Leo Baeck Institute

What Leo Baeck Institute does

The Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit archive and research library founded in 1955 and headquartered at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan, with a second office in Berlin, Germany. The institute preserves and promotes the history and culture of German-speaking Jews, maintaining what is one of the most significant repositories of primary source material on centuries of Jewish life in Central Europe — 3.5 million documents, 80,000+ books, 8,000+ artifacts, 25,000+ photographs, and nearly 700 oral history interviews. Its holdings are accessed through a unified catalog (LBI Catalog) and specialized digital platforms including DigiBaeck, the Edythe Griffinger Portal (3,200+ visual items), and the Austrian Heritage Archive.

LBI's core technology centers on digital archive infrastructure: a searchable online catalog, digitization pipelines producing millions of scanned pages, and curated research portals with metadata-enriched content. Specialized services include the Dr. Robert Ira Lewy Reference Service for fee-based research assistance and a Reproductions and Permissions Service invoiced electronically. The institute reaches broader audiences through the 'Exile' podcast (Season 5, narrated by Mandy Patinkin and Joshua Malina, produced with Antica Productions), public lectures, traveling exhibitions (including the 2026 Theresienstadt show), and K-12 educational resources such as the 1938Projekt lesson plans.

The organization operates a hybrid non-profit revenue model. The majority of support comes from charitable donations and grants from individuals, foundations, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Future Fund and National Fund of the Republic of Austria, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Earned revenue is generated through reproduction and permission fees, paid reference services, and licensing arrangements. The institute has no disclosed revenue figures, no parent company, no subsidiaries, and no equity funding — it is governed by a Board of Trustees and Academic Advisory Board, with 11-50 employees and operations across the United States and Germany.

Name

Leo Baeck Institute

Legal name

Leo Baeck Institute

Website

https://lbi.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1955

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Leo Baeck Institute is a 501(c)(3) archive and research library founded in 1955 that preserves 3.5 million documents, 80,000+ books, and 8,000+ artifacts documenting the history and culture of German-speaking Jews. It serves scholars, genealogists, educators, and the general public via digital portals and the Exile podcast.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: LBI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that relies on financial donations from individuals, foundations, and organizations to support its operations, programs, and preservation efforts.
2. Government Support: LBI receives support from the German Federal Foreign Office and Austrian government entities including The Future Fund of the Republic of Austria and The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism.
3. Reproductions and Permissions Fees: LBI charges fees for reproductions, digital copies, and permission to publish materials from collections. These fees are invoiced electronically via email.
4. Research Services: LBI provides customized research assistance through the Dr. Robert Ira Lewy Reference Service for a fee.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) is a 501(c)(3) archive, library, and research institute devoted to preserving the history and culture of German-speaking Jews. It provides on-site and online access to archival collections, books, artifacts, and digital resources, supported by reference services, reproductions and permissions, exhibitions, and educational programs including a podcast.

Product overview

The Leo Baeck Institute operates as an archive and research library devoted to preserving and promoting the history and culture of German-speaking Jews. The core product is the LBI Catalog, which provides unified access to the institution's archival, library, and art collections. Supporting this are specialized digital platforms including DigiBaeck (digital collections), the Edythe Griffinger Portal (visual items), and the Austrian Heritage Archive (oral histories). The Institute also offers the Exile podcast series, the Dr. Robert Ira Lewy Reference Service for research assistance, and a Reproductions and Permissions Service for image/document requests. Together, these products and services enable global access to millions of digitized documents, 80,000+ books, 8,000+ artifacts and works of art spanning centuries of Jewish life in Central Europe.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Exile Podcast: A podcast about Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism, narrated by Mandy Patinkin and Joshua Malina, featuring stories from LBI's vast archive.

Products and services

• LBI Catalog Searchable online library and finding-aid catalog covering LBI's books, archival collections, and other holdings, used by researchers, students, genealogists, and the general public.
• DigiBaeck (Digital Collections) Online digital-archives portal providing digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, recordings, and other materials from LBI's collections for remote scholarly and public use.
• Edythe Griffinger Portal Specialized online portal, named after a librarian associated with LBI, providing access to specific digitized archival materials within LBI's collections.
• Austrian Heritage Archive Archival collection and associated access resource focused on Austrian Jewish heritage, supporting research into the history of Jews from Austria.
• Dr. Robert Ira Lewy Reference Service Staff-assisted reference and research service that helps scholars, genealogists, students, and the public locate and interpret materials within LBI's collections.
• Exile Podcast Audio podcast produced by LBI that explores the history and culture of German-speaking Jews, intended for general public audiences and educational use.
• Reproductions and Permissions Service Fee-based service that supplies digital or physical reproductions of materials from LBI's holdings and grants permissions for their use, used by researchers, publishers, filmmakers, and other requesters.

Quantifiable outcome

• Digitized millions of pages of documents, books, and artworks
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Center for Jewish HistorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLBI is located at and partners with the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan, sharing facilities and collaborative initiatives.
• Jewish Museum BerlinmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-sponsors panel discussions and events on German-Jewish history and diaspora, including the 2022 panel on 'The German-Jewish Diaspora'.
• Antica ProductionscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProduction partner for the 'Exile' podcast, handling executive production, research, and sound design. Seasons 3 and 4 made possible in part by a grant from Claims Conference.
• Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust StudiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in managing the Austrian Heritage Archive project along with GEDENKDIENST, LBI New York, LBI Jerusalem, and Center for Jewish Cultural History at University of Salzburg.
• GEDENKDIENSTcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAustrian non-profit that managed the Austrian Heritage Archive project in partnership with LBI.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust: New York-based Holocaust museum and education center in Lower Manhattan. It overlaps directly with LBI on exhibitions, K-12 programming, and the NYC Holocaust-education donor and school-partner markets.
• Jewish Museum Berlin: Germany's central museum of German-Jewish history and culture and an active LBI programming partner. It competes for the same German federal funding pools, co-produces panels with LBI, and serves overlapping exhibition, education, and publication audiences.
• Yad Vashem: Israel's official Holocaust memorial and archive, Yad Vashem operates the world's preeminent Holocaust archive and research library. It is the dominant global substitute for LBI's core archival and research services for scholars of the Holocaust.
• YIVO Institute for Jewish Research: Co-located with LBI at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan, YIVO runs an overlapping archival and research mission on East European Jewish life. It mirrors LBI's archival/library/research model and competes for the same scholar, genealogist, and donor pools.
• The Wiener Holocaust Library: The UK's national Holocaust archive and research library, founded in 1933. It mirrors LBI in scope, collection-driven research model, and educational programming, serving a complementary English-language academic and educational market.
• Simon Wiesenthal Center / Museum of Tolerance: International Jewish human-rights and Holocaust education organization with archive and research functions. It competes for educator-adoption mindshare, donor attention, and Holocaust-memory programming budgets alongside LBI.
• National Library of Israel: Israel's primary national library and a major collector of Judaica and German-Jewish materials, including digital collections. It is a global substitute for LBI in primary-source access and a co-collector of donations of German-Jewish historical material.

Broad incumbents

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: USHMM is a federally chartered Holocaust archive, research, and education institution with a much larger operating budget than LBI. It competes for German/Austrian and Claims Conference grants, Holocaust-education curricular adoption, and German-Jewish archival donations at a different scale.

Regional players

• Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum): Berlin-based national museum of German history, partner and co-exhibition venue with LBI. It overlaps on German-Jewish historical exhibitions and programming while serving a primarily German public-museum audience.

Others

• Center for Jewish History: The Manhattan consortium that houses LBI's reading room and shares facilities with YIVO and other partners. As the institutional host, it provides infrastructure and shared programmatic reach that LBI depends on for in-person research services.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/lbinyc
• Facebookfacebook.com/lbi.newyork
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/leo-baeck-institute-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Leo Baeck Institute