On March 19, Simon Schama was joined onstage by Adam Hochschild to talk about The Story of the Jews, Mr. Schama's multimedia account of Jewish history from 1000 BCE to present times. He also showed clips from the five-part PBS documentary series. Although Judaism is the only religion that commands us to remember for future generations, Mr. Schama is determined to portray Jewish history not as a history of suffering or Jews as a people apart. It was an entertaining evening with two charming intellectuals on subjects usually discussed reverentially.

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