2/2 - 2/8
2014
All times are EST
Previously aired
THE STORY OF THE JEWS WITH SIMON SCHAMA
Simon Schama explores the bright, hopeful moment when Enlightenment thinkers and revolutionary armies brought ghetto walls crashing down — allowing Jews to weave their wisdom, creativity and energies into the very fabric of modern life in Europe. One of the most of fruitful branches of this Jewish renaissance was in music, and the stellar careers of Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn established the enduring tradition for Jewish musical prodigies. However, the remarkably successful integration of Jewish talent into the mainstream of European culture and commerce stirred up the ghosts of ancient prejudice, decked out in the new clothes of romantic nationalism and the pseudo-science of anti-semitism. The road to the hell of the Holocaust was paved by the diatribes of Richard Wagner, while the trial of Alfred Dreyfus led Theodor Herzl to conclude that without a homeland of their own, Jews would never be free of the millennia-old persecution.
Simon Schama plunges viewers into the lost world of the shtetl, the Jewish towns and villages sewn across the hinterlands of Eastern Europe, which became the seedbed of a uniquely Jewish culture. Shtetl culture would make its mark on the modern world, from the revolutionary politics of the Soviet Union to the mass culture of Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood. It was also the birthplaces of Hasidism, the most visible, iconic and, arguably, most misunderstood expression of Jewish faith and fervor. This episode travels from the forests of Lithuania, where Schama’s own family logged wood and fought wolves, to the boulevards of Odessa, where shtetl kids argued the merits of revolutionary socialism over Zionism. From the Ukrainian city of Uman, where today thousands of the Hasidim chant and sing over the tomb of the wonder-working Rabbi Nachman, to the streets of Manhattan’s lower east side, where the sons of shtetl immigrants wrote the American songbook. The program returns, with grim inevitability, to Eastern Europe in 1940, where the genocidal mechanisms of the “final solution” were beginning to grind the shtetl world into dust and ash.
Simon Schama examines how the Holocaust and the creation of Israel have fundamentally changed what it means to be Jewish. Mixing personal recollection with epic history, Schama tells the story of the remarkable personalities and unprecedented events that turned the Zionist dream of creating a modern state of Israel into reality — and the consequences for the world. With contributions from writer David Grossman, photographer Micha Bar-Am, kibbutz founder Freddie Kahan, West Bank settler Zvi Cooper and Palestinian villager Yacoub Odeh, the film explores the tension between the high ideals and dire necessities that led to the creation of a Jewish homeland and the realities of conflict, dispossession and occupation that have followed in its wake.
NATURE
Follow the perilous parenthood of two species — white gyrfalcons and Arctic wolves — on Canada’s remote Ellesmere Island.
NOVA
Follow scientists who are returning apex predators to their natural environments — and learn why.
SECRETS OF THE DEAD
Learn if Carthaginians fleeing the conquering Romans may have taken refuge in South America.
THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE (Season 1)
See how the pursuit of the killer becomes dangerous for the women.
LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER
Enjoy Tony-winner James Naughton’s homage to American songwriter Randy Newman.
THIS OLD HOUSE
Soapstone installation and maintenance; cutting down marble tiles for wainscoting; the oldest continuously operating mill site in America
ASK THIS OLD HOUSE
Celebrating 300 episodes
CALL THE MIDWIFE (Season 3)
Learn why Jenny’s promotion causes problems and how Cynthia helps a patient experience a calm birth.
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
A beauty book by Madam C.J. Walker; an 1861 E.G. Wright silver cornet; a 1920 Onderdonk oil painting.
Circa 1961 Willie Mays jersey and pants; a 17th-century Ming bronze guardian figure; and a circa 1861 Confederate officer’s sword.
INDEPENDENT LENS
See how the eight band members test their father’s ideals against their own brotherly vision.
Explore breakthroughs in the science of animal cognition.
YOUR INNER FISH
See how the genetic legacy of a fish can be seen today in our own DNA.
See where the killer’s obsession with Susan — and her determination to find him — leads.
Hear Jason Isbell perform music from his acclaimed country album, with personal and exquisite songs.
See how Sister Julienne and Trixie help a pregnant prison inmate and learn why Shelagh is dejected.
THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE, Season 2
Watch as the women reunite to help free a woman they believe is wrongly accused of murder.
A questionable George Elmslie chair that, if authentic, could fetch $50,000; a 1900 McKinley-Roosevelt poster discovered at a flea market; and a 1976 fancy intense yellow diamond ring.
Hear Bruckner’s “Romantic Symphony,” performed in Austria’s beautiful Saint Florian basilica.
PIONEERS OF TELEVISION
See how America’s top standup comics made the transition to the sitcom format.
Find out what it’s like to be a dog, a shark or a bird.
Learn which parts of our bodies we’ve inherited from our reptilian ancestors.
Enjoy J.M. Barrie’s most famous work in Michael Pink’s adaptation performed by Milwaukee Ballet.
HOMETIME
Discover the joys of reclaimed marble and polished concrete for floors.
Watch Jenny and Sister Winifred help an agoraphobic woman and see developments with Jenny and Alec.
Review television’s long love affair with doctors and nurses.
AMERICAN MASTERS
Experience the battle for a living planet in this exploration of the environmental movement.
Find out which beneficial traits—and some less useful ones—our primate progenitors bequeathed us.
GREAT PERFORMANCES
Watch this highly theatrical production choreographed by Matthew Bourne to Tchaikovsky’s music.
Ceiling medallion made with a 3D printer; garbage disposer options; crown molding
Find out how a sheet of stainless steel forms a kitchen countertop.
Meet a young woman with Down Syndrome who’s six months pregnant and welcome Patsy, a new nurse.
Enter the underground world of contraband and trafficking as the women work to thwart a plot.
Follow the race among major car-makers to make and market electric cars.
Trace the story of people of color on American television.
NAZI MEGA WEAPONS
Learn about the Nazi engineers tasked with achieving Hitler’s dream of creating super-heavy tanks.
Meet the indomitable Dolores Huerta, who has tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice.
