When a video is called “Hip-Hop Hanukkah” I usually just roll my eyes. Here we go again, another attempt to make a Jewish holiday seem cooler by putting Jewish words into rap lyrics.
But I was wrong about this one.
Magen Boys, who, if my 13 year old memory serves me correct, is a bar mitzvah party production company out of Toronto, produced a Hanukkah video that is actually really original and fun.
This video is actually two videos in one. It starts off with a Chabad rabbi on the street promoting Hanukkah when he is approached by a man complaining about his preaching. This, of course, leads to an “impromptu” rap battle.
Then the video switches gears when a group of professional hip hop dancers have a dance battle with a bunch of Chabadnik teenagers. The highlight of all of this is when they mash up “Whip My Hair” and “Ani Ma’amin.”
This might be my favorite video of Hanukkah 2010.
bar mitzvah
Pronounced: bar MITZ-vuh, also bar meetz-VAH, Origin: Hebrew, Jewish rite of passage for a 13-year-old boy.
Hanukkah
Pronounced: KHAH-nuh-kah, also ha-new-KAH, an eight-day festival commemorating the Maccabees’ victory over the Greeks and subsequent rededication of the temple. Falls in the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually corresponds with December.
mitzvah
Pronounced: MITZ-vuh or meetz-VAH, Origin: Hebrew, commandment, also used to mean good deed.
