07/07/2026
Three new books have been added to the archive of the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, having made a long journey with a moving and fascinating story. The books come from the private collection of Rabbi Dr. Alfred Levy. Dr. Levy served as the rabbi of the city of Bonn until his death in 1934. His wife and daughter fled N**i Germany, first to Alsace and from there to Mandatory Palestine. His son fled and went into hiding in France. The family left his book collection behind, apparently in private hands or in the library of the Jewish community. The books were looted by the N**is and, after the war, were hidden in an unknown location. They were later handed over to a Jewish community in the Rhineland. When Rabbi Emil Davidovič left Czechoslovakia in 1962 and began serving as the State Rabbi of Westphalia, the books came into his possession, together with hundreds of other books looted by the N**is, and he added them to his personal library. In 1988, the collection was deposited as Davidovič’s estate in the library of the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies.
In 2018, the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies began conducting provenance research in order to identify the original owners of the books in its collection. The university’s archivists identified 18 books bearing Dr. Levy’s stamp, and in 2025 offered to return them to his grandchildren. The books were returned to the family, and at the request of the grandchildren, three of them were donated to the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.
The journey of these books marks a moving closure of a circle, but also offers an opportunity to recognize the importance of provenance research and its ability to connect past and present and uncover the story of each individual volume.
Description of the books donated to the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem:
Ost und West (vol. 9), 1909. Illustrierte Monatsschrift für das gesamte Judentum
“Ost und West” (“East and West”), an illustrated monthly journal devoted to Jewish life and culture, edited by Leo Winz and published by Philo Verlag, Berlin.
The opening article of the issue discusses the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors in works of art, offering a striking glimpse at paintings by Renaissance artists such as Raphael and Baroque artists such as Rembrandt.
Auge um Auge: Eine Untersuchung zum Alten und Neuen Testament, 1929.
“An Eye for an Eye: A Study of the Old and New Testaments,” by Benno Jacob, 1929, Philo Verlag, Berlin.
The book offers a theological study that challenges the literal interpretation of the biblical principle of “measure for measure,” as well as the reading of Judaism as a religion driven by revenge and retribution, in contrast to the Christian ethic of love.
Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (vol. 3)
“The General Newspaper of Judaism,” third volume, 1839, edited by Ludwig Philippson and published by Philo Verlag, Berlin. This volume represents the newspaper’s third year of publication, which was also the year in which it became a weekly. The newspaper’s stated aim was to promote Jews’ historical knowledge of their own people, but it also regularly addressed other areas of interest to German Jews: politics, religion, Jewish and general literature, history, and philology.
