Struggles, Challenges and Tradition

“Without knowing the past, we are woefully ignorant about the present, and certainly have no clue as to what the future will be.”

From Rabbi Berel Wein’s Introduction to Struggle, Challenges and Tradition

What Happened?

In a little over a century, masses of Jews throughout the world discarded the beliefs they had cherished for millennia. Orthodoxy seemed doomed to extinction.

And then ... After a century of losing battles with the forces of assimilation, Torah Judaism underwent an almost-miraculous resurgence, prospering in a way that no one could ever have imagined.

Nobody brings Jewish history to vivid life like Rabbi Berel Wein. In Struggles, Challenges and Tradition, famed historian Rabbi Berel Wein takes us on a grand tour of the many battlefields to defend tradition during the years 1820 - 1940. He explores the forces ranged for and against Torah observance. He discovers which strategies helped defend and rebuild Torah life — and which failed.