The Hebrew Hammer: a Hanukah film that mocks antisemitic stereotypes through its butt-kicking Jewish hero

By Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor University

If you watch one Hanukah film this festive season may I suggest you watch the 2003 film, The Hebrew Hammer. I am particularly partial to this film, it featured heavily in my book, The New Jew in Film, for its self-conscious reversal of cinematic stereotypes of Jews.

Starring Adam Goldberg (fresh from Saving Private Ryan), Andy Dick and Judy Greer, The Hebrew Hammer features an orthodox crime-fighting Jewish hero, Mordechai Jefferson Carver, who saves Hanukah from the clutches of Santa Claus’s…

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