Let Jean Meltzer’s new Hanukkah-themed romance put the spark in your Festival of Lights |
In a freak accident during the filming of a TV remake of “A Christmas Carol,” workaholic producer Evelyn Schwartz runs into a piano. When she comes to, she gets a surprise: The network’s doctor is away, and his replacement happens to be Evelyn’s ex-husband, David Adler. Evelyn is furious at the way David ended their marriage by walking out on her. Is it a coincidence that he comes back into her life just before Hanukkah?
So begins “The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah,” the latest novel by Jewish-American author Jean Meltzer. Set in New York City, with plenty of Jewish references, the novel shows that in this season of Christmas romance stories, there’s room for a Hanukkah romance, too.
“I really believe in the idea of connecting with your beshert,” Meltzer told The Times of Israel, using the Yiddish word for soulmate. “This is a story about even when a couple falls apart, you can fall back together again.”
After a TV career in which she won a daytime Emmy award, followed by five years at a rabbinical school in Israel, which she ultimately left due to chronic illness, Meltzer has made a career out of writing Jewish-themed romance novels, starting with her 2021 debut, “The Matzah Ball.”
Meltzer recalled going into stores before her first book was published and seeing “all the Christmas books, a sea of red and green … Five books later, Target, about two weeks ago, had ‘The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah’ on a shelf next to all the red and green.”
“It’s an amazing cultural change,” Meltzer said, adding that the amount of titles about “Hanukkah love, Jewish love, Jewish joy is more than it was 10 years ago. It’s a huge advance — Jews get the happy ending.”
This Hanukkah will be especially busy for Meltzer, who is going to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to plan an initiative she heads, the Jewish Joy Con. The three-day event, which will take place in March 2026, represents her latest venture toward groups or........