The Jews! They’re not just in New York and Hollywood, but in fairytale American hamlets like “Pine Bend,” as depicted in the latest interfaith rom-com from Hallmark Channel called (and you may want to sit down for this one) Oy to the World. And these Hebrews, why, they are just like us, though their hair is a little curlier, they tend to crack more jokes, and they can’t stop talking about something called kugel.
To watch this trifling, benign bit of holiday programming as a Jew in 2025 — a year where you’ve got rightwing podcasters saying things that would make Charles Coughlin blush and protesters on the left laying siege to synagogues — is a curious experience. There are real problems in America right now, so if a well-meaning Hallmark movie trucks in some hoary stereotypes now and then, it’s not exactly the end of the world.
With a brisk running time and a narrative arc as clear as a cold December night, Oy to the World, premiering Dec.14, makes for sufficient at-home viewing for whoever it is that watches this stuff.
Our heroine is Nikki Roberts, played by Brooke D’Orsay, a competently sunny actress whose long résumé consists mostly of titles with the words “Christmas” or “Wedding” in them. She is the local Episcopal minister’s daughter, and runs his small church choir. Looking down the barrel of 40, she is unwed, causing some consternation for her mother. Moreover, she carries within her a bit of a wound. At heart, she is a singer, but has not performed since a traumatic high school talent show when she went horribly off-key.
When she was a tyke, she was best pals with Jake Cohen (Jake Epstein), a charismatic Semite and fellow musician, but at some point they got competitive. Now, 20 years later, Jake is living in an enormous New York City exposed-brick apartment with a poster that reads “Rock Festival.” He and his dopey chum are in a band and both work at a guitar shop, and their videos (which curiously show very little of their music) are starting to go viral, so success may finally be just around the corner.
However! He is called back to Pine Bend when the local Reform synagogue, where his father is the rabbi, suffers some burst pipes and his grandma gets (very mildly) injured. You see, she runs the little choir and needs Jake to come home to get the kids ready for Hanukkah.
With the synagogue (a wildly out-of-place Tel Aviv-style/quasi-Bauhaus-looking building that does not fit in with the Maybury-style architecture of the rest of Pine Bend) off-limits during its repair, Reverend Roberts invites the Jewish community to make use of the church. Thus, the blending shall commence once Nikki and Jake stop trying to one-up one another during their dueling rehearsals.
Nikki and Jake move from bickering to flirting as they line up for coffee, shop for holiday decorations, and take part in a weirdly lengthy bowling showdown. They share their hopes and dreams (music! family!) and personal philosophies. She values order; he lives life by winging it. Don’t they see — don’t they see — that what they need is each other???
When the repair bill at the Temple comes in (oy! If only there were a contractor that isn’t also a gonif and a chazzer!), all realize they need to raise a few extra shekels, so they decide on a bake sale and (aha!) put on a show.
In the kitchen (where things are heating up!), Nikki and Jake accidentally cross recipes for gingerbread and rugelach to make a sumptuous Judeo-Christian dish! Then Jake gets inspired and mixes traditional Christmas carols with some Yiddishkeit and, hot damn, it’s a hit. The reverend and the rabbi give a joint sermon about… well, I dunno, about something. I was pretty tuned out by then.
Oy to the World, shot cheaply in Canada, was likely a fun, easy-going experience for its cast and crew. I imagine the screenplay took its author a long weekend to write. Everyone involved should be happy they found employment, though I doubt this is what they had in mind when they started their trades. Beats working in a uranium mine.
Anyway, I checked the calendar, and the next time the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr falls in December is 2034. Will Hallmark be ready for Jake and Nikki’s throuple with a member of the Islamic faith? Only time will tell!
