Loving Leah

Loving Leah is a 2009 American romantic drama television film that aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on January 25, 2009.

[1] Loving Leah began as a play by P'nenah Goldstein and was brought to Hallmark by Ricki Lake, who appears in a minor role in the film.

Jake is confused and baffled after receiving a phone call from his mother later that day informing him that his brother, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi, has died suddenly.

After Ben's funeral in Brooklyn, Jake learns that because his brother's wife Leah was left without children, they must perform a halizah ritual to release them from the religious obligation to conduct a levirate marriage.

After deciding she wants to leave her mother's home, become independent and start college, Leah agrees to Jake's alternate offer to marry him and move with him to Washington but maintain a platonic relationship.