1. Personal and Family Correspondence

The collection features Joseph Carlebach's personal and family correspondence, documenting his rabbinic and educational leadership in Berlin, Jerusalem, Kovno and Altona. It also includes records of his tenure as secretary of the Freie Vereinigung für die Interessen des orthodoxen Judentums (1934–1935). Another major subseries dates from his final years as Chief Rabbi of Hamburg (1936–1941). These documents serve primarily as farewell correspondence to his community and his children abroad. Most letters from this period were authored by Lotte Carlebach-Preuss, including a substantial collection addressed to her mother, Martha Preuss, in Jerusalem.

2. Rabbinic & Scholarly Manuscripts

The significant manuscript collection includes original and copied manuscripts, as well as scholarly writings on special topics in Jewish education, Halacha and rabbinic matters, community institutions and history, eulogies, and more.

3. Photographs & Family Albums

The Joseph and Lotte Carlebach Family Album contains approximately 120 personal and group photographs spanning from circa 1890 to 1956. The album documents significant biographical events, selected landscapes, and synagogue services in Hamburg. It also features unique childhood photographs of Lotte in Berlin, alongside portraits of her parents, Martha and Dr. Julius Preuss, and her grandmother, Mathilde Halberstadt. Additionally, the collection includes an extensive series of group photos and portraits of the Carlebach children from Altona and Hamburg, as well as post-war portraits of Judith and Salomon Peter.

Online Exhibition [2008]: Highlights of the Jewish Past in Hamburg

4. Publications

The archive preserves a range of Joseph Carlebach's published works, including books and periodical articles compiled by Miriam Gillis-Carlebach and the JCI library team between 1992 and 2004. The first article appeared in Der Israelit (July 1903), and his final known article was published in the Hamburger Familienblatt (October 1938). A comprehensive bibliography of his writings and manuscripts appears in Joseph Carlebach: Ausgewählte Schriften, Volume III (Georg Olms Verlag, 2004). The collection also contains extensive press clippings on his activities [1924–1940], translated works, memoirs, and publications about his life and legacy.

5. Microfilm Copies Collection

The Microfilm copies collection of the Joseph Carlebach Archive contains manuscripts, article drafts, biographical papers, and printed materials. This project was coordinated in 1976 by the Leo Baeck Institute (New York), which holds a duplicate copy of these records.

Archival Reference: Das Joseph Carlebach Archiv, 1976

Includes personal and family letters exchanged among family members, as well as rabbinic correspondence relating to personal, communal, and religious matters.

Within the Carlebach Family collection, a series of rabbinic notebooks and manuscripts stands out. Handwritten in a blend of old German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and occasionally Latin, their contents range from liturgical poetry (Piyyutim) and Halakhic references to formal sermons and personal daily reflections. In an effort to preserve this heritage and facilitate new research, we are pleased to present a curated selection of digitized items from this unique collection.

3. Photographs

The photograph holdings comprise personal, family, and group photographs, together with landscape postcards and art images. Notable materials include photograph albums documenting the Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Carlebach and Wilhelm Zeev Cohn families. Of particular significance are rare childhood photographs dating from 1901 to approximately 1940.

The Carlebach Family Collection includes a substantial body of historical printed works. Materials comprise rabbinic sermons, historical and homiletic studies, periodical articles, and ephemera relating to family and community events. Highlights include published writings by Rabbi Dr. Salomon Carlebach and Rabbi Moritz Stern, as well as significant newspaper articles by and about Haim H. Cohn and Esriel Carlebach.

Documents the religious and administrative institutions of Hamburg and Altona, including statutes and board minutes of the Deutsch-Israelitischer Synagogen-Verband Hamburg (1868–1938), the Jüdischer Religionsverband Hamburg (1941–1942), and the Hochdeutsche Israeliten-Gemeinde Altona. Includes records on the Bornplatz Synagogue, the Great Synagogue of Altona (250th anniversary, 1934), and halakhic opinions (Gutachten) and correspondence concerning the Grindel, Ottensen, Langenfelde, and Ohlsdorf cemeteries.

Extensive documentation on Jewish educational institutions in northern Germany, featuring school board minutes (1884–1937), opening addresses, statutes, and student memoirs of the Israelitische Gemeindeschule Altona (1838–1937), as well as centenary Festschriften, leadership inductions (Dr. Joseph Goldschmidt, Dr. Joseph Carlebach, Dr. Arthur Spier), student certificates, and alumni reunions of the Talmud-Tora-Realschule in Hamburg.

Private archival donations from families and scholars rooted in Hamburg and Altona, containing birth and marriage certificates, Teudat Chaver diplomas, Kindertransport passes, wartime letters, and family genealogies. Includes files on the Buchholz, Hildesheim-Jacobsen, Flörsheim-Lippstadt, Möller, Baruch, Schwarzschild, Perlmann, and Lichtheim families, alongside papers of community leaders and educators such as Dr. Max Plaut, Bernhard S. Jacobsohn, Naftali Bar-Giora Bamberger, Esther Goldschmidt, and Rabbi Dr. Eduard Jecheskel Duckesz.

Historical photographs and family albums documenting Jewish life in Hamburg and Altona prior to and after the Holocaust, including the Julius Neumann album (1869–1930), the Louis S. Layton / Lichtheim family album, early twentieth-century community events, and photographic documentation of synagogues and cemeteries.

5. Exhibitions, Historiography & Remembrance

Research correspondence, press clippings, and exhibition programs produced in collaboration with the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, the Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, the Jewish Museum Rendsburg, and the Association of Former Schleswig-Holsteiners in Israel. Covers major exhibitions such as 400 Jahre Juden in Hamburg (1991), Jüdisches Leben am Grindel (1987), the Hamburg Memorbuch (1995), and Stolpersteine memorial initiatives.

Planning files, programmes, invitations and correspondence for the Carlebach Conferences (the first in March 1992, then 1993/94, the Fourth, the 7th in 2006, the 9th in 2012 and the 10th in 2015), the 14th World Congress of Jewish Studies (2005), departmental seminars at Bar-Ilan University and the student summer seminars with the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg.

Annual evenings in memory of Rabbi Dr. Joseph Carlebach (1993–2012), scholarships awarded in the names of Anna and Shlomo Marcus and Julius Carlebach, the commemoration of the November pogrom (1988, 2000) and the Kindertransport memorial unveiling (2015).

Institute activity reports (1992–2014), the invitation to the opening conference of 26 March 1992, the proposal for an interfaculty institute in memory of Chief Rabbi Dr. Joseph Carlebach (1989–1995), the Hamburg agreement with Bar-Ilan University (1993) and related financial documents.

The “Aleph-Bet Judentum” internet glossary and e-mail archive (1997–2014), the online exhibition Highlights of the Jewish Past in Hamburg (2008), the Lübeck exhibitions, oral history interviews with Jewish refugees from Schleswig-Holstein, the Joseph Carlebach Archive and research on Rabbi Ephraim Carlebach and Leipzig.

Working files on the cooperation with the University of Hamburg and its Joseph Carlebach-Arbeitskreis, the Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden (IGdJ), Magdeburg, the Bar-Ilan School of Education, the Ephraim Carlebach-Stiftung Leipzig, Centrum Judaicum Berlin, the German Embassy in Israel and publishers.

Working, special, incoming and outgoing correspondence of the Institute, including Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein mail (1992–1997), the e-mail archives (2003–2014) and letters with scholars, donors, politicians and public figures.

Photo albums and photographs of conferences, seminars, memorial events, the 1994 visit to Lübeck and the 75th birthday celebration of Miriam Gillis-Carlebach (1997), together with the Guest Book (Sefer Orchim).

Biographical documents, academic diplomas (PhD degree, 1985; Ministry of Education teaching certificate, 1962), curricula vitae, annotated bibliographies, notebooks, Holocaust testimony recorded by Miriam Peleg (1974), interviews, restitution records, and academic honors including Honorary Senator of the Universities of Hamburg and Oldenburg and the Shaul Lieberman Prize.

Examples: BOX2-1, BOX2-3, JCI12-4, ROW3-22

Research files, teaching materials, transparencies, children’s drawings, textbooks, and correspondence from Bar-Ilan University’s School of Education and the Haddad Center for Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities Research, covering initial Hebrew reading instruction, Shitat Hashlama (the Completion Method), letter midrashim, and special education in Israel.

Examples: BOX5-5, JCI39-10, JCI102/1-3

Extensive historical research files, photo albums, press clippings, and correspondence with survivors and historians on Jewish life in Hamburg and Altona, including the Joseph-Carlebach-Schule, Talmud-Tora-Realschule, Grindelhof, Ottensen and Ohlsdorf cemeteries, and memorial exhibitions.

Examples: BOX1-2-5, BOX1-7, BOX1-8, JCI32-2

Correspondence, articles, and photographs documenting Jewish communities, synagogues, and cemeteries in Lübeck, Bad Segeberg, and Schleswig-Holstein, including collaborations with Pastor Friedrich Gleiss and Albrecht and Liselotte Schreiber.

Examples: JCI28-1, JCI29-5/1-2, JCI63/8-9, JCI32-2

Research files on German-Jewish history, the Irgun Olei Merkas Europa, the Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft Berlin, the Leopoldina Academy, synagogue memorial books, and historical Jewish communities across Germany and Switzerland.

Examples: JCI16-6, JCI22-1, JCI60-8, JCI75-7

Survivor memoirs, wartime diaries, oral history manuals, and documentation compiled in cooperation with the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and Holocaust research centers.

Examples: JCI29-4, JCI31-6, JCI5-3/1-2, JCI33-1/1-2

Research files, bibliographies, Hebrew translations, microfilm notes, and correspondence devoted to Chief Rabbi Dr. Joseph Zvi Carlebach, Franz Rosenzweig, and the broader Carlebach rabbinic family.

Examples: JCI100-2, JCI100-3, JCI10-3

Offprints, drafts, book reviews, radio interview transcripts, and Hebrew translations of essays and articles authored by Prof. Dr. Miriam Gillis-Carlebach on Jewish education, German-Jewish history, and Carlebach family heritage.

Dedicated biographical and correspondence files, notably eight folders of letters, essays, and handwritten notes exchanged with Shlomo Marcus (1910–2014) and Anna Marcus-Andrasch (1914–2005), alongside World War I diary records of Oberleutnant Hans Friedländer.

Examples: JCI56-6, JCI59-1 to JCI59-8

Early printed books (Alte Drucke, 1779–1924), commemorative booklets, newsletters, historical certificates, and thematic press clipping albums covering German Jewry, Jewish education, Holocaust remembrance, and Bar-Ilan University.

Examples: JCI105-1, JCI105-2, JCI119, JCI120, BOX1-9