ABSTRACT
Hallmark’s second wave of Hanukkah-themed movies in the “Countdown to Christmas” addresses the concerns about stigmatization and othering expressed regarding the first generation of movies. The portrayal of Jews and Hanukkah has advanced in the sense that the representation has improved; there are fewer stereotypes of the Jew-as-outsider at Christmastime. Using Jewish actors and Jewish writers, the movies now depict Hanukkah as an independent holiday within the framework of the Hallmarkverse. But at the same time, these movies also continue to advance Jewish stereotypes, in the sense that they have invoked the stereotypes by inverting them or burying them below the surface. To its credit, Hallmark avoids the worst of these, but the Hanukkah 2.0 movies continue to reinforce common stereotypes of Jews and Jewishness across the dimensions of money and power, clannishness, and deception, using both verbal and visual markers. The potential for stereotypes to translate into antisemitic behaviors is explored.
