Leo Baeck Institute Medal.

Gold-colored bronze medal with profile of Leo Baeck on front, inscribed "Rabbi Leo Baeck, Leader of German Jewry, 1873-1956". Back reads "Leo Baeck Institute, New York ... So that the memory of a great past will not perish", with LBI emblem. Encased in an off-white box.Born in Lissa (now Leszno, Poland) on May 24, 1873, Baeck studied at the Universities of Breslau and Berlin and at the Juedisch-theologisches Seminar, Breslau and the Hochschule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1895 and rabbinical ordination in 1897. He served as a rabbi in Oppeln, Duesseldorf, and Berlin, as a lecturer at the Hochschule, and from 1933 to 1942 as president of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden. Deported to Theresienstadt in 1943, he emigrated to Great Britain in 1945, and became chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and first president of the Leo Baeck Institute. He died in London on November 1, 1956.Updated recordDigital imag