Kleinstein Scholar Sessions

 The Kleinstein Scholar Series Presents 
World Renowned Historian of Nazi German 

Dr. Thomas Weber

Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen

Presenting “The Use of Propaganda in Authoritarian Times:
Holocaust Survivors Views on Democracy” 

Tuesday, December 9, 2025
7:00pm

 Live in our sanctuary and on Zoom 

Lecture followed by question period

Dr. Thomas Weber, Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and Fellow at Harvard, comes to our very own temple sanctuary at a most concerning time for our country and the Jewish people.

As the author of the acclaimed books Becoming Hitler The Making of A Nazi, Lodz Ghetto Album: Photographs by Henryk Ross, the just published When Yesterday Knocks Weimar and Return of History, and coming out in January a seminal work on Holocaust survivors interviewed on the future of democracy, Dr Weber brings a lifetime of scholarship and engagement with our history, today’s fears and our hopes. 

Inviting Tom as this year’s Judith Kleinstein Scholar had started with Robert Visser mentioning to me in our ongoing discussion of Jewish history, that he had just seen the powerful and painful European film Goebbels and The Fuhrer. The film I mentioned that our Temple friend, he had taught for us in the past, Tom Weber was instrumental in the film. That set the theme for our lecture. 

The film is currently available on Amazon Prime at no charge. Click here to watch.  

Tom’s presentation at the temple will have two themes. The first theme is ’The use of propaganda in authoritarian regimes - From Weimar Germany to America Today.'

The second theme is related to a new book Tom has coming out in January, a study of Holocaust survivors' thinking on democracy. Although they are separate topics, I’ve asked Tom to pull those together into a single presentation. 

Please join us in our sanctuary or on zoom. 

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about today’s politics, but in a historical setting, from one of the world’s great historians of our people.  I hope you can join us.

-Rabbi Berg

Past Scholar Sessions

For information on previous speakers, series, lectures and programming, click here.