In the Holy Roman Empire in the early 1500s, there was a campaign to burn all Jewish books. A legal scholar named Johannes Reuchlin wrote a pamphlet called Augenspiegel that convinced the powers-that-be that these texts had historical and scholarly value. Historian and author Erika Rummel joins Mark to tell this remarkable tale, which features everything from political power grabs to bribery to a Middle Ages version of a flame war.

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions.

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Associate audio editor is Cameron McIver. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson.

You may have heard of the transit camp Theresienstadt as a place of hope and resilience throughout the Holocaust. But the music, art, and recipes found in the Czech ghetto  after the war only tell one part of the story. Today, historian Anna Hájková, author of The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt, joins Mark to discuss the complexities of life at Theresienstadt, including class structure, the barter system, and most importantly, food. 

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Associate audio editor is Cameron McIver. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson.

In 1933, Joseph Goebbels said that the Nazis could never have taken power without the radio. Heidi Tworek is a professor of history at the University of British Columbia and author of News From Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900-1945. On this episode, she joins Mark to tell the incredible story of how the Nazis broadcast their propaganda not just in Germany, but around the world.

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Associate audio editor is Cameron McIver. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson. 

In the 1960s, artist Eva Hesse found herself at the center of the iconic New York contemporary art scene. A Jewish refugee who escaped Austria on the Kindertransport as a toddler, Hesse went on to become an icon of post minimalist art. 

Elisabeth Sussman is a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She’s written and edited books about Hesse, and has curated exhibitions of her work. On this episode, Elisabeth and Mark discuss Hesse’s personal history, artistic style, and legacy.

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Associate audio editor is Cameron McIver. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson. 

On this episode, we bring you two stories of people who unexpectedly unearthed their personal histories with the help of LBI and its archive. 

Danny Shot, a poet from the Bronx, stumbled across a familiar face at an LBI exhibit—and discovered the double life of a mysterious relative. And Elliot Aronstam, a Brooklyn native, found himself literally buried in letters in a script he couldn’t read. Luckily, LBI was able to decipher a family story he never thought he’d learn. 

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Associate audio editor is Cameron McIver. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson.

The archive and library at LBI contains over 2000 memoirs. On this episode, Mark and literary critic Ruth Franklin, author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, discuss the line between fact and fiction in memoir writing and the evolution of Holocaust memoirs from first hand accounts to books written by second and third generation authors. 

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson.

Among the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who flooded out of Nazi Germany were countless artists, writers, and musicians. Alexis Rodda, an opera singer and music researcher, has devoted her career to studying just one of them: a composer named Egon Lustgarten. Today, Alexis and Mark discuss how exile impacted Lustgarten’s music—and how starting over in a new world changed a whole community of musicians, for better or for worse. 

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

The archive at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York is a real treasure trove. You’ll find everything from Albert Einstein’s childhood hot chocolate cups to amulets meant to protect you from demons. In this episode, Mark talks to Markus Krah, LBI’s Executive Director, on why preserving and showcases these amazing artifacts is more important than ever. But first, archivist Michael Simonson takes us on a ‘tour’ of the archive.   

LBI Presents is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York | Berlin and Antica Productions. 

Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer.

Executive Producers include Laura Regehr, Stuart Coxe, and Bernie Blum. Senior Producer is Debbie Pacheco. Associate Producer is Emily Morantz. Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson.