Given the large number of Jews working in the American entertainment industry, you would expect more episodes in TV series dealing with the "chosen people" holidays.
Not that such are missing.
Some are even quite iconic.
But while working on this article, it was difficult to ignore one interesting specification, and that is that the most celebrated Jewish holiday on American television is actually Hanukkah.
Yes, there are also episodes of Yom Kippur, even random plots around Passover.
But Hanukkah is the holiday, it turns out, that Americans love.
Not that there is anything to complain about.
On the occasion of the coming holiday month, we have collected 6 examples of episodes in popular programs and series from America that were dedicated, as mentioned, to the holidays of Israel.
Armadillo Holidays
Perhaps the most memorable and beloved reference to a Jewish holiday in an American sitcom belongs, of course, to episode 7 of "Friends," called "The One with the Holiday Armadillo."
In one of the funniest plotlines in the series' history, Ross tries to teach (or rather - excite) his son, Ben, about Hanukkah.
When he discovers that there are no Santa Claus costumes left for purchase, he compromises on a costume of no less than an armadillo, and presents himself as Santa Claus' representative in the southern states of the United States and Mexico.
Christmas
No more than four seasons were for "OC," the California youth drama.
And in all four of them, from the very first, her stars celebrated "Christmas" - a not entirely illogical combination between Christmas and Hanukkah ("Hanukkah", if you will), which already appeared in the episode "Best Christmas Ever" in the first season.
The character of Seth Cohen, a kosher Jew as the sharp-eyed among us must have noticed, loved the holiday more than anyone else.
In the third season of the series, he performed a bar mitzvah ceremony for Ryan, his adopted brother's friend, at the end of which he greets with the blessing "Chrysomoke is indestructible," or something silly in style.
The polluted lion
True, towards the end the "entourage" went and became with each episode a particularly inferior screenwriting disgrace, written carelessly and devoid of logic or minimal depth.
But forever we will remember her for her first, witty and fun seasons, and especially the characterization of the acting agent Ari Gould, played to perfection by Jeremy Phiben.
It found itself confronted, in the episode "The Return of the King," with the challenge of his life: to obtain for Winnie the Chase, his most important client, the lead and coveted lead role in the cinematic epic about Pablo Escobar, "Medellin."
He has one day to succeed in doing so, and of course that day takes place in parallel with Yom Kippur.
Gould, one of the most neurotic characters the small screen has ever known, and its producer Rick Rubinstein do everything to get out of the synagogue and try to execute the deal.
Not an easy task, when their women follow their every step and the use of the phone, at least in theory - is forbidden.
About Maccabees and Babies
It turns out that even in "Regrets", a TV show about the experiences of illustrated toddlers, there is room for some Jewish joy, and this is what happened in the fourth season of the series in 1996.
In a chapter simply called "Hanukkah," the babies learned about the holiday, with Grandma Mincha reading them the story of the Maccabees.
The toddlers, for their part, acted out the story on screen.
cute.
It took you six seasons to bring a Hanukkah episode?
Another Hanukkah, anyone?
In the 1990s, Fran Drescher was one of the most successful Jewish actresses in America, not least thanks to the sitcom "Nanny" in which she starred.
The puffy hair and wavy voice that made up her hallmarks also captured the hearts of viewers around the world, and these won the sixth season of the beloved series a special Hanukkah episode, in which Fran, Sylvia Payne, and Grandma Yatta taught Mr. Sheffield's children about the winter holiday.
One who knows something about Yom Kippur
"Gossip Girl".
Episode 5, Season 5. The title: "The Fasting and the Furious" (pun on "Fast and Furious" - "Fast and Furious").
Cyrus, Blair Waldorf's stepfather and Jew, holds a break meal on Yom Kippur.
So far it sounds pretty standard overall.
Until we get to the part in the episode where someone donates a hundred thousand dollars to a Chabad house to find out which synagogue a guy used to visit.
"Challenging as the atonement may be," Gossip Girl says at the end of the episode, "the rewards are well worth the sacrifice."
Happy holiday.
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