2015 Best Hanukkah Videos

Hanukkah begins this Sunday at sundown and for those of you keeping track, this will be the 11th Hanukkah holiday observed since YouTube.com launched back in 2005. That means there have been countless entertaining and amusing Hanukkah-themed videos. 2015 has been a good year for Hanukkah parody videos and I'm sure there will be a few more released during Hanukkah (and I'll add those as they're released).

Here's my annual list of the top Hanukkah videos this year (and if you thought I wasn't going to put Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song Part 4" first, you'd have been mistaken!):


Adam Sandler - Chanukah Song Part 4

The Maccabeats - Latke Recipe - Hanukkah

(Bonus: Get the Maccabeats' Perfect Latke recipe)



Blau Bright Productions - Shalom (Adele's "Hello")

Erez Cohen & Six13 - A One Direction Hanukkah

Ari Goldwag and Sheves Chaverim - Hanukkah - Shir Ushvacha

Jimmy Kimmel Live - Jake Owen’s Chanukah Album

Julie Geller - The Spark (Hanukkah Song)

Hanukkah Song 2015 - Fighting The Darkness

Shir Soul - Hanukkah: Lift Yourself Up

Make Passover 2014 Fun

I was inspired by a workshop I attended last Shabbat by the very talented Jewish educator Noam Zion. For well over a decade, I've been using his haggadah ("A Different Night") and his son Mishael Zion's haggadah ("A Night to Remember") to inspire my students to think about the Four Children in new and different ways through art.

Noam Zion, who teaches at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, is an advocate for making the Passover Seder more fun. I couldn't agree more. If we seder leaders make the experience more enjoyable and fun for the seder participants, they will get more out of it and look forward to the holiday more in the years to come. Some of the tried and true seder activities like "The Plagues Bag" will continue to work well for younger children, but after a few years of showing the little toys that represent each of the plagues, it will likely be time to try some new tricks. In that vein, I've put together a list of ways to make not just the seder, but the entire Passover holiday more fun.

PASSOVER SEDER STEPS FOLLOW-ALONG

Passover Seder Steps game from Holidays in a Box

Ellen Zimmerman of "Jewish Holidays in a Box" has come out with a new children's game for the seder called Passover Seder Steps Follow-Along. The new activity is designed to help families have more fun and keep everyone more engaged from beginning to end of the Passover Seder. The game comes with 5 gloss-coated boards, 5 game pawns and instructions for use. It's available from Amazon.com for $12.97 and can also be downloaded as a mobile app (the digital version is under $6). Inspired by her daughter's creation when she was 8-years-old, Zimmerman redesigned it to show the progression from step to step (using stone imagery) of the seder. The game is a great teaching tool and will help keep everyone at the table engaged.

POP HAGGADAH

Artist Melissa Berg's Pop Haggadah for Passover

Each year I acquire a new Passover haggadah to add to my ever growing collection. This year's favorite is the Pop Haggadah by Melissa Berg. This bright and colorful haggadah is one of the best I've seen in years. The different fonts and artwork on every page make it an exciting haggadah to thumb through or use at the seder. It's honestly perfect for both of children and adults, which is odd when it comes to haggadot. Melissa Berg, who is an artist and has worked in the marketing and filmmaking industries, really hit a homerun with this haggadah. Each section of Berg's haggadah has the traditional Hebrew with English translations, but even these texts are considered artwork. Each vibrant page is a surprise with completely different colors and designs. To borrow a term from the graphic design world: The Pop Haggadah really pops! As a bonus, Berg has included many "extras" on the Pop Haggadah website that can be used for seder activities.

BRONFMAN HAGGADAH APP

Bronfman Haggadah App from the late Edgar Bronfman and his wife Jan Aronson

Top Purim Videos for 2014

Purim is here! In preparing for my annual rundown of the top videos for Purim this year a few thoughts emerged: First, nothing really impressed me this year. Second, there wasn't a lot of creativity (did a memo go out limiting people to only use Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" and "Let It Go" -- the theme from the movie Frozen?). Third, where's this year's contribution from the Maccabeats? Maybe they're too busy touring around the world and appearing on TV with Katie Couric?

I'm hopeful that the creative geniuses out there will get working on next year's Purim spoofs and parodies and come up with some fun videos that are more creative than the t-shirt above. It's actually easier for me to choose the best Purim videos when there's more to choose from. While it was slim pickens this year, there are some fun ones below. So Happy Purim... and here are 2014's top Purim videos:

HAPPY Purim (by Pharrell)



The Haman Remembrance - Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan



Megillas Lester Official Trailer



Kinderlach - Purim Chagiga



Miracle - Gad Elbaz and Naftali Kalfa featuring Ari Lesser



"What Does Haman Say" by A.K.A. Pella



Star Wars Lego Movie Purim Trailer



Let it Go Frozen - It's a Purim Song



Michelle Citrin - Shake Your Grogger (A Purim Song)



Bob Dylan Purim Shpiel (Robert Zimmerman)



What Does Purim Say? (What Does the Fox Say?)



Everything Is Purim (from the Lego Movie)