The online portal '[Hi]stories of the German-Jewish Diaspora' is part of a hybrid publication project of the Academic Working Group of the Leo Baeck Institute (WAG). The beginnings of this project date back to 2015, when Michael Brenner, as international president of the Leo Baeck Institute, convened a workshop in Washington D.C. There, Simone Lässig, Director of the German Historical Institute, hosted a discussion on the continuation of the book series on German-Jewish History in Modern Times. This led to the idea of focusing on German-Jewish history outside Germany as a new project of the Leo Baeck Institute. Michael Brenner and Miriam Rürup discussed these initial ideas in a Video of the ad hoc working group “Future Values” of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (in German).

Under the direction of Miriam Rürup, the project is being realized at the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies (MMZ) in Potsdam since 2020 and coordinated by Lisa Sophie Gebhard since 2023. The VolkswagenStiftung supports the research project with third-party funding. The aim is to provide an overview of the German-Jewish diaspora through a synthesis of previous research and new archival research. The focus will be on the lives of German-speaking Jews after they fled or emigrated from their countries of origin. As a hybrid project, this digital portal is being created together with an anthology that will conclude the renowned series German-Jewish History in Modern Times (C. H. Beck Munich, 1996-2012). While the previous five volumes focused on Jewish life within the German lands, this project aims to create a reference work on German-Jewish history outside the German-speaking world. The afterlife of German-speaking Jewry after the Shoah will be taken into account.

In conjunction with the print publication, the online portal offers the opportunity to present individual places, historical figures and sources in more detail. At the same time, new entries can be added as they become available. Through this hybrid approach, we aim to create synergies and go beyond conventional thinking in terms of printed pages. In the anthology, some of the portal contributions are linked to the book chapters, so that both projects are interlinked and form a joint undertaking.

The anthology is being written by the historians Michael Brenner, Sheer Ganor, Marion A. Kaplan, Guy Miron and Miriam Rürup, with Sheer Ganor and Miriam Rürup serving as the main authors and editors. The volume is expected to be published in early 2027.