( written by admin on December 22, 2022 )

TimesOfIsrael: Hallmark’s new Hanukkah movie is ‘perfect timing’ amid antisemitism spike

Yael was recently interviews for Times of Israel, and she made some comments on her latest project Hanukkah on Rye: about her character’s prayers, on how there should be more Jewish holidays related movies as well as how Hannukah movies can help on knowing the Jewish traditions.

Yael Grobglas grew up celebrating Hanukkah – but not quite like this. The star of the newest Hallmark Hanukkah movie, “Hanukkah on Rye,” was raised in Israel, with somewhat different traditions from those embraced by American Jews.

“Hanukkah is big in Israel, of course. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays… but I feel like it has sort of got a lot bigger in the [United] States, because it has to compete with Christmas,” Grobglas told The Times of Israel in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.

For the movie, Grobglas threw herself into the mindset of an American Jew to play the character of Molly Spiegelman, the third generation behind the counter of the Gilbert’s Deli family business on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. After several years of living in in the US, Grobglas said she has grown accustomed to American Hanukkah traditions, although she pointed out that it “blew my mind” when she realized “the dreidels are wrong!”

Working on the film, Grobglas said, she had to balance her lifetime of knowledge of Jewish holidays with the newer American traditions she has picked up in recent years.

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