Die Kinder der Tora

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?"

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.

Jewish history and traditions had always been a fascinated subject for me since I have been in the US for some 30 years as a southeast Asian. I investigated many mediums to try to explore this subject but I have never been able to discover a well-versed and well-narrated series about the complex story of Jews.

But here it is, albeit starting a bit dry with ancient and medieval Jewish history and culture covered succinctly over the first and the second episodes, the rest of the episodes got stronger and stronger with increasing emotion invested by the Simon Schama himself.

By the end of the series, if viewed with an open mind, I believe one can understand greatly the essence of the Jewish heritage and the reason why Israel became such a strong modern Jewish state today.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who has an inquisitive mind to the Jews and their heritage.