L0802 – Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, deel 2
Heritage: Civilization and the Jews is the monumental nine-part series spanning three millennia of Jewish history and culture. The series is hosted by former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, who describes it as a celebration of our common humanistic and moral heritage, explored through the mysteries of preservation, renewal and resonance of the Jewish people. From the stony heights of Sinai to the shores of the Dead Sea, from a Greek amphitheatre in Delphi to the Forum of ancient Rome, out of the ashes of concentration camps to the rebuilt cities and villages of Israel. Heritage brings to life the long and complex history of the Jews an their centuries-old interaction with the rest of Western civilization.
Part 4: The Crucible of Europe:
In Islamic Spain, despite periodic persecution, the Jews found a Golden Age in the 10th and 11th centuries. In Spain, for more than two centuries, Arabs and Jews lived together, side by side, bound to each other despite differences, by a common love of beauty and knowledge, poetry and music, art and philosophy. The crucible of Europe then travels to Northern Europe, where the Latin Church was gradually consolidating its authority. The program looks at the Spanish inquisition and the disastrous course of events that followed as the Jewish people found themselves trapped in a politically and economically untenable position.
Part 5: The Search for Deliverance:
This program picks up the thread of Jewish history as the intellectual awakening of the Renaissance began to alter the attitudes and habits of all people. Such scholars as Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo began to examine the world around them with new eyes. Abba Eban takes viewers through the narrow alleys of the Venetian ghetto, as he explains the reality of ghetto life. Jewish composers, artists and poets achieved fame that transcended the ghetto walls. Spanish and Portuguese Jews, who had escaped the persecution of the Spanish Inquisition, flocked to Amsterdam, known as the New Jerusalem where refugees from religious intolerance were welcomed.
Part 6: Roads from the ghetto:
This part covers the struggles for the enfranchisement of the Jews and other minorities. In country after country for a brief time following the conquest of Napoleon, in Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary, medieval restrictions were swept aside and political rights were granted to all. For about a decade, until the collapse of Napoleons Empire, Jews were offered political equality and citizenship in the nations of Europe. The program also documents the infamous Dreyfus case in France, which served as a springboard for anti-Semitism; the birth of Zionism and other modern expressions of Judaism; and the waves of Jewish emigration from Europe toward the end of the 19th century.