The Thought and Influence of Rabbi Leo Baeck as a Representative of Liberal Judaism

Rabbi Leo Baeck was without question one of the outstanding figures in the Jewish history of the twentieth century. His role as the leader of German Jewry during the dark Nazi years is well known. Aside from being head of the community, he was also a productive scholar and an original theologian. However, in addition to these areas of activity, Leo Baeck was also a leading figure in the history of Liberal Judaism, serving for a time as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and actively functioning as the senior rabbi of the Liberal community in Berlin. Following his miraculous survival in the Terezin concentration camp, he taught Reform rabbinical students at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati for three semesters.
This paper will examine this much neglected side of Baeck`s significance, namely his role within Liberal Judaism. Using the archives of the World Union, it will seek to analyze Baeck`s role in guiding the development of Liberal Judaism both before the Holocaust and thereafter. It will also analyze how his theology was shaped by his commitment to a Liberal approach to Bible and to rabbinical literature. The result should be a more complete image of this central figure in modern Judaism and of the continuing influence of his thought.