Check out the Maccabeat’s new Hanukkah video

Ellie Goulding finally got what she wanted: the Maccabeats have remixed her song for some a cappella greatness. For the band’s Hanukkah jam, Goulding’s “Burn” fit the bill because of its many party, EDM mentions, or, maybe, because of its pryo-laden lyrics. “And we gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn” is so Hanukkah.

For the sensitive, the Maccabeats newest music video is a tearjerker. Big guys in jackets labeled “Bullies” (to avoid any confusion, of course) are harassing a nice boy at school. He wears a baseball cap instead of a kippah, and it’s clear that his school life is rough. When he goes home that evening, his family prepares and enjoys a warm Thanksgivukkah meal.

Now, it could’ve been the tryptophan, the menorah’s lights, or the Maccabeats’ sweet, sweet harmony, but the teased kid gets Judah the Maccabee-like strength. He goes back to school, donning his kippah in public, and the bullies ain’t got nothing to say about it.

We’ll play this one loud and proud. Thanks, Maccabeats. You didn’t change up Goulding’s lyrics that much, but it’s understandable. Those lyrics are rousing even when they’re not alluding to Hanukkah.

Previous: The Maccabeats Newest Single Is Finally Here

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The Maccabeats are back and they’re singing “D’ror Yikra” to the tune of “Cups” by Anna Kendrick— ACA-SCUSE ME? It’s the song that’s been stuck in everyone’s head since Pitch Perfect came out and blew our minds (best movie ever?). We loved their old albums, Voices From the Heights and Out Of The Box, but this new song is probably our favorite. Get ready for “D’ror Yikra” to reach millions of YouTube views— give or take 50,000 of them will be from us.

Monday just got a lot better. Thanks, Maccabeats, you acapella wunderkinds.

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While four former members took the pop-song medley route this Hanukkah, the original Maccabeats wrote some original music. Get it?

Their new song, “Shine,” seems to be about doing good on Hanukkah—the video features the remaining Maccabeats getting swabbed for bone marrow donations and helping find donor matches.

It’s nice to see Yeshiva a capella groups finally using their fame for a good cause.

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Four of the Maccabeats—presumably the ones who graduated college—are back at it with a new a capella jingle, just in time for their favorite holiday, Hanukkah. Taking a page from Rashida Jones and Jimmy Fallon, the guys sing a pop song parody medley with, you guessed it: the words changed to Hanukkah-y things!

They take on Ke$ha’s “Die Young,” One Direction’s “Live While We’re Young,” and Fun’s “Some Nights”—though they changed the words to ‘Eight Nights’ where Fallon and Jones opted for ‘Some Lights.’

What do you think of this new post-Maccabeats project?

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• Marc Jacobs’ underage, underpaid models.

• The Maccabeats are performing at AIPAC.

• Jason Segel will not be writing the Muppets movie sequel.

The post Daily Jewce: Wedding at Katz’s Deli, Marc Jacobs’ model controversy, and more appeared first on Jewcy.

Okay we get it: your mom, your rabbi, your cousin who wants to be Rachel from Glee and about 80,000 gentiles really love the Maccabeats.  We’ve seen this pointed out sooooo many times in the last month that, at this point, we’re kinda sick of it.

But you know what?  Since there is really no such thing as a good mainstream Hanukkah song, we will take whatever we can get.

Jonathan Mark at The Jewish Week really thinks that the success of the Maccabeats video is partially due to their overt Orthodoxy, and points out that the Macabeats video scored over three million views on Youtube, versus the 960,000 views Judd Apatow’s AJWS video scored.

What Mr. Mark fails to realize is that statements like this are what tend to make people avoid any and all organized Judaism.  Even worse, this divisive position has the potential to deter those already trying to find their own way into the Jewish world outside of the traditional classifications and labels.

“[A] non-threatening, non-religious entry into Jewish life for the unaffiliated” could easily be translated to “if you want to take baby steps into a more spiritual life, we don’t want you,” and is the sort of stance that should be frowned down upon by Jews (of all sorts!) that hope to participate in a community of inclusion.

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