Jewish People: Story of Survival

This hourlong 2009 documentary is a typical class act from PBS. It features interviews with leading Jewish public intellectuals (Alan Dershowitz, Elie Wiesel, etc.) in addition to commentary from religious scholars from various public universities. The videography is high-gloss, featuring some nice footage of Israel past and present, and the map graphics are well done.Beginning with the Torah or Old Testament, the film tells the story of the Jewish people's survival from Moses through the present day, focusing with special emphasis on anti-semitic movements and the emergence of the modern state of Israel as inspired by Theodore Herzl, the Hungarian rabbi who founded Zionism. Christianity and Islam are treated respectfully as outgrowths of Judaism. A lot of excellent material is squeezed into the short running time of this ambitious and mature production.The only downside is that the documentary's visual style is flat and sleep-inducing. Unlike the History Channel and National Geographic, PBS has yet to evolve beyond the "static photography" approach to documentary filmmaking. With a sonorous narration, this film consists largely of still photography and artwork, occasionally sprinkled with good archival and modern-day footage. Other than the map graphics, digital effects are nowhere to be seen, and there is no effort at theatrical recreation of historical events. In summary, while it's an excellent documentary for adults and serious students, it's not a film for high school kids and younger. Like most PBS programs, this one is too mature and adult for youths, limiting its general usefulness for religious education.

I think this is a good butAnd the kids watch it once a week

most people, even those of us in the jewish group, have real knowledge only of our particular group. this doc covers a wider spectrum of jews in america, and gives us a bit more background on the history, way earlier than most of is know.

My family is Jewish Irish and italian.I was raised by orthodox grandparents whom I credit all the love and morals values and principles to withstand an often cruel and unyeilding world.And for their wisdom. I would like to read this but I never did.

Love the people

Jewish history is always of interest to me.

Very in depth explanation of the Jewish faith & history. Be prepared to view it more than once to absorb it all...I think I've view it three times so far, loving it...

It was very interesting learning more about the Chosen people of the Lord.

What a shame that I didn't understand a word of it, as it was all in Hebrew. Why ', such an important period of Jewish history, could only be accesible to Israelis, who probably already knew this Sefardic past of their culture