Theodor Herzl and the Coming of Zionism

Robert Strauss

Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
January 12 - February 16, 2006
Tapper Room at the Roth Center

Theodor Herzl, a nonpracticing Jew from Vienna, became the driving force to bring oppressed Jews from Russia to Palestine and to reclaim the Holy Land for God's Chosen People. The astounding story of how he accomplished this feat at the end of the 19th century, and how he prepared the way for the State of Israel is thrilling with overtones of biblical prophecy. During the brief and hectic decade of his work for Judaism, Herzl wrote two books The Jewish State and Old-New Land. We will read both during this course.

Robert Strauss was educated as an aeronautical engineer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He worked on rocket engines with the German engineers under Von Braun for two decades, including a year at Cape Canaveral, and as a partner in a technology company. He spent the next thirty years working with his wife in public schools across the nation on the development of policies and regulations. Since moving to the Upper Valley in 1992, he has offered eleven ILEAD courses in Jewish studies including Adam and Beginnings, Abraham and the Patriarchs, Moses and the Exodus, Joshua and the Promised Land, Samuel and the Judges, David and the Monarchy, Elijah and the Prophets, Prophet of the Exile, From Moses to the Diaspora, and The Jewish Diaspora. He is presently Chair of the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission.