The Maccabees

The Ukrainian-born historian of the Greco-Roman world Elias Bickerman was educated at the University of St. Petersburg and the University of Berlin, where he served as Privatdozent until 1933. He fled to Paris and then, in 1942, to New York City. He taught ancient history at Columbia University from 1952 to 1967 while also holding a research position at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He published widely on the Seleucid Empire and the Second Temple period. Bickerman was the first scholar to argue that the Maccabees were not anti-Hellenistic and were willing to absorb Greek values and customs.