Daily Podcasts Video Research

For Author and PBS Host Simon Schama, 'Story of the Jews' Is Personal

JL;DR SUMMARY Historian Simon Schama has created an intimate portrayal of Jewish history in his five-part documentary series, "The Story of the Jews," and its accompanying book. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish HistoryJewish IdentityZionismDocumentaryAnti ZionismBbcPbsPersonal NarrativeSimon SchamaSephardic Diaspora

Places mentioned

Pleasantville, New York, United States
"Schama said as he sat in the light-filled kitchen at his home in Pleasantville, N.Y."
Lithuania
"his familys roots in Lithuania and his views on Zionism and on Israels separation wall and West Bank settlements."
United Kingdom
"During the 1930s, Mosleyites followers of the British fascist Oswald Mosley beat up Schamas father on several occasions."
Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
"His French teacher called him Gasbag. Schama inherited this gabbiness from his father, Arthur Schama, an East End Jew whose own"
Israel
"Schama went to Israel with the Labor Zionist youth movement, Habonim, and lived on a kibbutz,"
Beit HaEmek, Northern District, Israel
"Habonim, and lived on a kibbutz, Beit HaEmek, in the Western Galilee."
Cordoba, Córdoba, Spain
"There I am, like a pathetic, typical Jew on the point of almost fking crying my eyes out standing on the road to Cordoba, Schama said."
Vienna, Austria
"Sitting in a Viennese cafe, Schama tells viewers:"
Turkey
"that would have focused on Ottoman Turkey, the Jews of Salonica and more details about the Sephardic Diaspora."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 49946
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-04-23 05:31:35 UTC
Curated 2025-04-23 08:31:50 UTC