Item Description:

From the famed assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the intricate military tactics and errors, Rabbi Wein shows how the First World War changed the face of both world history and Jewish history. Between the battles on the Eastern front of Russia, which destroyed the infrastructure of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, and England's battle with the Ottoman Empire, from which it ultimately gained control of Palestine. For better but mostly for worse, the Jews were irrevocably impacted by "the war to end all wars."

• the Kaiser's arrogance and military mistakes
• the bizarre story of Grigori Rasputin
• the Communist revolution and its devastating impact
• Franz Rosenzweig - a German Jewish soldier's transformation on seeing a Polish shtibl
• the fate of Eastern European Jewry - how World War I was the precursor to the Holocaust

For more detail on this period in history, you won't want to miss Episodes 1 & 2 of Rabbi Wein's award-winning documentary film "Faith and Fate."