Hanukkah & the Maccabees in the Age of Resurgent Antisemitism
“We Came to Drive Away the Darkness” – Hanukkah, the Maccabees, and Why This Old Story Refuses to Die in an Age of Resurgent Antisemitism
Some holidays exist politely. They sit on the calendar, smile for family photos, and ask nothing of you beyond dessert and small talk.
Hanukkah is not one of them.
Hanukkah is intrusive. It insists on relevance. It shows up every year with candles and an uncomfortable question, especially now-when antisemitism is once again fashionable, this time wrapped in sleek language, moral buzzwords, and Instagram-friendly outrage.
At a moment when being Jewish is increasingly treated as suspicious and being Zionist as outright offensive, Hanukkah leans in and whispers (or shouts): You’ve been here before. Act accordingly.
Hanukkah Was Never Cute
The modern attempt to rebrand Hanukkah as a cozy, child-friendly “festival of lights” is one of history’s better PR moves. In reality, it’s a deeply unwholesome story-politically incorrect, culturally defiant, and aggressively unfashionable.
This wasn’t a struggle over aesthetics or cuisine. It wasn’t about cultural exchange or “finding common ground.” It was about identity. About a small group of Jews who refused to dissolve into the dominant civilization of their time, even when that civilization was considered enlightened, advanced, and universally desirable.
The Maccabees didn’t ask for a seat at the table of empire. They flipped the table.
That, it turns out, is the original sin.
Antisemitism 2025 Edition: Same Hatred, Better Branding
Antisemitism used to scream. Now it smiles.
It no longer marches in boots-it circulates petitions.
It doesn’t burn synagogues-it deplatforms speakers.
It doesn’t shout “Jews out!”-it politely asks why Jews insist on existing as Jews.
Today’s antisemitism is fluent in human rights jargon. It speaks in footnotes. It comes with academic credentials and moral certainty. It is deeply convinced that it stands on “the right side of history”-which, historically speaking, is always a bad sign.
And like every previous version, it has rediscovered an old comfort: blaming Jews for being stubbornly themselves.
The Maccabees Were Anti-Woke (Before Woke Existed)
If the Maccabees showed up on a Western campus today, they’d be escorted out by security. Too rigid. Too particular. Insufficiently inclusive.
They believed some values don’t update with trends. Some identities don’t require approval.
They refused assimilation, not because they feared the outside world, but because they understood something modern culture struggles to admit: when everything is negotiable, nothing is worth defending.
The world has always been uneasy with Jews who don’t apologize for their distinctiveness. Hanukkah is a celebration of unapologetic difference-and that makes people nervous.
“We Came to Drive Away the Darkness” Is Not a Song. It’s a Manual.
This line was never meant as poetry. It’s instruction.
Darkness does not disappear through dialogue alone. It doesn’t retreat because you explain yourself more clearly. It recedes only when confronted by light that is willing to stand its ground.
In an era where Jewish identity is questioned, reframed, and politely challenged-Hanukkah offers a counterproposal: clarity over comfort. Conviction over consensus.
You don’t need a majority to light a candle. You need nerve.
Why This Story Still Terrifies People
Because the Maccabee narrative disrupts a favorite myth: that Jews survive only when tolerated by others.
Hanukkah says the opposite-that Jews survive when they insist on themselves.
That is deeply inconvenient to ideologies that demand total moral conformity. It reminds the world that Jewish history is not a tragedy of victimhood, but a long, irritating record of resilience.
Every resurgence of antisemitism coincides with a moment when Jews stop seeking permission.
This moment is no exception.
Hanukkah Without Illusions
No, the world won’t “learn its lesson.” It never has.
Hanukkah isn’t here to educate humanity-it’s here to remind Jews who they are.
That not every criticism is good faith.
That not every moral crusade is clean.
And that darkness often arrives dressed as virtue.
Sometimes it comes with a megaphone. Sometimes with an academic paper. Sometimes with a blue checkmark and a smile.
So We Light
Not to explain ourselves.
Not to win applause.
Not to apologize.
We light because this has been tried before-for over two thousand years.
And every time someone tried to extinguish Jewish identity, a small flame answered back.
Hanukkah doesn’t promise ease.
It promises clarity.
And in a world where antisemitism is once again socially acceptable-as long as it’s phrased nicely-clarity is a radical act.
So yes.
We came to drive away the darkness. Not to ask its permission.
Happy Hanukkah. 🕯️
הירשמו כדי לקבל את הפוסטים האחרונים אל המייל שלכם
