Below is a letter to the editor that I submitted to the Washington Post on Dec. 5 regarding its recent article, ” target=”_blank”>as relevant today as it was 1,800 years ago. The Maccabees and Hasmoneans fought the Greeks, who were trying to destroy religious Judaism and the Jews’ basic right of freedom to worship. But they also fought Hellenized Jews, who had assimilated into Hellenist culture. Ultimately, once in power, they governed as religious extremists, and it’s this extremism that put them out of favor with the more moderate views of rabbinic tradition.
Hanukkah is a fun holiday, but it’s also an important one. Religious extremism is a global problem. Assimilation and the debate between a secular or “Hellenist” worldview, and a religious one, is as important a debate in America today as it was in Israel during the time of the Maccabees. To downplay the significance of Hanukkah is to do a disservice to a holiday that has important messages for all Americans, regardless of their religion.
