Maybe it’s because of the shanda that is Love, Lights, Hanukkah airing last December but there are no Chanukah films on this year’s schedule.
Most of the time, these films are marketed as Chanukah films. But when I watched them, it feels like it’s just another way of trying to brand Chanukah as Jewish Xmas. A Chanukah wreath, really? I beg of Hollywood studios or even indie filmmakers seeking to make a Chanukah film to please not brand Chanukah as Xmas. It is not, not by a mile. When the month of Tishrei ends, I do not countdown until the first night of Chanukah. I do not pull out the Chanukiah and place it on the windowsill. News flash: it sits there year-round but only because I live in a small studio.
When it comes to Chanukah films themselves, the only memorable one I can think of is Full-Court Miracle. Not familiar? The film originally aired back in November 2003 a Disney Channel Original Movie. This was solely a Chanukah movie. There was nothing Xmas about it. There are only two reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so maybe I’ll make myself review it later this month.
If you’re wanting a film about a crime fighter who must save Chanukah from the evil son of Santa Claus, the only choice is The Hebrew Hammer. Jonathan Kesselman’s film, starring Adam Goldberg as Mordechai Jefferson Carver, also came out in 2003. Carver takes on Damian Claus (Andy Dick, who is problematic in 2021), who seeks to destroy both Chanukah and Kwanzaa and make everyone celebrate Xmas. Carver finds a love interest in Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal and an ally in Kwanzaa Liberation Front leader Mohammed Ali Paula Abdul Rahim. Following its Sundance premiere, The Hebrew Hammer eventually made its way to Comedy Central in early December 2003 before a theatrical release a few weeks later. This film is a very different film from the Disney movie. In fact, this one plays to every Jewish stereotype in the book and it’s a Jewish parody of the blaxploitation films.
If you’re looking for a list of Chanukah movies, I wish I had some better news. You might have a TV series releasing a Chanukah special but movies? Hallmark and Lifetime always find a way to make them more about Xmas and less centered on Chanukah. Wiki does list An American Tail as a Chanukah film but this film is less about Chanukah and more about the great Jewish immigration to the United States. If you want a Passover film, feel free to turn on Uncut Gems. It’s way better than Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights.
I fully realize that there are interfaith families out there but Chanukah is about celebrating the Judaism of it all. The primary mitzvah of the holiday is that Jews must celebrate it in public and this is after a war was fought over forcing Jews to assimilate into Greek culture and beliefs. This idea of movies looking to turn Chanukah into Xmas just leaves me cringing at the screen. The latter of which has grown way too commercial. Stores already have their shelves turned over before the end of October and I fear it’ll keep creeping earlier into September.
This year, Chanukah is starting the earliest it has since the year I saw Dallas Buyers Club on Thanksgiving day. It’ll run from the evening of November 28 through December 6. The holiday itself means “dedication” because the entire holiday is a celebration of rededicating the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
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