Professor John Ma of Columbia University argues that the main sources indicate that the loss of religious and civil rights by the Jews in 168 BCE was not the result of religious persecution but rather an administrative punishment by the Seleucid Empire in the aftermath of local unrest, and that the Temple was restored upon petition by the High Priest Menelaus, not liberated and rededicated by the Maccabees.[15] Sylvie Honigman of Tel Aviv University advances similar arguments.[16]