Modin

	Some of the Maccabee graves near the ancient site of Modin

You may - or may not - have heard of the Maccabees, the Jewish patriots who fought a successful campaign against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was persecuting the Jews. However unless you are a scholar, you probably will not know that the revolt started at a small village called Modin. Unless you are a really keen scholar, you won't know that just outside that village there are graves from the Maccabee period.

Today Modin is a hideous new town infested by striking architecture and the Maccabee graves are lonely pits dug in the rock and half-filled with wind-blown rubbish. Come Hanukkah, the locals rush to fill a ghastly fake Maccabee village - which does not feature in this film - but I think old Judas Maccabeus would be happier if they tidied up his graveyard.