BAECK, LEO

born May 23, 1873, Lissa, Posen, Prussia [now Leszno, Pol.] died Nov. 2, 1956, London Reform rabbi and theologian, the spiritual leader of German Jewry during the Nazi period, and the leading liberal Jewish religious thinker of his time. His magnum opus, The Essence of Judaism, appeared in 1905. His final work, This People Israel: The Meaning of Jewish Existence (1955), was written in part while Baeck was in a Nazi concentration camp. Additional reading Important works of Leo Baeck include: Das Wesen des Judentums (1905, 6th ed. 1932; Eng. trans., The Essence of Judaism, 1948), a classic text of modern Judaism; The Phasees and Other Essays, with an introduction by Krister Stendahl (Eng. trans. 1966), a text covering basic historical questions concerning Jewish life at the time of the emergence of Christianity; Judaism and Christianity, with an introduction by Walter Kaufmann (Eng. trans. 1958), a collection of the more polemical writings of Baeck clearly defining Judaism's disagreements with Christianity; and Dieses Volk; Jdische Existenz (1955; Eng. trans. by A.H. Friedlander, This People Israel, 1966), Baeck's final work, covering 3,000 years of Jewish history. Full-length biographical studies include A.H. Friedlander, Leo Baeck: Teacher of Theresienstadt (1968), containing an exposition of Baeck's teachings and an extensive bibliography; and Leonard Baker, Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews (1978).