Since the nineteenth century, German Jewry had sustained three major rabbinical training seminaries. In 1854, the positive historical Judaism movement (conservative in today's terms), which favored moderate reform, established the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau. In 1872, the Liberal movement established the College for Judaic Studies ( Hochschule fuer Wissenschaft des Judentums ) in Berlin, and in 1873 an Orthodox rabbinical seminary was established in Berlin. Under Nazi rule, these seminaries not only continued to operate but expanded by taking in Jewish students who had left the universities. The Orthodox seminary and the academy in Breslau were shut down in late 1938, but the Liberal seminary remained active until the summer of 1942.
Leo Baeck
Born 1873. Rabbi, philosopher, and Jewish public leader. Ordained as a rabbi by the Hochschule fuer die Wissensschaft des Judentums (College for Judaic Studies) in Berlin, where he also earned a Ph.D. In 1912, he began to serve as a rabbi in Berlin and lecturer at the Hochschule. By the 1920s, Baeck was recognized as a leading figure in German-Jewish public life, serving as chairman of the General Association of German Rabbis and Grandmaster of the B'nai B'rith Lodge in Germany. Because of his personal charisma and the sympathy he commanded among all streams of Germany Jewry, Baeck was asked to serve as the president of the Reich Representation of German Jews upon its establishment in 1933, making him the leader of German Jewry. Baeck held this position until the Representation was dissolved in early 1939 and headed its successor organization, the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, until this entity was liquidated in 1943. Baeck refused to emigrate from Germany although he had several opportunities to do so. In 1943, Baeck was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where he served on the Aeltestenrat der Juden (Jewish Council of Elders). After the liberation in 1945, he moved to London and chaired the Council of Jews from Germany until his death in 1956.
Ismar Elbogen
Born 1874, researcher in Jewish studies. From 1919, a professor at the Hochschule fuer die Wissensschaft des Judentums (College for Judaic Studies) in Berlin--the Liberal rabbinical seminary. In 1933-1938, he chaired the education committee of the National Representation. In 1939 he emigrated to the United States, where he died in 1941.
