8: Resistance and Autonomy in an Imperial World: The Proles of the Minyan Ḥanukkah Special 5780

Whether you spell it Ḥanukkah, Hanukkah, Chanukah, Khanike, or any other way, it’s that time of year for the Festival of Lights! Light your menorah & spin your dreidel while Talia & Yaakov reveal just how distant the modern holiday is from both earlier celebrations, when Judith was given pride of place alongside Judah Maccabee, and from the historical events surrounding the Hasmonean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, which was a convoluted nightmare of shifting alliances with imperial backers, advances and retreats in guerrilla campaigns, and petty factional infighting. Spoiler alert: it’s neither the Zionist hasbara fantasy of Jews creating a nation for themselves nor the reductive “culture war” of Hellenism vs Judaism in which the Maccabees play the role reactionary religious extremists. It’s way way messier than that.

Suggested reading: Cambridge History of Judaism Volume 2: The Hellenistic Age, The Book of Judith, The 1st & 2nd Books of the Maccabees, Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews."

Intro Music by Eli Bertrum.

Outro Music: "La Fiesta De La Chanukía" by Judy Frankel & "Oy Khanike" by The Klezmer Conservatory Band