Publication Date: August 29, 2023
Oy! to the world
Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach.
But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg.
Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.
Author Jean Meltzer has an immense talent for writing romantic fiction. She has an equally vast heart for writing characters who struggle with chronic illness. In the span of three years, Mrs. Meltzer has gifted the reading community with three such novels. The Matzah Ball opens unexpectedly with Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt looking over her collection of Santas!
Rachel is a nice Jewish girl. She has expectations to fulfill. After all, her father is famed Rabbi Aaron Goldblatt, and her mother, a doctor, takes her role as a hostess for Shabbat as seriously as her career. Hostessing is her mother’s mitzvah or one good deed she does above all others. As Hanukkah approaches, Jacob Greenberg is a cherished guest at the Rubinstein-Goldblatt Shabbat. Jacob has traveled from Paris to host an NYC-sized Hanukkah ball. However, Jacob and Rachel have a history going back 18 years to summer camp, where the memory of broken hearts differs vastly for each of them.
That first dinner launches a series of awkwardness and assumed differences between Jacob and Rachel. Jacob is a workaholic with plenty of money and freedoms, or rather choices, that Rachel envies. Rachel’s choices have been stolen. Stolen by a chronic illness, one with a common name that makes others think Rachel and thirty million others worldwide can recover with a good nap-chronic fatigue syndrome. That illness has an uglier name, myalgic encephalomyelitis. It has an even more hideous range of symptoms, with 75% of patients unable to work full-time.
ME/CFS has limited how Rachel can meet the expectations of her father’s congregation as a good Jewish girl. She buries her truth and focuses on the practicalities of surviving each day with crushing symptoms and keeping her career a secret to remain an exemplar in her community—she is a novelist. Working her way around guarding her energy, she exists mostly within her New York apartment and in her reveling of all things Christmas. Her audience knows her as Christmas romance novelist Margot Cross. Only a handful know her real identity, and fewer know her daily battles.
But this year, Rachel’s publisher wants something new: A book about Hanukkah. How will she find the same magic in Hanukkah, which seems publicly hidden under the glitz of Christmas? This is where Rachel will need to swallow that childhood heartbreak and get a ticket to Jacob’s sold-out Matzah Ball. She needs some grand inspiration to see beyond how her family has celebrated the annual eight-day commemoration of a miracle.
It will be both a Christmas miracle and a Hanukkah miracle for Rachel to attend the ball. Jacob offers her a ticket if she serves as a volunteer to set up for the event. ME/CFS typically will not allow her eight consecutive days of normalcy that she needs to pull this off. Jacob’s history of being a prankster will add trouble for which Rachel has not bargained for in her wildest imaginings.
Jean Meltzer had me underlining paragraph after paragraph of great book club fodder, Googling fascinating Jewish rituals, and conversely closing my eyes to imagine scenes that are so comical I am certain they could garner a theater full of boisterous laughter if portrayed on the big screen.
The Matzah Ball is filled with opportunities for hijinks, examples of deep friendships and family bonds, and demonstrations of courage and love that end with hilarious events that rival any reality show obstacle course! Whether you celebrate with a menorah or a decorated tree, keep this book on a shelf to reread each winter.
Jean Meltzer studied dramatic writing at NYU Tisch and has earned numerous awards for her work in television, including a daytime Emmy. She spent five years in rabbinical school before her chronic illness forced her to withdraw, and her father told her she should write a book—just not a Jewish one because no one reads those. Kissing Kosher is her third novel.
