The Lily Montagu Reading Room at the Leo Baeck College (LBC) Library has opened!
After 18 months of planning, construction work and moving books, LBC marked this milestone with a special opening ceremony, attended by 120 members of the Progressive Jewish community.
The ribbon was cut by Leo Baeck College Principal Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris and Senior Librarian Cassy Sachar (pictured above), with Rabbi Deborah thanking the anonymous who helped turn an elusive dream into a reality.
You can read the press releases from Leo Baeck College below…
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Leo Baeck College (LBC), a pre-eminent institution of Jewish scholarship, learning and rabbinical training is proud to announce the opening of its newly redeveloped Reading Room – The Lily Montagu Reading Room at the Leo Baeck College Library.
Since its founding in 1956 by Rabbi Dr Werner van der Zyl a refugee from Nazi Germany, LBC has been at the forefront of Progressive Jewish learning. Over the decades, LBC has ordained more than 350 educators and 219 rabbis – over 70 of whom are women – serving in 20 countries worldwide. Today, over 90% of Progressive Jewish communities in the UK benefit from the leadership of LBC alumni.
At the heart of all teaching and learning at the Leo Baeck College is its extraordinary library, which is one of the great hidden treasures of Anglo-Jewry. Its collections go back over 500 years and span every aspect of Jewish life, thought and culture, from prayer books that survived the trenches to 21st century feminist Talmud commentary.
The Leo Baeck College Library is a unique place allowing for interaction between students, practising rabbis, scholars, educators, creative practitioners and enthusiasts. The LBC Library enables those engaged with contemporary Judaism to interact with each other. It’s a place where ideas are stimulated, networks forged, and learning and action deepened. One of LBC’s greatest ambitions has always been to share these treasures with the wider world.
What has been an elusive dream is now a reality. In 2024 LBC received a gift from an anonymous donor to redevelop the Old Synagogue Hall at the Sternberg Centre. This, together with a grant from Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, which has funded bespoke shelving, and a grant from NLPS Trust, which has supported new technology, has enabled LBC to transform this unused space into a state-of-the-art new reading room fit for future generations of users.
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On Wednesday 18 February 2026, after 18 months of planning, construction work and moving books, LBC marked this extraordinary milestone with a special opening ceremony at The Sternberg Centre with 120 members of the Progressive Jewish community in attendance. Some of the attendees included the Worshipful the Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, Rabbi Danny Rich and Mayoress, Laura Lassman, as well as Mr Max Breitling, Deputy Head of Culture at the German Embassy.
During the opening ceremony, Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris read a letter from the anonymous donor:
“Hello from the Anonymous Donor. For many reasons, I decided that it was more practical, comfortable and sensible to remain anonymous – who I am is not important. But be assured: I know that at this moment I’ll be standing amongst you here on Wednesday the 18th of February 2026 – sensing myself very much in the role of a traditional Jewish charitable donor as I think of my late parents and at the same time take delight in your presence, as we all share this lovely occasion together.
I mentioned my parents. They are significant here, now, because they unexpectedly left me the resources to give to Leo Baeck College to make this reading room project a reality, and because it was they who enabled me, from a very early age, to find delight – I use the word delight again – in libraries. Not just delight, but the truth and knowledge of the world, comfort and solace, peace and self-discovery. To some degree, I grew up in libraries. They shaped who I am and gave me… well, everything.”
Following on from the anonymous donor’s letter, LBC Principal, Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris, remarked:
“I’m not sure I can better those words, they are amazing and I’m privileged to have been able to read them… As Principal of Leo Baeck College, I’ve had the privilege of serving our community for almost 15 years. It has been my most fervent desire for at least 14 and a half of those years to convert this space into a new bit of our Library. I want to offer my deepest gratitude to our donor, who gave me, and the people who work here, and the people who support this institution and our students and our faculty the opportunity to make this vision a reality. Somebody said to me recently, whatever else you do, this will be your lasting legacy. It is not. It’s partially my legacy, but it’s so much more a legacy of everyone, most of all our donor, who had the vision to make this happen.”
After Rabbi Professor Kahn-Harris, and LBC’s Senior Librarian Cassy Sachar cut the ribbon and unveiled the Lily Montagu Reading Room, Cantor Sarah Grabiner, and visiting rabbinic student, Marques Hollie, first performed a joint musical piece followed by a solo performance by Cantor Grabiner. Remarking on this, Librarian Cassy Sachar said:
“Wonderful things happen in the Leo Baeck College Library. You have just enjoyed one of them. Cantor Sarah has just sung from an extraordinary book. It is the musical notebook of a fellow cantor working in England during the twentieth century. We know his name and title Ober-Kantor Tessler, embossed on the front cover but we don’t know where he was senior chazzan. Most likely we have a picture of his boyish face pasted into his book (or is it his son, grandson?) but we know little else apart from the melodies and recitatives he chose to record by hand. This is a unique manuscript full of personality in its lettering and notation. It is full of tantalising biographical and historical traces: the handwriting style, the transliteration of Hebrew with Ashkenazi pronunciation, the composers mentioned, the liturgy practised. This is a personal book, recording one Cantor’s repertoire and unique musical flourishes; this is a communal book reflecting the tastes and practices of Tessler’s teachers, possible German background and British congregations. The volume is part of a group of cantor’s manuscripts in the Victor Tunkel Jewish Music Collection and LBC Rare Books Collection which preserve the sound of British prayer and synagogue life over 100 years. They chart the movement of cantors and their repertoires around the globe to Britain and document this congregational role. Performing this piece this evening brings that soundscape once again to life.
Our library is full of such volumes. Their texts speak of Jewish thought and practice and their journeys mirror those of their owner’s, Rabbinic Bibles censored in 16th century Italy, prayer books that survived the trenches, dictionaries contactlessly collected during COVID. They tell tales of Jewish life our readers can reach out and touch.
Our library preserves the material culture of European Jewry and makes it accessible and meaningful.”
Following this, Ms Sachar spoke about the future plans for the Lily Montagu Reading Room and the LBC Library:
“Wonderful things happen in the Leo Baeck College Library – and these are the most important to me: enabling our extraordinary collections to inform, inspire and support all our seekers and researchers. Enabling all our readers to be excited, surprised and challenged by the texts, narratives and people they meet in the library. Enabling casual visitors and daily readers to take their library learning back into their lives, their Jewish practice and their communities.
The new reading room allows us to do these wonderful things with more people more deeply. This beautiful space is now a destination location with the infrastructure to connect new audiences to our collections, offer transformative education, grow our extraordinary community of readers and better care for our collections.
Our inaugural exhibition, Beautiful Beautiful Books is the first of some of the wonderful new things that will be happening in the Lily Montagu Reading Room. And we are grateful to the Women of Reform Judaism for their grant supporting the exciting programming in our new space.
Join us on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during college teaching semesters we will be open to the public to visit our exhibitions and consult our collections. Join us on Tuesdays at 1pm for collection talks from the library team and college community. Join us with groups from your congregation for a deep dive into our collections. If you are interested in social justice join us for an exciting craftivism workshop in April. If you want to prepare for Shavuot in a new way join us for a unique multisensory exploration of the Book of Ruth in May.
Join us with no agenda but serendipity and discovery. Join us, this space is for you – our students, our faculty, our alumni, our progressive congregations, our London congregations, our British congregations, our friends from across the Jewish world, our friends of all faiths and none. It is with an enormously full heart that I invite you to be part of our library community.”
To find out more about the Leo Baeck College Library and the Lily Montagu Reading Room, please visit the LBC website at:
https://lbc.ac.uk/reading-room-appeal