war ein Symbol für Widerstandsfähigkeit, Hoffnung und Zusammengehörigkeit.

[ᴇɴ] Shana Tova from the Beit Ahawah children's home in Berlin! ✨
Part of the collection at the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin, this heartwarming photo shows a group of children wishing everyone a sweet and blessed new year with the message: “L'shana Tova” 🍎🍯. The Beit Ahawah children's home offered Jewish orphans in Berlin care and a sense of community, and was a symbol of resilience, hope and belonging.



https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE9780377

09/11/2026

A series of photographs of Paul Klee by fellow-artist Josef Albers, at the Bauhaus in Dessau, ca. 1930. From the collections of the Museum of Modern Art.

Klee was vilified by the N***s, considered by them a degenerate artist. Among other other things accused him of being "a Jew from Galicia in disguise." (He was not Jewish, nor from Galicia). Josef Albers, along with being considered another degenerate artist by the N***s, was married to the Jewish artist Anni Albers. Klee fled to Switzerland where he died during the war, and the Albers' made a new life for themselves in the United States.

09/11/2026

Stefan Zweig with his wife, Friderike, in front of their villa in Salzburg in 1922.

In 1934, as a result of the N**i Party's rise in Germany and the establishment of the Ständestaat regime in Austria, Zweig emigrated to England and then, in 1940, moved briefly to New York and then to Brazil, where he settled. In his final years, he would declare himself in love with the country, writing about it in the book Brazil, Land of the Future. Nonetheless, as the years passed Zweig became increasingly disillusioned and despairing at the future of Europe, and he and his wife Lotte were found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their house in Petrópolis in February 1942. His work has been the basis for several film adaptations. Zweig's memoir, Die Welt von Gestern (The World of Yesterday, 1942), is noted for its description of life during the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under Franz Joseph I and has been called the most famous book on the Habsburg Empire.

Photograph: ullstein bild/Getty.

09/11/2026

The winners of the Obermayer Awards, which were celebrated at the start of this year.

This year marks the 26th annual presentation of the Obermayer Awards. The awards were founded by Dr. Arthur Obermayer and Dr. Judith Obermayer to honor people and organizations who have worked creatively and selflessly to raise awareness of Jewish history and culture in their communities, and to fig...

09/11/2026

An entry ticket for High Holiday services at the Lutzowstrasse Synagogue in Berlin for Sophie Arzt in the year 1937. Note she attended all the services, evident by the punch holes in the card. Shana Tova!

From the archives of the Leo Baeck Institute.

09/11/2026

Wishing everyone a sweet New Year!

09/10/2026

From 2022.

USC Dornsife’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research is the only non-German partner in the first major international initiative to search for and analyze images showing N**i deportations during World War II — and they want the public’s help.