history, mythology and anomalies
Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (1984) –
A People is Born
Winner of the coveted Peabody Award, 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.”
1. A PEOPLE IS BORN (3100 – 586 B.C.E.)
In the experience of exile the vision of the early Israelites was transformed, and the Jewish people was born. In Jewish tradition, the emergence from Egypt has been celebrated by generation after generation in the springtime holiday of Passover, a festival of liberation as passionately observed as any nation’s independence day. Through liberation the exiles saw the hand of a universal God. All the world’s nations were linked in a common destiny, but bound together by a moral law with inescapable consequences.
In the experience of exile the vision of the early Israelites was transformed, and the Jewish people was born. In Jewish tradition, the emergence from Egypt has been celebrated by generation after generation in the springtime holiday of Passover, a festival of liberation as passionately observed as any nation’s independence day. Through liberation the exiles saw the hand of a universal God. All the world’s nations were linked in a common destiny, but bound together by a moral law with inescapable consequences.
