Twenty-five-year-old TV producer Jared Greenfield loves his big city life -- job, friends, and shopping -- but even with all the fun of big city life, he feels a longing for something, or someone, more. Then, on the very first night of Hanukkah, he spots a handsome, sweaty basketball player at the Jewish Community Center.<br><br>Tall, dark, and Orthodox, the young and athletic Shai Goodhart strikes up an easy friendship with Jared, only to discover Jared has very little appreciation for his own Jewish heritage and religion. Determined to enlighten this “Bad Jew,” Shai invites him over for a family Hanukkah celebration.<br><br>Then Jared discovers Shai’s deepest secret and the biggest threat to his future. Over the eight days of Hanukkah, deep emotions pull them closer and closer together. Can they ever reach across the divide of their shared culture and fall in love?

Hanukkah Gifts

“It’s fantastic,” said Jared, covering his full mouth with his hand. “I never knew kosher food was so good.


“Ah, just wait until desert!” said Shai, escorting his new friend around the room and introducing him to so many cousins and uncles and aunts, the rabbi and his wife, and friends from yeshiva.


“Jared is a producer for Peachy’s Nest,” Shai repeated over and over, bragging about Jared’s noble status in the land of television media.


“Associate producer!” corrected Jared, but suddenly he was swarmed with a dozen little children who wanted to know everything about the TV show. Where did Peachy sleep at night? In the nest? And how did they pick the children that could be on the show? How did Peachy transport the children into Magic Land, which was all a cartoon, even though the people were still real?


Chapter 7