Description

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Hosted by Abba Eban

Note: This DVD series is no longer in production. We have been given permission to make a few copies and loan them out. Hence, these DVDs are not for sale. However, you may borrow one at a time. The one you borrow must be returned before you can borrow the next. To provide for havurot that meet once per month, each DVD may be borrowed for a maximum of 3 months. 

The price shown reflects a DVD Deposit and postage. The deposit is intended to cover reproduction costs if the DVD is lost or damaged. The deposit will be refunded upon return of an undamaged DVD.

The postage for U.S. orders is a flat fee to cover round-trip shipping. With each DVD, you will receive a postage-paid label to affix to your return package. The postage-paid label assumes a weight of no more than 3 ounces.

The postage for orders outside the U.S. does not include return postage and there will not be a return label included in the package.

If you open the package containing the DVD carefully, you will be able to use it to return the DVD.


“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.’ From the stony heights of Sinai to the shores of the Dead Sea, from a Greek amphitheater 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 and their centuries-old interaction with the rest of Western civilization.” [From the cover]

There are three volumes (DVDs) in this series. Each volume contains 3 episodes. Each episode, containing 6-10 chapters, runs about one hour. The DVDs also contain a total of 29 supplemental maps and more than 40 articles on selected historical topics.

 Volume 1

  • Episode 1: A People is Born, 3100 – 586 BCE
    1. Introduction • 2. Mesopotamia • 3. Canaan • 4. Egypt • 5. Israel • 6. Building a Nation •
    7. Two Kingdoms • 8. Babylonian Exile
  • Episode 2: The Power of the Word, 586 BCE – 72 CE
    1. Introduction • 2. Babylon • 3. Persia • 4. Greece • 5. The Maccabees • 6. Rome •
    7. Judean Uprising
  • Episode 3: The Shaping of Traditions, 30 – 732
    1. Roman Empire • 2. Jewish Sects • 3. Judea Lost • 4. The Fall of Rome • 5. Talmud •
    6. The Rise of Islam • 7. Epilogue

Volume 2

  • Episode 4: The Crucible of Europe, 732-1492
    1. Islamic Spain • 2. Northern Europe • 3. Europe Awakens • 4. Social Upheaval •
    5. Black Death • 6. Tragedy in Spain
  • Episode 5: Search for Deliverance, 1492-1789
    1. Exile from Spain • 2. Ottoman Empire • 3. The Renaissance • 4. New Worlds •
    5. Ashkenazim • 6. Messianism • 7. Hassidism • 8. Merchants • 9. Enlightenment
  • Episode 6: Roads from the Ghetto, 1789-1925
    1. Introduction • 2. Revolutions • 3. Religious Reforms • 4. 1848 Revolutions •
    5. Great Britain • 6. Eastern Europe • 7. Western Europe • 8. Shaping a Future •
    9. A New Century • 10. Epilogue

Volume 3

  • Episode 7: The Golden Land, 1654-1930s
    1. Introduction • 2. Colonial America • 3. Early Republic • 4. Building America •
    5. Mass Immigration
  • Episode 8: Out of the Ashes, 1919-1947
    1. Introduction • 2. Interwar Years • 3. Eastern Europe • 4. Nazi Germany • 5. Refugees •
    6. Genocide • 7. Fighting Back • 8. A Ruined World
  • Episode 9: Into the Future, 1880-1990s
    1. Prewar Palestine • 2. Israel is Born • 3. The New Nation • 4. Soviet Jewry •
    5. American Jewry • 6. 1990s