If Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” left Jewish women feeling like they aren’t charming, magical and lovable, then Hallmark’s 2024 Hanukkah lineup is here to debunk that.
Both Leah of the Jewish Christmas romance “Leah’s Perfect Gift,” played by Emily Arlook, the very same actress who gets dumped in the first episode of the Netflix hit, and Tory of “Hanukkah of the Rocks,” played by the gorgeous and oh-so-talented Stacey Farber, are a bright shamash that helps light up those around them. They make Jewish women feel worthy of being fulfilled, seen and loved by handsome TV stars — in this case, Evan Roderick’s Graham and Daren Kagasoff’s Jay, respectively.
Now, a Hallmark movie is a Hallmark movie. I know, what a ridiculous line to write, but recent reviews of the Hanukkah offerings seem to not understand what that means exactly, and so, without judgment, allow me, as a lover of all things romance, to elucidate for the novice viewer. A Hallmark movie comes with limitations — for example, you have to suspend your disbelief that the movie is set anywhere but in Canada, where Hallmark churns out its holiday films at record speed, and that half of its cast are anything but Canadian (a Jewish grandmother in Chicago saying “ay!” and mispronouncing l’chaim may make that hard, but I feel it is worth the try for her to rightfully assert that no happy person orders a bagel with strawberry cream cheese). But a Hallmark movie also comes with amazing possibilities, something that the writer of “Hanukkah on the Rocks,” Julie Sherman Wolfe, who also wrote Hallmark’s biggest holiday offering of the season “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story”, knows well. It comes with the ability to be playful and silly, to be schmalzy and fantastical — and if you’re Jewish, to bring that kind of romance and magic to your holidays. And this movie brings so many Jewish specificities to that realm.
“Hanukkah on the Rocks” is Sherman Wolfe’s second Hanukkah movie full of familiar Jewish details. Her first was the Romeo and Juliet rival deli family romance that was “Hanukkah on Rye,” starring Yael Grobglas and Jeremy Jordan. This film too takes place in a world of Jewish food, or more precisely, Jewish drinks. Tory, a high-achieving Jewish lawyer, barely has time for her weekly get-togethers with her bubbe, but she’s vying for a promotion at work, and all her hard work and sleepless nights will soon pay off. That is until she discovers she’s being let go in a company merger. Adrift in Chicago, she goes on a wild goose chase for a box of her grandmother’s favorite holiday candles where she meets Jay at a party store, who is also there for the candles, and they end up duking it out for the last box.
“As a nice Jewish gentleman, I’m letting you have them,” he tells Tory, who bristles at the premise of him “letting” her do anything. “And as a feminist, I’m letting you have them,” she retorts. Defeated, Jay agrees to buy the candles, but Tory quickly changes her mind and follows him to a local neighborhood bar, Rocky’s, in order to cobble some of the candles back.
What Tory cobbles back at Rocky’s ends up being so much more than that. She finds a sense of purpose when she’s roped into becoming a stand-in bartender and decides to make the bar into a Hanukkah pop-up, not only inventing signature drinks and filling it with colorful decor, but also infusing it with a sense of community and bringing everyone closer. That includes the initially grumpy Jay, who turns out to be a nice Jewish doctor visiting his grandfather, Sam, from Florida, who is trying to get the Rocky’s regular to make the traditional Jewish retirement move to the Sunshine State.
While classic Hallmark tropes abound, “Hanukkah on the Rocks” has a secret weapon no Hanukkah Hallmark movie has ever had before: the channel’s first truly authentic Jewish grandfather, played by every millennial’s childhood icon Mark Summers. Summers, known best for his work hosting the Nickelodeon slime-a-thon that was “Double Dare,” was born Mark Berkowitz, and after his bar mitzvah, debated between going into showbiz or becoming a rabbi. Raised in a Jewish home in Indianapolis, he brings with him an incredible level of Jewish authenticity to the role of Sam. He pronounces Yiddish words marvelously, chants the Hanukkah prayers perfectly, makes allusions to the Hanukkah story grounded in facts and references lesser-known Jewish cookies like kichel (which he derides as the worst, an assessment many would fight over!).
Summers brings a haimish vibe to this movie, and he’s also a reminder of how special our relationships to our grandparents are, and how special it is to have them connect with our partners, especially when it comes to holiday traditions. Sam sees the bar as his home, where he and his wife would go to celebrate each Hanukkah, and he not only brings his grandson into that tradition, but also brings Tory in, allowing her to make it something new and exciting.
The big romantic speech that’s a Hallmark pre-requisite? It’s not Jay who starts it off, but Sam. He sees in Tory the very meaning of the letters on the dreidel, a “nes gadot” — a big miracle.
Earlier this month I led a panel about Jewish romance books, and something that struck me was how so many of us feel like the biggest Jewish romance stories in our lives are not the ones we see in movies or read about in books; they’re the love stories of our families, and especially those of our Jewish parents and grandparents, who built a world of love around Jewish tradition, meeting at Jewish social events — like Sam, who met his wife at a Hanukkah party where he ate the last cookie, and Tory and Jay, who quarrel over Hanukkah candles at a store.
This movie also gets at some of the warmth that Jewish community brings into our lives, from Jay and Tory jesting about things they learned in Hebrew school, to colorful events at the JCC, to reminiscing about Jewish summer camp and loving it so much you still wear your camp sweater as an adult.
There’s also the keen sense of Jewish geography — Jay and Tory’s Jewish family stories become more intimately connected the more they discover about each other, discovering they went to the same summer camp (of course!) and are connected through different Jewish spaces. It’s a familiar experience for many Jewish people meeting a fellow member of the tribe, suddenly discovering, on purpose or by accident, that you’re connected beyond this meeting in a myriad of big and little ways.
And let’s be real: The romance between Tory and Jay sizzles like the oil you fry your latkes in, and both Kagasoff and Farber — who finally gives us the Jewish redhead rep we’ve been vying for (or at least I, the daughter and mother of Jewish redheads, have been vying for) — are swoon-worthy actors, making you believe in the connection between these two profoundly Jewish and family-oriented characters. But it’s Summers who drives the Hanukkah magic home in this movie, which beyond the kitschy Hanukkah decor and surprisingly delightful Hanukkah phone filters, includes new original songs like “Hanukkah Honey” and celebrates the real meaning of this holiday, which is about taking things one day and one candle at a time, and finding your magic and purpose in every moment. It’s also about finding new Hanukkah cocktail ideas, which this film has in abundance. L’chaim!
