Dr. Yaniv Feller (University of Florida) introduces the thought of Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck (1873–1956), one of the most prominent Jewish public intellectuals of his era and the official leader of German Jewry under Nazism. After briefly discussing Baeck’s biography, we will examine how his understanding of the essence of Judaism developed in conversation with Christianity, before moving to the impact of the rise of Nazism on Baeck’s thought, and the moral dilemmas he had to face.