Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas (2017)

"White Christmas," "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer," and "Do you Hear What I Hear?" These popular holiday songs and many others have created the essential music to modern Christmas. Many of them were also created by predominately Jewish composers like Irving Berlin, cultural outsiders in a Western culture who sought to make a living by writing to appeal to the majority audience that too often rejected them. This film explores the lives of these creative masters, their creations, and the culture they shared, with dramatized musical performances at a Chinese restaurant with a Jewish clientele on Christmas Day. Thus illustrated, a story is told of how these musical outsiders created in song a secular conception of a Christian holiday that could welcome all peoples by celebrating values and hope far beyond religious differences.