Rabbi Leo Baeck

Ometz Lev Hero: Rabbi Leo Baeck

Leo Baeck (1873–1956) was Jews in Germany. In 1933 he an important liberal Jewish was elected founding president theologian, who thought and of the Representative Council of wrote about God. He also German Jews. He fought against showed ometz lev as a hero of the Nazis, working to provide the Holocaust. social services to the survivors of Student , Teach er, Rabbi negotiating directly with the Leo Baeck was born in the Nazis. German town of Lissa. Samuel the Jewish community and often Baeck, his father, was a Theresiensta dt local rabbi. Leo was brought In 1943 Leo Baeck was deported up keeping kosher and to Theresienstadt concentration studying Talmud. His father camp in Czechoslovakia. There had a friendship with the he was put to physical labor local Christian minister. This pushing a garbage cart. Baeck friendship taught Leo Baeck was elected honorary president to appreciate interfaith friendship and dialogue. of the camp’s Jewish Council of Elders. He worked Leo Baeck enrolled in the The Jewish Theological hard to preserve the humanity of those around him Seminary of Breslau, a Conservative rabbinical and ministered to Jewish and Christian inmates academy. In 1894 Baeck left JTS for Berlin’s Reformalike. Baeck took every opportunity to continue oriented Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des his work as a rabbi and scholar. He would discuss Judentums—the College for the Science of Judaism. philosophy with fellow prisoners while he pushed his There he received his rabbinic diploma in 1897. garbage cart around camp. In the evenings hundreds During World War I Leo Baeck was a military chaplain and serviced on both the eastern and western fronts. In addition to ministering to the of people would crowd into a small barracks to hear Baeck lecturing from memory on famous philosophers like Herodotus, Plato and Kant. troops, he saw to the spiritual needs of local Russian After the liberation of Theresienstadt in May 1945, Jews. Baeck prevented the camp’s inmates from killing the guards. He then stayed on to counsel the sick and Ba eck ’s Theology : The Ess enc e of Judaism the dying. Leo Baeck thought of Judaism as the universal religion of reason. He was less concerned with the Aft er th e War idea of God than with his congregants’ real-life Rabbi Baeck went to London where he eventually spiritual experiences. His best-known work was The became the chairman of the World Union for Essence of Judaism. Progressive Judaism. He also lectured from time to time at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Ba eck an d th e Naz is Rabbi Baeck did not give up his belief in God or Rabbi Baeck was sought out for positions of communal leadership. He was a member of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, an organization committed to fighting German anti-Semitism. After Hitler’s rise to power Baeck refused all offers of escape, declaring that he would stay as long as there was a minyan of Judaism during the Holocaust. He explained that the awful things that happened there were not the failure of God, but the failure of human beings. Both during and after the Holocaust he lived a life of ometz lev. A rabbinic school in London, a synagogue in Los Angeles, and an educational complex in Haifa are some places named after him. 51

Ometz Lev: An Ethical Dilemma

Leo Baeck was one of the leaders of the German Jewish community until he was sent to the Theresienstadt in 1943. People were moved from there to Auschwitz, a death camp. Somewhere during that time he received word that the Nazis were killing million of Jews in death camps. Theresienstadt was a concentration camp. Dr. Baeck decided to keep the knowledge of these death camps a secret. He explained:

“Living in the expectation of death by gassing would be all the harder. And this death was not certain for all…So I came to the grave decision to tell no one.” 1. Why do you think Rabbi Baeck did not tell others about the death camps? 2. D o you think that not telling about the death camps was the right thing? 3. In what ways did Rabbi Leo Baeck demonstrate ometz lev in his life?

Showing Ometz Lev

Both of our ometz lev heroes were heroes of the Holocaust, but people show courage in all kinds of ways.

4. Who do you think shows ometz lev? 5. What did he or she do? 6. When is a time when you showed ometz lev?