The Story of The Jews

Epic series regards 3,000 years of Jewish history and the impact the Jews have made on the world

Author and historian Simon Schama brings the story of the Jewish experience to life in a five-part documentary mini-series. Based on Schama’s two-volume book of the same title (Volume 1 was published in September 2013, and Volume 2 will be available in the fall), the series first aired last year in the United Kingdom. For American audiences, episodes 1 and 2 premiered Tuesday, March 25, on PBS, and the final three episodes will air Tuesday, April 1.

London-born Schama, a 69-year-old professor of history and art history at Columbia University in New York, paints a picture with a broad brush. From ancient times to present day, Schama explores contributions Jews have made. He reminds viewers that the term “Jewish” refers both to a religion and an ethnic group. Noting how for centuries Jews thrived in communal and often mutual relationship with other cultures, Schama’s travels include France, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and, of course, the Middle East.

Beginning with Moses and the exodus from Egypt 3,500 years ago, “The Story of the Jews” is a fitting context for the Passover story. In fact, in the first episode, Schama is at a family Seder. Recalling the events following the deliverance from captivity, he calls it “one great, formative moment, when the Israelites became Jews.”

However, the narratives that follow take into account more appalling events including the recurrent displacement of the Jewish people and the effects of the Holocaust. Most importantly, however, Schama shows the unrelenting spirit of the Jewish people throughout history.

“Schama told the story efficiently and evocatively–and deftly picked out stories that would illustrate his overarching thesis about how Judaism managed to survive,” said Neil Midgley in a review last year for The Daily Telegraph, a London newspaper. “The Story of the Jews promises to be not only a chronological history, but also a common narrative of what unifies and fortifies Jewish people.”

What fortifies the Jewish people is what they have unabashedly given back to society. Resilience and renaissance is a hallmark of such individuals. In light of their diaspora and persecution, Jews had (and continue to have) a profound impact on all aspects of society including religion, art, education and business.

“If you were to remove from our collective history” said Schama, “the contribution Jews have made to human culture, our world would be almost unrecognizable. There would be no monotheism, no written Bible, and our sense of modernity would be completely different. So the history of the Jews is everyone’s history, too, and what I hope people will take away from the series is that sense of connection: a weave of cultural strands over the millennia, some brilliant, some dark, but resolving into a fabric of thrilling, sometimes tragic, often exalted creativity.”

In promoting the documentary, PBS states, “Whether he is amidst the stones of 11th century Judea, the exuberantly decorated cemeteries of Ukrainian hasidic rabbis, the parlors of Moses Mendelssohn’s Berlin or the streets of immigrant New York, Schama brings together memory and actuality, past and present, sorrows and celebrations, vindications and challenges, and makes felt the beating pulse of an epic of endurance that has been like no other, a story which belongs to everyone.”

KARA MARZIALI is the Director of Communications for the Jewish Alliance.