Publisher's Synopsis
Judah Maccabee was a Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167-160 BCE). The Jewish feast of Hanukkah ("Dedication") commemorates the restoration of Jewish worship at the temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE, after Judah Maccabee removed the Hellenistic statuary. Interest in Judah only revived in the 19th century, with Giuda Macabeo, ossia la morte di Nicanore... (1839), an Italian "azione sacra" based on which Vallicella composed an oratorio. One of the best-known literary works on the theme was Judas Maccabaeus (1872), a five-act verse tragedy by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A Hebrew version of Longfellow's play was published in 1900.
