I’m taking a brief departure from discussions of travel today. There are some interesting observations that I’ve made recently. Bear with me here. . .
Hanukkah is almost over for 2020. As a result, I wanted to write about this while it is still timely. I have experienced a noticeable difference in my own life this year around the topic of Hanukkah. I always have a couple of friends that text me “Happy Hanukkah” messages. This year, I have received notes from a lot more people. Friends who I have known many years but normally never mention it, mentioned it this year. That makes me smile (and we all need smiles this year.)
For the last several years, my local grocery brand has been carrying candles for Hanukkah (and items for other Jewish holidays throughout the year) from a company no one has ever heard of. The quality has been awful for years. I assume that I am not the only one who complained. This year, suddenly, there were Manischewitz brand candles. There was even a Manischewitz brand Hanukkah cookie decorating kit. Gelt (chocolate coins) have always been traditional, but this year my store had other Hanukkah-themed candy too. For my non-Jewish readers, please understand that this is huge! No self-respecting Jew uses items from other brands. Manischewitz is king. The company has existed for over 100 years and the quality simply cannot be matched by other lesser-known brands.
All this left me wondering, “Is it possible that this new-found attention to my holiday is a strange and unexpected bi-product of other national campaigns for equality that we’ve seen in 2020?” The Black Lives Matter movement demands equality that is long overdue, and our society should not be distracted by other things until the issues surrounding banking, housing and education for black Americans are addressed. But, is it possible that other groups might be benefitting as well? That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? I am not a sociologist, so I have no proof that these things are connected. It could all just be a happy coincidence.
There is much work to be done across the board, of course. I do not watch Lifetime and Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, but many people do. They are a hugely successful franchise for both those networks. You can tell because they increase the number of those movies every year and start showing them earlier and earlier. These movies are also famously devoid of diversity. There have only been Christmas movies with black cast members in the last couple of years and out of dozens of movies, only two or three will have black casts. There was controversy over same-sex characters last year. I am not sure how that got resolved.
For 2020, the big news is that Lifetime released one movie with an all-Asian cast and the Hallmark Channel released a Hanukkah movie! I know there are fans that love these movies and would like to see someone who looks like them in the fluffy, cheesy content. There are other women besides white, Christian women who like rom-coms, after all. There are tiny signs of progress then.
However, when I looked up an article about what Hanukkah movies are available to watch this year, I continued to be disturbed. Several of the romantic comedies feature one Jewish character and one Christian character falling in love. Interfaith relationships are a genuine topic to explore. That’s great. I, myself, have been in a successful interfaith relationship for over 20 years. But, the fact that most of the romantic movies use this premise implies that Jewish characters can’t carry a movie by themselves. It implies that audiences don’t want to watch Jewish people look for love, prepare for their holiday, and be reminded of the values of family and togetherness (which are the themes for every rom-com holiday movie ever). I have watched Christmas movies before. Just because I don’t celebrate Christmas doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the time-honored themes. In fact, non-Jews watching a Hanukkah movie would be a great way to learn a little something about another culture.
This year, Amazon has an older movie available for streaming called “All I Want for Christmas.” It appeared on a list of Hanukkah movies, which I found curious. Apparently, the premise is that a Jewish boy bound for sunny Florida at the holidays, swaps plane tickets with another kid who is going to celebrate Christmas in wintry Washington. I know I shouldn’t judge without seeing it but, I have decided not to lower myself to seeing a movie that implies Jewish kids feel left out of the magic and fun every December and want to celebrate Christmas. We don’t. We like our holiday traditions just fine, thanks. We don’t need to steal yours. To top it off, the movie poster art shows a red/green Christmas wreath and a dog dressed up in red/green. I would never have known that this was a Hanukkah movie if the article hadn’t listed it.
Back in rom-com territory, Amazon has an old Hallmark Channel movie available called “Hitched for the Holidays.” Again, it is about a guy (Catholic) who meets a woman (Jewish) and they pretend to be a couple through the holidays to keep their meddling families off their backs. Eventually, they fall in love. I’m sure it’s very cute. The problem is that I found two or three versions of poster art online for this movie. Every version was red/green and showed a Christmas tree. No one can tell Hanukkah is mentioned in the movie. It’s like the network is ashamed of that fact and feels they need to hide it in order to get people to watch.
Here’s a theory for you. Perhaps there are simply fewer Hanukkah movies in November and December on these networks because Jews tend to be much more understated about Hanukkah than Christians are about Christmas. Hanukkah is not Jewish Christmas. The reason for the holiday is very different and, in general, there is much less commercialism and fanfare associated with it. (That is not to say that there aren’t Jews out there who are materialistic and compete with each other over how much to buy their kids for the holiday). But, in general, it is a more low-key holiday. Maybe I am wrong, and most Jews don’t want their holiday associated with cheesy movies. Maybe Jews aren’t asking the networks for Hanukkah movies, but I can’t help thinking that people are people. When you want to snuggle at home with cocoa and the television, everyone enjoys watching movies where the characters are familiar.
I am not asking for networks to play identity politics here. I don’t want a movie with a white cast member, a black cast member, an Asian cast member, a Jewish cast member, a Hispanic cast member and a gay cast member. That mix would be too perfect and is not necessarily realistic, but if they are going to create more options, why can’t the movie show two Jews falling in love and have poster art in other colors besides red and green? There is no requirement that it be blue/white/silver, either. The Hallmark movie this year is a nice first effort. I say that cautiously since I haven’t seen it.
Many years ago, I heard that there was a movement afoot to teach people to stop calling America a melting pot and start calling it a salad. The idea is that when you melt ingredients together, they lose their individual qualities and take on one flavor, whereas, in a salad, each ingredient can be seen and tasted individually. Each ingredient contributes to the whole but does not lose its own identity. That’s the goal.
Clearly, we have much work still to do. After all, the other day at Walmart I found the Manischewitz kosher wine (this is the terrible-tasting wine that Jews use for all of our holidays and ceremonial toasts) on an endcap display. Really! At Walmart! That’s shocking and great.
Unfortunately, it was displayed next to “91 Crimes”, Snoop Dogg’s wine. Yes, that’s right. The rapper Snoop Dogg apparently has a wine.
The time for baby steps has passed, America. Do better.
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