There is a lot of information here. Interestingly, Mr. Schama skips the Holocaust almost entirely - I assume because that topic is already familiar enough to most potential viewers. "The Story of Jews" covers the multiple ordeals that the "People of the Book" who created the original Abrahamic religion - Judaism - had had to endure during the 1st millennium BCE while still in their homeland. We then follow the Jews who had departed from the Levant to seek better life elsewhere on their dramatic journeys around Europe, Africa, and the New World.Coupled with own Googling, the series' viewing has provided me with a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding the Jewish people.My short summary would be that the story of the Jews shows how much nonsense has historically been floating around in the collective human psyche. I am not excluding the Jews from this critique. I am not even excluding myself.8/10.

I am an "uneducated" godless "gentile" I guess. For me, this was purely an attempt to learn why people through history have hated the Jews. I did not grown up in an anti-Semitic home and never understood why the Jews were generally hated so much in History considering all the great cultural and intellectual contributions they have made. I do remember my Grandparents having some snide remarks about Jews and not wanting them to move into their neighborhood, but that always confused me because my Grandfathers fought in WWII and liberated the Jews from annihilation. BUT, I figured it out pretty quickly. The Jews were great creditors, which by default causes envy and animosity. I "hate" my credit card company, my mortgage lender, medical bills etc...You don't need 5 hours to figure out why the Jews have suffered the way they have. And this is not an endorsement or acceptance of those injustices. This is my interim opinion from the story told in this series, until I have more information. This series has given me a better appreciation of the Jewish faith and cultures. I found myself cheering for the Jews as History's great underdog story. I do agree with other reviews that this is very much a biased telling and felt at times the narrator was not being completely transparent concerning any historical missteps of the Jews. Surely they were not always simply the victim, there must have been times they were the aggressors and a more unbiased narrator may have been able to give a better telling of that. One of the other reviewers peaked my interest about the Jews involvement in Communism and I look forward to researching that history. All in all, this was a great series if you are completely in the dark, as I was, on Jewish History.

Though the first two chapters of this documentary were rather dry in taste, the documentary itself got far better as we began to approach modern times.Even Simon Scharma, the narrator, seemed to come more alive as the film went on.This was extremely informative to watch. Let us remember that for example, Jews were expelled from England circa 1270.The Jewish people have always used assimilate to integrate themselves into society. Sadly, we saw that this certainly hasn't succeeded and we saw the obvious examples of the Nazi era with its resulting holocaust, and even the Dreyfuss Affair in France as an anti- semitic adventure on the part of the French people.We saw how our Jewish people have attempted to use music and culture in the assimilation process. Interesting to learn how the song Over the Rainbow is based on a Yiddish lullaby.

Before I begin, I'd like to note that the rating for this series has been artificially decreased by a large number of people giving it a score of "1". Although it has faults, it does not deserve this and I strongly suspect that this is due to political (anti-Jewish or anti- Israel) partisanship.It is hard to believe that it has taken so long for this series to be made -- and so disappointing that it isn't better than it is. The Jews are a fascinating people whose impact on history has been out of all proportion to their numbers. To tell their story properly would have required many, many hours. Unfortunately they only got five hours.What really sinks this series though is its focus. It is telling that it is titled the "story" of the Jews rather than the "history" of the Jews. Ultimately this tells an outdated and over-simplistic story that can be summed up as: the Jews are unjustly exiled from Israel, they wander and suffer irrational persecution at the hands of the gentiles, then after the Holocaust they return in triumph to Israel in 1948.Despite opening the series with shots of Jews of all races and nations, this is ultimately the story of European Jews (largely the Ashkenazi but also the Sephardim occasionally). Not only does this ignore the importance of genetics in Jewish history and tradition - "Jew" can be both a religious and an ethnic description - but it also means that Jews who don't fit this narrative - like the Turkic Khazar warrior Jews - are omitted entirely. This gives a warped idea of Jewish history.This sort of partial history is unfortunately constant and tinged with ethno-chauvinism; Schama is quite happy to point the finger at everyone but his own people (with the exception of the final episode dealing with the Israel/Palestine issue). All too often he is content to describe the suffering of the Jews without explaining why they were persecuted. Or he explains it as mere irrational hatred, which is no answer at all.At times it is clear that Schama, whose speciality is the Enlightenment, is not comfortable. His episode on Biblical Judiasm is rambling, only finding focus with the Roman defeat of the Jewish revolt. His episode on medieval Judaism ranges from the wrong (Andalusia was not the paradise he thinks -- see Maimonides) to the bizarre (apparently the Christians hated the Jews because of the sermons of one priest in one country at one time). The Early Modern period is skipped over entirely.On the post-1789 world he is much better, although still partial. He rightly points out the important Jewish contribution to the Enlightenment but fails to point out their equal investment in the bloody step-child of the Enlightenment that was Communism. Unusually he largely skips the Holocaust/Shoah but does so without undermining its power. His interview with a Lithuanian Jew, the only survivor of his village because he was conscripted into the Red Army, is heartbreaking.The final episode, on the creation of the State of Israel, is probably the most interesting and contains the greatest variety of viewpoints. Sadly it comes down to: pre-1967 Israel (socialist, secular) good, post-1967 Israel (religious, militarist) bad. I find that too simplistic. Schama is a Zionist who wants peace in the Holy Land and I don't think he ever really deals with the contradictions inherent in his position; so long as there are two groups sharing one land there will be conflict.Undoubtedly the (pro-)Israel episode is the reason for the low score of this series. I will lay my cards on the table and say that although I have friends who are partisans of both sides, personally I hold no brief for either.By telling it as a story, Schama fails to even ask the most interesting questions: why have the Jews survived, over the centuries and in the face of persecution, when so many others haven't? Why do they have such great achievements when there are so few of them? And why do they always end up being hated?This is a documentary worth watching: the subject matter is fascinating, it is beautifully shot and Simon Schama is as warm, personable and witty a presenter as ever. If you watch it, you will learn. However it has major flaws. There are too many unsupported statements, the focus of the series is too narrow, the facts are sometimes sloppy and there is too little self-criticism. Ultimately, this is not history but a story, which as Schama says, has not yet ended. You may enjoy this story. I found myself wishing for something a little more factual.