At a time when some Jews are questioning their heritage, we look back at a project from 40 years ago that made lots of American Jews swell with pride.

Back in 1984, Abba Eban’s PBS series, “Heritage: Civilization and the Jews,” made an enormous splash, was viewed by 50 million people and won a Peabody Award. This nine-part series tells the Jewish story from ancient times in Mesopotamia, through Roman antiquity and the Middle Ages, through the Holocaust to present-day America and Israel. In three Zoom sessions, we’ll take a fresh look at Eban's work - and Jewish history itself - and discuss how his vision holds up 40 years later, at a time where world Jewry is in a very different (and some would say more perilous) place. At the same time, we’ll follow the series in exploring the threads that define the Jewish experience, including 3000 years of its interaction with other civilizations.

The seminar will be led by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, author and award-winning journalist, and creator of the Substack, "In This Moment: A Rabbi's Notebook."

The nine “Heritage” videos are available for free online, including on Rabbi Hammerman’s Substack feed. Watching at least the first video in advance of the first session on Nov. 12 is recommended but not required. Subsequent sessions are scheduled for Nov. 19 and Dec. 3.

The first session (Nov. 12) will cover the ancient and rabbinic periods (the first three episodes), the second will span the Middle Ages to the dawn of modernity and the third will focus on the past few centuries, including America, the Holocaust and Israel, adding our own updated speculations on how Judaism has changed since October 7.

The sessions are free but RSVP is required in order to receive the Zoom link, which will be sent out as the first class draws near.