Bar Kokhba: The Jew Who Defied Hadrian and Challenged the Might of Rome

BAR KOKHBA is the search for the truth of the epic struggle between two strong—willed leaders over who would rule a nation.

One was Hadrian, the cosmopolitan ruler of the vast Roman Empire, then at its zenith, who some regarded as divine; the other was Shim’on, a Jewish military leader in a district of a minor province, who some believed to be the ‘King Messiah’. It is also the tale of the clash of two ancient cultures. One was the conqueror, seeking to maintain control of its hard—won domin...