S1, E5: Simon Schama explores how two recent historical events, the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel, changed in profound ways what being Jewish means. Mixing personal biography with vivid historical narrative, and with contributions from a diverse group of contributors, Simon attempts to place these two events without precedent in the broader sweep of the story of the Jews which began, 3,000 years ago, in a place the Hebrew Bible calls the ‘Promised Land’ and which continues today in the Land of Israel, where around half the Jews of the world now live.