'Story of the Jews' is personal for historian Schama

Simon Schama brings a historian's rigor and a young boy's fascination to his latest TV project, PBS' The Story of the Jews.

The Columbia University historian and writer takes viewers through more than 3,000 years of Jewish history in a five-hour documentary (Tuesday and April 1, 8 p.m. ET/PT, times may vary).

Schama, 69, who is Jewish and grew up in post-World War II England, recalls both cultures' histories, with their ability to survive and overcome, as "almost a romantic notion to me when I was 10 years old." He acknowledges the pain and suffering experienced by the Jewish people over the centuries, but he also examines a corresponding "intense appetite for life" that has led to great accomplishments.

"If you feel, in your culture, that there's a danger lurking around the corner, it can make you grimly circle the wagons and retreat into a kind of bleak fatalism," he says. "What's stunning about the Jewish culture over and over and over again is (that) it does the opposite."

Schama, who has a background in art history, approaches the topic broadly, examining artistic, musical and literary contributions over the centuries, as well as the Holocaust and ongoing "Israeli-Palestinian problems" that often are the focus of discussions of Jewish history. The story is personal, but it can be felt universally, too, he says.

"I wanted to try to make a series that would connect with a non-Jewish audience, and you would not feel that … Jewish history is just a history of death and smoke and disaster," he says.

Jewish identity extends beyond languages, ethnicity or the level of one's religious involvement, says Schama, who, in the show's final hour, offers some thoughts regarding Israel and its government.

"If you feel you belong to the story and the story is yours, that means you're Jewish," he says.

"Simon is one of the most eloquent and captivating teachers and thinkers that we have the privilege to work with," says Stephen Segaller, the executive in charge of the project at New York's WNET. "In a way, this is his most ambitious undertaking — and his most personal. It's a combination of a very intense personal journey that he's been thinking about since he was raised Jewish in North London all those years ago and a piece of classic television history where he takes a journey through the chronological narrative of that subject."

The Story of the Jews, which also covers their history in the United States, follows recent PBS documentaries on Latino Americans and African Americans.

In the new series, which ran last fall on BBC, Schama journeys to Egypt, Ukraine and elsewhere to explain various periods of Jewish history and talks to experts about new archaeological discoveries, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Talmud and Israel's history.

Squeezing thousands of years into five hours wasn't easy, and he says he had to leave out some intriguing topics. (He examines the history in greater detail in a book version released last week, which covers the period between 1000 B.C. and 1492. A second volume is due later this year.)

"Television is a fierce taskmaster," says the historian, who has undertaken expansive subjects in previous projects focusing on Britain and art. "If you try to do everything, it becomes confusing, and confusion leads to boredom."

Texts are inherently important to Jewish culture and Judaism, Schama says, but he wanted to make use of TV's visual nature to celebrate the art that accompanies many of them.

"Not many people know these spectacular, illuminated manuscripts, which are full of colorful animation," he says. "I wanted to bring those worlds to life."