Though it occurred several centuries before the Jewish reform movement, the Protestant Reformation was not only a historical parallel to it, but its precursor. Rabbi Wein describes the life and personality of Martin Luther, details his objections to the Catholic Church, and describes his contentious relationship with the Jewish people.

• indulgences and other corrupt practices of the Church
• Copernicus, Galileo, and the rise of science
• The Thirty Years' War and its devastating effect on Europe
• Martin Luther's failed attempt to convert the Jews
• a sampling of Martin Luther's anti-Semitic writings, later to be quoted verbatim in Nazi propaganda