Institut d'Etudes du Judaïsme collection, late 19th century-1980s

In 1959, the National Center for Advanced Jewish Studies was created at the Free University of Brussels. Max Gottschalk was the President. It was devoted to gathering oral histories and documents. In 1970, it became the Institut Universitaire d’Etudes du Judaïsme Martin Buber, specializing in teaching, not collecting books and documents, although it still has a library of over 12,000 books.

Max Gottschalk (1889-1976), born in Liège to German-Jewish parents, was one of the charismatic leaders of the Jewish community in Belgium. He was a scholar, university professor, humanist and Freemason, lawyer, and high-ranking (inter)national functionary. He became actively involved in the Jewish community from an early age. His name remains especially linked to his support for the Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930’s. As President of the Belgian Committee for Refugees from Nazi Germany, a government organization created in the early 1930’s, he was instrumental in the rescue of the passengers of the S.S. St Louis. President of HICEM from 1938 – 1946, he escaped to the U.S. in 1940 to continue rescue activities and returned to Belgium in 1949. He died in Israel in 1976.