Known for her candid talk and blunt advice about sex, Dr. Ruth Westheimer is the world’s most renowned psychosexual therapist. But beneath her joyful demeanor is a chaotic story about her youth—a girl named Karola Ruth Siegel left orphaned and stateless. How does she harness all of this uncertainty - and the sexual awakenings of adolescence - to make it in the world? Dr. Ruth shared her diary for the first time with the Leo Baeck Institute – and with all of you – for this episode of Exile. We ar...
Mar 21, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig are two of the most celebrated Austrian writers of their time. Despite their contrasting lives and demeanors, they become fast friends and develop a brotherly bond. But when Hitler comes into power, tensions loom over their friendship. In the end, both men can’t save each other from hopelessness in exile. After his death in Paris in 1939, a group of Joseph Roth’s friends collected his meager belongings from his hotel room. His belongings eventually ended up with Roth...
Mar 14, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 5
When a young Eva Kollisch arrives as a refugee in New York in 1940, she finds a community among socialists who share her values and idealism. She soon discovers ‘the cause’ isn’t as idyllic as it seems. Little does she know this is the beginning of a lifelong commitment to activism and her determination to create radical change in ways that include belonging, love and one's full self. In addition to Eva Kollisch’s memoirs Girl in Movement (2000) and The Ground Under My Feet (2014), LBI’s collect...
Mar 07, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In 1933, Nazis steal the art collection of a prominent German-Jewish publishing family, the Mosses. Decades after the war, the family is still trying to do what they can to get it back. But a beloved sculpture, the Three Dancing Maidens, is still missing…and it might be hiding in plain sight. The LBI Library and Archives contain extensive materials on generations of the Mosse family and their legacy in Germany and beyond. They include personal papers of the publisher and philanthropist Rudolf Mo...
Feb 28, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In the early days of World War II, artist Hans Jacoby and his wife, Emma, are desperate to flee Germany. Most of the world has shut its doors to European Jews, yet there’s one surprising exception: Shanghai. Along with thousands of other Jews, they arrive in Shanghai, believing they’re safe. But even this far from home, they can’t escape the horrors of the war. Hans Jacoby brought his handwritten diaries from Shanghai to the US, where they found their way into the LBI Archives along with some of...
Feb 21, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In Nazi-occupied Austria, a young man named Kurt Kleinmann comes up with a plan to escape: write to Americans - strangers - who share his last name and ask for help to get a visa. Just as he begins to lose hope, he gets a response from New Yorker Helen Kleinman. Little does he know, Helen will save his life…and capture his heart. The Kurt and Helen Kleinmann Collection in the Leo Baeck Institute Archives includes Helen and Kurt’s entire correspondence - hundreds of letters - from 1938 and 1939, ...
Feb 14, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Exile, Season 2, is coming soon. Another batch of compelling stories of Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism - drawn from the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Narrated by award-winning actor Mandy Patinkin. Starting February 14, episodes are released weekly every Tuesday. The Leo Baeck Institute , New York | Berlin is a research library and archive focused on the history of German-speaking Jews. Antica Productions produces award-winning non-fiction podcasts, films and series which inform ...
Jan 24, 2023•2 min
As a highly trained German-Jewish physician with an interest in heredity and physical anthropology, William Nussbaum studied under some of the leading proponents of race science and eugenics at the University of Berlin. When the Nazis rise to power, rather than quit his inquiries, he launches a bold project to use the methods of race science to disprove Nazi racial theories. The Gestapo tolerates his research – briefly – but it is a eugenics-informed immigration policy in the United States that ...
Dec 06, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 6
When controversial Berlin artist Lene Schneider-Kainer flees the safe confines of her posh marriage and life to retrace Marco Polo’s legendary voyage—with her new lover, a celebrity novelist —the adventure she seeks isn’t the one she gets. The scandalous choice turns her into a permanent exile, always seeking. The Art & Objects Collection of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York contains hundreds of stunning watercolors by Lene from her 1920s trip. Her travel diaries of that voyage were transl...
Nov 29, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 5
It’s 1940. Western Europe is collapsing under Hitler’s onslaught. Famous Jewish dramaturg Kurt Hirschfeld flees to Switzerland. He forms a theatre collective that uses the stage to bravely rage against Hitler’s relentless war machine. But is it safe to be so daring, even after escaping Germany? The Kurt Hirschfeld Collection in the Archives of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York includes Kurt’s correspondence, notebooks, director's scripts, photos, and set designs. The entire collection can be v...
Nov 22, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 4
At the height of his fame, a shirtless, barefooted Albert Einstein escapes the bustle of Berlin for a simpler life. The best thinkers of the time gather at his beloved summer house in Caputh to laze by the water, swap ideas, and gossip. There, he can escape the pressures of global fame, but his summer haven can’t keep him safe from the growing Nazi movement bubbling in Germany. The Albert Einstein Collections in the Archives of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York include hundreds of Einstein’s p...
Nov 15, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Alice Urbach is the ‘Julia Child’ of Austria. When Hitler takes over, she flees, leaving everything behind, including the rights to her bestselling cookbook. Then the Nazis slap a German name on it. Decades after the War and Alice’s death, her granddaughters fight to restore her long-lost culinary legacy. Along with Alice Urbach’s Cooking the Viennese Way! , the Library of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York has dozens of cookbooks by Jewish authors from the 19th and 20th centuries. Over 100 fam...
Nov 08, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 2
A young, Jewish librarian in New York named Florence Mendheim risks her life to spy on the growing Nazi movement in America. She passes herself off as a Nazi sympathizer, documenting the movement’s nefarious activities. Everything is on the line—her family, her work and her life—to try to halt hate in its tracks. As Nazism becomes a gathering storm, will she get out of the spy game before she’s caught? The Florence Mendheim Collection in the Archives of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York contai...
Nov 01, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Welcome to Exile, a podcast about Jewish lives under the shadow of fascism. Narrated by award-winning screen and stage actor, Mandy Patinkin. Untold stories and firsthand accounts drawn from intimate letters, diaries and interviews found in the Leo Baeck Institute’s vast archive. Each episode, a story of beauty and danger that brings history to life. Because the past is always present. Starting November 1, episodes are released weekly every Tuesday.
Oct 20, 2022•2 min
