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“And so I wanted to write a story about two Jewish characters who fall in love, who inhabit their Jewishness, rather than perform it.”Īuthor Rebecca Crowley and her latest work, ‘Shine A Light.’ (Courtesy) “The thing that kind of bothered me about them, was that in all of those stories, the Jewish characters were always teaching non-Jewish people about their holidays and their festivities,” said Crowley. So I knew I wanted to write a Jewish romance, and I felt very keenly that it had to be a Hanukkah romance.”Ĭrowley, a seasoned romance author, said that she was inspired to write her first Hanukkah novel after being disappointed by Hallmark and Lifetime’s ventures into producing Jewish holiday fare. And every year I would go and look for a Hanukkah book, and there never was one. “And there was just something really compelling about it to me.”Įach year, she said, “I would go to Target or Barnes and Noble, and there would always be that table for all the Christmas books.
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“There was always the lights and the music and all the television shows and the stories,” she said. When her publisher asks her to instead pen a Hanukkah-themed novel, she scrambles to get involved with the local Matzah Ball party for inspiration - before she realizes it’s being run by her former Jewish summer camp love interest-turned-nemesis. In “ The Matzah Ball” by Jean Meltzer, Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt leads a secret double life as the daughter of a prominent rabbi who writes popular Christmas romances under a pen name - that even her parents don’t know about. More and more Hanukkah romance novels are hitting the shelves this year, including one from HarperCollins’ Harlequin, arguably the first such offering from a major US publishing house. Netflix, which this year has 21 new holiday-themed shows and movies, also has no Hanukkah productions, and also declined multiple requests for comment on the streaming platform’s decision-making process.īut it’s not just films that are branching out from red-and-green festivities to blue-and-white traditions. Lifetime, which produced 35 new Christmas films this year, did not make any new Jewish-themed offerings, and did not respond to a request for comment. Plager said the casting “strikes a ring of authenticity” for the film.īut the market is far from saturated with Hanukkah offerings. And at a time when representation on screen is debated more than ever, both main characters in the film are played by Jewish actors: Inbar Lavi (“Prison Break,” “Lucifer” and the upcoming season of “Fauda”) and Jake Epstein (“Suits,” “Designated Survivor”).