The first and second books of Maccabees—on which the Hanukkah story is based—are not part of the Hebrew Bible, but they are included in Catholic and other Christian Scriptures. The books also inspired two Italian-made films, the 1911 I Maccabei and the 1962 Il Vecchio Testamento. Considering the latter, whose name curiously means “The Old Testament,” and which was intended for Italian, French, and American audiences, Matt Page writes:

On the Jewish calendar, today is the 25th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzḥak Rabin’s assassination at the hands of a fellow Jewish Israeli. Rabin, after a long and impressive career in the military and in politics, had not long beforehand signed the Oslo Accords, and was murdered by a zealous opponent of that decision. Reflecting on the occasion, David Horovitz writes: