A veritable Hanukkah miracle, The Hallmark Channel interrupts its December Christmasaplaooza with one new Jewish-focused movie every season. This year’s offering, aimed at the Interfaith crowd, is Oy To The World, about former friends turned high school rivals who, two decades later, must try to put their conflict on the shelf to help the local synagogue get some much-needed repairs, and of course fall for each other in the process.
Nikki (Brooke D’Orsay, Two And A Half Men, and a Hallmark darling herself) is the children’s choir director of the St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Pine Bend (aka Canada – filmed in British Columbia), and all-around Girl Friday to her father, the reverend. Across the street is the Temple Beth Am, which finds itself in need of TLC just as the holiday is about to fall, after a pipe bursts and water damage ensues. The water also results in their youth choir director getting injured days before the big Hanukkah concert. Nikki’s one-time friend Jake (Jake Epstein, forever Craig Manning on Degrassi: The Next Generation for many of us) returns to town because his Bubbe (the aforementioned choir director) is hurt, and also for Hanukkah for the first time in a long while. Jake’s mother gives him the Jewish guilt trip many of us will be familiar with: “It took your Bubbe getting hurt for you to come for Hanukkah?!” Jake decamped for New York City years ago, unsuccessfully chasing dreams of being a musician with his band while working in a music store. No slouch as a singer IRL, Epstein appeared on Broadway in Beautiful, the Carol King musical, and brings those gifts to the role.
Jake’s father Levi (David Julian Hirsh), is the shul’s Rabbi and both families have been good friends for decades. So when the Temple’s congregation needs a place, the reverend welcomes them so they’ll be able to put on their concert on the 8th night of Hanukkah. That happens to be Christmas Eve and also the night of the church’s Christmas concert. Along the way there’s a bowling fundraiser for Temple Beth Am (complete with the rabbi and reverend’s teams decked out in ugly Christmas and Hanukkah sweaters – “Let’s Get Lit!”), a bake sale (Jake’s Bubbe tricks the duo into baking together – an accidental Gingerbread-Rugelach mash up). And Jake tries to help Nikki get over her stage fright at a piano bar so that she can sing at the concert, something she has refused to do since her voice cracked during the high school talent show against Jake.
The movie would have benefited from having a Jewish scribe and maybe a female one (Oy is written by Rick Garman, who has a host of Hallmark movies under his belt), who, for starters, would have scaled back the Christmas/Christian content. A Jewish writer would also know there’s no such thing as a Hanukkah bush (as Jake repeatedly tells Nikki – the holiday store has a lot with Christmas trees and Hanukkah bushes) and that there wouldn’t be a lit menorah in the shul before Hanukkah, and for many congregations, not at all since the holiday isn’t generally celebrated in synagogue. And I do wonder why Hallmark is only screening it three times during Hanukkah, though they are also showing some of their earlier Hanukkah efforts, including 2023’s Round And Round. But points for filming some of the movie at the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre/Beth Shalom Synagogue in Kelowna, BC, and casting members of the Jewish community as extras.
Oy To The World isn’t going to win any awards from B’nai B’rith, but for Jewish viewers who opt to not take it too seriously, they can enjoy the Jewish references in the script (from schlep to brisket to parents trying to Yenta their kids together) and the Jewish mom/son banter. Jake’s mom fusses over how thin he is and asks if he’s been eating, to which he retorts, “No, Ma, NY ran out of food!” The frothy fun will go down like a fizzy egg cream or a warm, comforting platter of kugel and sufganiyot. Happy Hanukkah!
Oy To The World has its final Hanukkah airing on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 10:00 p.m. CST.
