Modi'im

District: Central

Situation and characteristics

Modi'im, home of the Maccabees, lies 12km/7.5mi east of Lod, southwest of the Arab village of Midya, in an area near the Herzl Forest accessible only on very minor roads.

History

In 167 B.C. envoys from the Syrian ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes, then pursuing a policy of Hellenisation, came to Modi'im and called on the people to sacrifice to the pagan gods. Mattathias, a priest, refused, and when another Jew showed himself ready to offer sacrifice Mattathias and his five sons killed the man and the king's envoys and fled into the hills. This was the beginning of the Maccabee rebellion which, under the leadership of Mattathias's sons, particularly Judas Maccabeus,