During the long years of Israel’s occupation, the ancient Greeks did everything they could to annihilate the Jewish identity – Judaism and culture – with much more fiendish ingenuity than the dull-witted Romans could have, and who murdered just on principle, whilst the Greeks primarily Hellenized. And also murdered. Who knows how the history of the Jewish people would have unfolded if it hadn’t been for the guardian and defender of Judaism, the priest Mattathias Hasmonean. It was him and his sons – Judah Maccabee, Jonathan, and Simon – once faced with a mortal threat to the world of the Jewish values, they took up arms against the military and civilizational power of the Greeks. At the time, this seemed like madness and suicide. However, this handful of Jewish fighters for the freedom of faith defeated the all-powerful, invincible Greek army.

The year 164 BCE marks the birth of Hanukkah.
The year 160 BCE marks the establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom of Israel with  its capital in Jerusalem.

Today, the Greek civilization rests in museums. So does the Roman civilization. And yet, the miracle of the Hanukkah victory continues. The Jews and Israel—despised by nearly the entire world—still bring the light of knowledge and ethics to the world. This continues in spite of the lies and slander of those who caused and support another war. It is a war between the civilization of death and the civilization of life.

As we light the Hanukkah candles this year, let us remember our brothers and sisters murdered in the hell of Hamas, as well the modern Maccabees fighting on all fronts against the flood of fanaticism and anti-Semitism, whose dark wave transgresses the borders of countries and nations.