Academic level Undergrad. (yrs 3-4) Discipline History Document type Essay (any type)

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The Story of the Jews S1 Ep2 - Among Believers
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The Story of the Jews S1 Ep2 - Among Believers
In the episode of the story of the Jews with Simon Schama, he gives a story of the
medieval Jews who, in the pre-serving of their identity, find themselves struggling with their
lives at times under Islam and Christianity rule. The episode gives a portrait that is vivid
concerning the Jewish bankers, the flourishing artists in Lincoln, doctors, merchants, and poets
in Cairo, Cordoba, and Venice (KET, 2021). Simon tells the story of mass expulsion in 1492
from Spain. In an instance where they were labelled as 'dhimmi' (who are the citizens who are
non -Muslim but belong in the Islamic community) by the Muslims or Christians.
The Jews in the diaspora continued to build their lives newly and develop new ways
when in exile of being Jewish in the discrimination phase. Schama explores the political
scriptures connotations and shows how the narrative wheels get into motion (KET, 2021). He
explains how the old testament bulk on each generation and the state power was almost
collapsing. Schama suggests that Judaism has been a peoples' faith than Christianity, which is the
peoples' faith.
There were blood-libels and periods of persecution, protection, toleration and co-existence
that was peace. The story is also a celebration of how Jews thought, achieved and imagined have
transformed the world for us all. The episode Schama shows an instance in which Bishop
Lincoln borrows money from Aaron of Lincoln with interest for the Bishop to build an
extravagant private residence and to secure the loan. The Bishop used funds from the treasury of
the cathedral (KET, 2021). The money that the Bishop used was probably the tithe money

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contributed by the poor Christians for the maintenance of the local church and the provision of
relief to the needy.
Aaron must have known where the money was from as the loan taken by the Bishop was
secured in a peculiar manner. Schama, in his description, describes the Bishop as a naughty
person but neglects to refer to Aaron as a mischievous person reason being he knew the source
from which the Bishop was using to secure the loan (KET, 2021). Schama failure to address
Aaron as a naughty person undermines his creditability, which is not appropriate. In most cases,
he handles most of the instances in the episode with a lot of superbly.
Simon Schama uses artefacts to narrate history through the offering of deep pleasures. He
occasionally makes one as a reader into capitulation through hymns and curses, harlots and
zealots, assaults and uprooting, which can easily be memorable and remembered at one time.
Simon Schama wears his erudition in most cases lightly. The narrative problems by Schama story
of the Jews have received mixed responses from academic historians though some consider it
should be taken as Jews comprehensive history (KET, 2021). Other historians from the story
believed it should be viewed as a starting point of discussion, making it be recommended for
historical reference because it can easily be understood.
The picture that Schama painted in his narrative was standard, with an excellent
illustration of the Jews through the usual materials (KET, 2021). However, Schama, at some
point he projected too much towards the lachrymose Jewish history view drawing sharply
towards the contrast of the Jewish experience under the medieval Islam and the Christendom
experience.

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The themes that are broad from the episode concerning the medieval period are identity,
covenant and monotheism. In addition, the episode shows how the medieval period marked a
new beginning for revolutionary to take place (KET, 2021). From the period, it was visible that
human beings had the ability to stop the many injustices.
The Jews were the first people to make a decision to fight inequality in the world. Schama
argues out that Judaism is on the basis of words sanctification. He shows that despite the
tribulations faced by the Jews, there is the survival of the central texts, which are the Bible,
Torah, dead sea scrolls and the Talmud. The word of God centrality towards religion gives a
community rallying faith point (KET, 2021). The medieval period as shown by Schama he
focused on the community status as the minorities in religion which has made scholars be
divided as to whether there was oppression or tolerance showed towards those who were non-
Muslims making the question misleading to anyone watching the episode.
The question could be misleading mainly because of the underlying assumptions and the
perspectives that we are compelled to adopt. There is an assumption in the episode between the
subjects and the rulers base on the distinction that is there communally. The medieval period also
assumed to be an agenda centralized from a certain centre that must be enforced in the entire
region in a certain way (KET, 2021). Schama's structure does not consider the possibility of a
society that could have been structured in a different way adhering to other systems of
governing. The episode shows the impact of the Jews and what the Jews thot, wrote, acclaimed
and mourned, causing a change towards their fate as Jews.
From how Schama has narrated medieval Jewish history, I would do it in the same way as
he has done so as for the history to be easily understood by anyone reading it. However, I would

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provide equal condemnation towards any evil committed without looking like I am favouring
any evil. The narration by Schama was interesting, drawing the attraction of anyone watching the
episode with the aim of wanting to learn more about the Jewish and their way of life (KET,
2021). The episodes created are memorable to anyone watching them than reading from the
book. Simon Schama seems to have taken adequate time to learn about the Jews, which enables
him to narrate confidently about them.
His arguments on episode two have attracted many history scholars to use his work as a
reference for the study of the medieval period in relation to the Jewish way of life. Given an
opportunity, I would follow the same manner used by Simon Schama to give my narration
concerning the story of the Jews amongst the believers (KET, 2021). I would recommend anyone
willing to study Jewish history to refer to Simon Schama to have a basis for learning. Schema's
examination of the medieval Jews and their struggle towards the preservation of their identity in
the Islam and Christianity shows the confusion related to the modern times where young people
do not have an identity of whether they can identify themselves as Christians or Muslims.

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References
Kentucky Educational Television (KET), (2021). The Story of the Jews S1 Ep2 - Among
Believers, retrieved from; https://www.ket.org/program/the-story-of-the-jews/episode-
two-
among-believers/