It’s one of the best known Jewish holidays, and yet, one of the least understood. (We can’t even all agree on how to spell it! Hanakah? Chanukah? Channukka?!) Maccabæus, an epic retelling of the Hasmonean Revolt, will change all that. Within its pages, you will find an incredible true story of palace intrigue and holy war, of oppression, defiance, faith, and ultimately redemption.
Meet the Maccabees
Mattathias son of John is the head of the noble House of Asmoneus, and a descendant of the Biblical Aaron, brother of Moses. He and his sons are kohanim(priests), spiritual leaders whose role in Ancient Israel revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem, which represented the very heart and soul of Jewish life.
Standing at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia, the Land of Israel was conquered and reconquered time and again over the centuries. In the days of the Maccabees, Judea had just fallen under the dominion of the Seleucids, the Syrian-Greek Empire. While the Greeks were usually magnanimous towards the nations they conquered and tolerant of their religions and customs, the Israelites, with their unwavering faith in a singular, incorporeal God, were an exception. Under the Seleucid occupation, idols were erected throughout the land, and practices central to Jewish spirituality (e.g. keeping the Sabbath, studying the Torah, and the covenant of circumcision) were outlawed on pain of death. As this artist’s rendering of events illustrates, Mattathias didn’t take the news very well.
In a brazen act of defiance, Mattathias struck down a Greek envoy and a Jewish collaborator by the sword, and sparked an uprising that, under the leadership of his sons, particularly Yehudah, the Judas Maccabaeus of legend, led to the liberation of Jerusalem, the miraculous re-dedication of the Temple (of which Chanukah is a celebration), and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in their homeland.
Hi there! My name is Daniel, and I’m a freelance writer from Brooklyn. Once upon a time, I was editor of a local newspaper called the Jewish Voice, and since that time my work, which includes op-eds, hard news, and occasionally fun stuff like this article on Aish HaTorah about the hidden Jewish elements of the Star Wars universe, has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and online media in both in the U.S. and Israel.
Project Maccabaeus was originally conceived as a blockbuster action movie, and it currently exists in the form of a screenplay. Fun fact: If you don’t have connections in the film industry and/or millions of dollars, it is difficult bordering on impossible to get a movie made. Undaunted by reality (Maccabæus is the story of a miracle, after all), I began showing my spec script to colleagues and friends, and I kept hearing the same thing: This would be a crazy awesome graphic novel. It didn’t take long for me to realize how right they were. I mean, just look at that battle scene up top. Is that not the most badass thing you’ve ever seen? And how many of today’s great action films (like “300,” or as I call it, “Spartan Maccabæus”) started out as graphic novels? That said, even if the story of the Maccabees never makes it to the big screen (or even worse, if it makes it to the big screen and is produced and directed by Mel Gibson), this is a book that deserves to be made. If nothing else, it’ll make for the coolest Chanukah gift ever. But it is also my hope that the story will serve as a source of inspiration, especially to Jewish youngsters out there who are made to feel ashamed of who they are and where they come from. It really is one of our people’s most fascinating, controversial, and exciting stories–and considering we’re the same people who gave the world The Bible, that’s really saying something!
To bring Maccabæus to life, I’ve enlisted the help of Mark Strauss, a talented artist and graduate of New York’s prestigious School of Visual Arts. How awesome is Mark? Well, if you didn’t read the Star Wars piece from earlier, suffice it to say that he drew this sweet picture of Jedi Master Yoda as a rabbi, to use on a flyer for a Friday night presentation sponsored by my synagogue.
I repeat (because it bears repeating), Mark made this sketch of “Rabbi Yoda,” complete with tallis and yarmulke, and our synagogue actually posted it all over the doors and stuff. On purpose! If anyone deserves the chance to make a comic book about the Maccabees, Mark does.
This is our second attempt to fund Project Maccabæus, which is why the video says coming Chanukah 2016. (We were featured in the Jewish Press last year, the first time around. Check it out and learn more about the project!) If we raise the necessary funds this time, the book will be ready in time for Chanukah of next year. A year ago on Kickstarter (you can see the original campaign here) we raised nearly half of what we needed in pledges. But since Kickstarter is all or nothing, we received nothing. That kind of uncompromising attitude is good when you’re waging a guerilla war for freedom like the Maccabees did. For getting a book made? Not so much. So this time around, we’re leaving our options open.
If we reach our goal of $10,000, we’ll be able to complete revisions to the script, produce the necessary artwork, and produce a limited edition printing of the graphic novel. If we get halfway there ($5,000), I’ll be able to commission Maccabæus as an e-book. Even if we don’t reach either goal, we’ll still be able to promote the project, entering the script into creative writing competitions, marketing it to publishers and so on. Second fun fact: An earlier draft of Maccabæus made the quarterfinals of the 2015 Courier Awards. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.
And hey, you never know. Project Maccabæus could go viral this time around and raise millions. If it does, we’ll publish the book and start working on the film. (I can dream, can’t I?)
Bottom line: Anything you contribute to Project Maccabæus can and will be used to move the story forward. And the more we put into it as a community, the more we’ll all get out of it. At the very least, you can be guaranteed a copy of the original screenplay–which will no doubt become a collector’s item once Maccabæus the Motion Picture sweeps the 2021 Oscars. And if we achieve our funding goals, you can have your own copy of the greatest Jewish graphic novel yet to be made, all in time for next Chanukah.
*Note regarding the perks: To be 100% clear, only items that are guaranteed at the moment are the original screenplay and the commentary. The Maccabæus graphic novel e-book is contingent on us raising enough funds to commission the artwork, roughly $5,000, or 50% of our campaign goal. To actually publish a limited run of the book in hardcopy, we have to meet or exceed our $10,000 goal. If we raise just shy of 50%, or somewhere between 50 and 100%, we’ll work out some sort of “consolation prize” for our backers, like signed prints, or possibly commissioning a smaller collection of Maccabee artwork to accompany the script. Also, all contributors entitled to receive copies of the screenplay will receive them, with God’s help, within a few weeks of the end of the campaign. All the perks with estimated delivery dates of December 2017, that’s just referring to the graphic novel itself.
So please, join us, and just as importantly, tell everyone!
PS: Special thanks to our friend and gentleman poet Joseph Robbins, for producing and narrating the Maccabæus trailer video. He’s also the founder of the not-for-profit Artists Fighting Cancer, so go check them out.