Every visitor to Israel cannot but be awestruck by the 2000-year-old monuments built by Herod. He greatly enlarged the Second Temple atop the vast Temple Mount platform with the sacred Western Wall as part of its base. He constructed the luxurious three-tiered palace at Masada. Out of nothing, he engineered the port city of Caesarea to honor Caesar Augustus and chose as his own tomb the magnificent Judean desert refuge of Herodium. No builder before or since has left a greater footprint in the land of Israel.
But he was also a paranoid maniac that had his own children and his beloved wife executed. Herod was both admired and despised, engendering hatred as well as fear. Whether he was even Jewish is a matter of debate. He ruled as king of Judea for 34 years.
Rabbi Rob Kahn, son of Garry and Judith Kahn, a licensed Israeli tour guide who lives in Jerusalem, will introduce us to this colorful, though enigmatic, figure and offer thoughts and answer questions following an insightful film on Herod’s life and career.
