Every Culture Has Its Maccabees

Because Hanukkah comes so much earlier on the Western calendar this year, it creates some breathing room before the typical overlap with Christmas and the commercialized efforts to conflate the two holidays into one sprawling seasonal celebration. Without the distractions of Santa Claus and Mariah Carey, we can examine the Hanukkah story more closely and think about how it has helped shape our identity as a culture, a religion and a people.

Long before I had ever heard of Luke Skywalker or Captain America, I knew all about Judah Maccabee.  

Long before I had ever heard of Luke Skywalker or Captain America, I knew all about Judah Maccabee. For a young Jewish boy growing up in late 20th century America, the Maccabees were the same type of heroic role models that the Avengers and the crew of the Millennium Falcon later came to be. 

The best thing about Judah and his brothers isn’t just that they were superheroes, but that they were rebels. And for a post-Diaspora generation of young Jews whose knowledge of the Middle East was formed during the Israeli underdog sagas of 1967 and 1973, the Maccabee’s exploits had even greater immediate relevance. The opponents might have been Arabs rather than Antiochus, but the tales of courageous Jewish persistence and victory were part of one single elongated historical narrative.

But half-a-century later, most of the world no longer sees Israel as the plucky upstart, but rather an authoritarian power. Too many see us not as the oppressed, but as the oppressor. Or, to borrow from another chapter in Jewish history, not as David but as Goliath.

As the American humorist Mark Twain reminds us, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. After the Hanukkah miracle that we all learned as children, the next steps forward for Judah and his brothers also became much more complicated. Having won a war to achieve their religious freedom, the Maccabees then became divided about whether and how to broaden their reach to neighboring territories to attain greater freedom and security. Similarly, as the modern state of Israel now must navigate geopolitical challenges much more complicated than its early fights for survival, the internal debates over the nation’s economic, cultural and military role grow fiercer too.

Telling the story of the Maccabbees and of the Hanukkah miracle allows us to remind ourselves that we are not only the chosen people but that we have fought fiercely and bravely throughout history to protect ourselves and our faith. If Judah and his fellow dissidents can be hailed for their victories over autocratic repression and prejudice, then it stands to reason that current-day Israeli soldiers should receive similar applause and appreciation for their efforts to protect the Jewish homeland and its people from terrorist attack and death.

But our critics don’t know the Hanukkah story, nor do they care to. They don’t see us as underdogs but as overlords. They are not interested in our history and have little regard for the obstacles we have overcome. So they don’t applaud Israel’s soldiers but rather castigate them, along with the government they serve and the men, women and children they guard.

Which leads us to consider how a story that has so inspired us throughout history is of so little relevance to many others. The challenge becomes how to maintain a hard-earned and genuine self-image from our past even when it creates an obstacle to building the bridges we will need in our future. Because as long as we see ourselves in a fundamentally different way than we are seen by others, our efforts to find common ground will be much more difficult.

The image of a rebel is an extremely romantic one and so it’s understandable that we don’t want to give it up. Moreover, we have earned our underdog status the hard way, and we shouldn’t abandon it just because other underrepresented communities have faced more recent travails. But we also need to recognize that our story of overcoming persecution and oppression is not a unique one. Every culture has its own Maccabees, and being willing to hear those similar stories from others might make them more willing to hear ours.

Dan Schnur is a Professor at the University of California – Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. Join Dan for his weekly webinar “Politics in the Time of Coronavirus” (www/lawac.org) on Tuesdays at 5 PM.