Some back-of-the-envelope sociology of American Jewry.

Tel Dor.

The Hasmoneans’ winter palace.

Evidence of one of the city’s golden ages.

Hebraism vs. which Hellenism?

Were the Hasmoneans really outnumbered?

The bloody reign of Alexander Yannai.

Talmudic rabbis never forgave the combining of priesthood with the monarchy.

Alexander the Great and the high priest, or a Hasmonean king and Antiochus?

And the menorah’s mythological beasts.

A political movement.

Greeks or Jews?

Could the remains of the last Hasmonean king have been found under a private house in Jerusalem? (Registration required.)

Have excavations near the modern Israeli city of Modi’in exposed the hometown of the heroes of Hannukah?