OUR VISION

The capitulation of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a historical watershed that led to major changes in the development of Europe as we know it today. With the crumbling of the seventy-year divide between Eastern Europe and Western Europe, two continental developments began to take shape that would find their natural connection fourteen years later in the establishment of the Lauder Business School:

• The new development in economic globalization, considered together with the multilingual reality of Europe’s student population, led the founders of the LBS to the conclusion that the study of Business Administration would present a compelling option to prospective students.

• Since 2000 we have seen a revival of Jewish life in the post-Communist era in Eastern and Western Europe, and a European Jewish identity is emerging. During these last two decades, nothing short of a renaissance is rumbling through the veins of European Judaism.

The Lauder Business School was opened in Vienna, Austria, in 2003 . Here, young Jews could be gathered into a university setting to cultivate their newfound Jewish identity while pursuing practical career training. The political initiative and the generosity of Ronald Lauder, former American Ambassador to Austria and President of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, made the idea into a reality. In 2003, with the endorsement of the Austrian and Viennese governments, the Lauder Business School (LBS) opened its doors to its first students.

As young Jews have gained the freedom to choose where and how to build their futures, they are also looking to learn what it means to be Jewish and how to conduct business in today’s global settings. The rate of growth of the university and its potential to expand into other disciplines of study is creating a dynamic of development that will soon encompass the entire Jewish world. By the year 2015 the expectation is that the LBS will have a student body of more than 1500 and be numbered among the world’s leading universities serving Jewish students. Eventually a worldwide network of professionals, all graduates of the LBS, will be building bridges across continents between the Jewish communities of the future.