OK firstly I am not religious I could believe in Spider man as quick as any other being, anyway so maybe I understood incorrectly, but I thought this was an exercise to understand who and what Jewish people are, and what shaped them, their identities, and the consequent perception by Jews non Jews on what Jewish people are. So to do that quite correctly we turn to history. We investigate all episodes they may have affected, shaped or changed the Jewish identity and culture. At a certain point Simon Schama says " and then there lived and died a man called Jesus of Nazareth", so I though OK now finally we will hear all about this, this should be good, but no, that was it. I thought I had sat on the remote control.The most damaging to the Jewish faith of all the alleged messiahs that came and went, Jesus, the Jewish man who created the largest religion on the Earth, the man who split the Jewish faith, the man who's first followers were Jewish, the man who was allegedly brought to his death in the hands of the Romans but at the bequest of the Jews , got less than a bleeting moment, just 12 words. Ironically, this served perfectly to answer the question Simon Schama had been searching for, this very omission itself spoke louder than anything else on the documentary. So it's not what you include that can help analyse what you are, it's what you choose not to include that is just, if not more revealing.What on Earth was the point of a documentary that cherry picks what it feels comfortable to discuss, and what a futile quest to try and find answers without doing so. Imagine if psychiatrists did the same thing. ? Here's how it would go:Patient "So I think the self harming is because of an event that happened when I was 10" Psychiatrist "Ahhh, we don't need to talk about that, do you like puppies?"

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.

This is a very interesting Mocmentry of the Jewish history over the years as per Mr Schama. I enjoyed the history of this series however by the third episode I found Mr. Schama to be the, well "everyone in history has beaten up Jews", if Mr. Schama could be a little more reportive rather then, it seems asking anyone watching this program for an apologie. I do not condone war, genocide of any race or religion however I think a TV series should report the facts and not make the viewer want to switch off because it is a world that beats Jews. The first 2 episodes were not like the third as in they were factual and good reporting were as by the third episode, I found it more of a political/religious statement rather than an unbiased reporter giving the facts with passion rather someone that realistically wants to petition people to aplogise for the horrors of the past. Mr Schama needs to stay a reporter or a protester and reflect this in his Mocumentaries. Worth watching. It was informative. I say Mocumetrey rather than Documentary as to me a reporter of a Documentary is un- biased, Mr, Schama is far from unbiased but to me asks for an apologie from the viewer. There is so much horror in human past and even present of many peoples but for a documentary this needs to be unbiased. As I have said worth watching if by the time you get to the third episode, I wont watch anymore from Mr. Schama unless he can be a reporter rather than a person too close to the subject matter.

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.