The atmosphere in Europe in the years before World War I can be likened to an unlit powder keg of dynamite. The underlying tension between rivaling empires needed only slight provocation before exploding into war. This riveting lecture will not only give you the political backdrop of the war, it will illustrate the decadence of the world leaders who made it happen.

• the Russo-Japanese War - the waking of the "sleeping giant"
• the Bolshevik/Menshevik split
• how Communist Jews did even more damage than the Reform
• Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the continued growth of the Zionist movement

For more detail on this period in history, you won't want to miss "The Dawn of the Century" and "The Implosion of the World Order," the first two episodes of Rabbi Wein's award-winning documentary film "Faith and Fate."