The Best Hanukkah Videos of 2018

The number of Hanukkah music videos has really gone down the past few years. There was a time when I would come up with a list of at least a dozen fun and creative Hanukkah videos. This year, there are really only two that are worth mentioning. Six13, the Jewish a capella group from New York clearly has this year's best video for Hanukkah... and maybe the best one for the entire decade. With the recent success of the biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Six13 was very smart to use Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody for their Hanukkah video this year. Of course, The Maccabeats produced another great video this year for Hanukkah, which is more of a mishmash of different type of music. Happy Hanukkah everyone!


Six13 - Bohemian Chanukah (a Queen adaptation)

The Maccabeats - I Have a Little Dreidel - Hanukkah

Jon Stewart and Jon Hamm Make a Minyan (or Minion)

Jon Hamm was the guest on last night's episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. Hamm came on to plug his new movie "Minions" and things got about as Jewish as they ever have on The Daily Show.

Jon Stewart opened the dialogue by telling Jon Hamm what he assumed Minions is about: "Here's what I hope this movies about, okay? Nine Jewish men looking for a tenth so they they may celebrate Shabbos!"

Hamm then offers up that he knows the common English transliteration of the Hebrew is actually spelled "minyan."

The two go back and forth riffing on the minyan-minion pun, with Jon Stewart offering to be the designated "minyan maker" in a road movie saying that he'd go around to groups of nine Jewish men saying "What do you want some tefillin?" and "I'm the Minyan Man!"

The minyan pun on the animated characters called minions is nothing new. Back in January I was in Las Vegas outside Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino and took a photo with two minions, posting it on Facebook with the caption, "If you need to say Kaddish, it's not difficult to find minions in Vegas!"

With the Minions movie about to be released, there are a lot of other minyan-minions images circulating on the Web. Here are a few:

Jon Hamm is not Jewish, although his long time girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt is Jewish through her mother, meaning their children would be counted in a minyan along with Jon Stewart. So, if you're looking for a minyan (or minions), just ask Jon Hamm or Jon Stewart!

Watch Jon Stewart and Jon Hamm mix it up here:

Best Purim Videos on YouTube 2015

Jewish parents have always had very high expectations for their children. In fact, just the other day I was reading a birth announcement in my local Jewish newspaper that proudly stated, "Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Rosenbloom are pleased to announce the birth of their son, Dr. Jonathan Rosenbloom."

I love that joke and I thought of it last week when I received not one, but two emails from people who had just made funny Purim videos and wanted me to include them in my annual list of the year's best Purim videos. Both of these emails stated that I should check out the "new viral video" they just created. Well, if you just created it, how do you know it's going to go viral? So, just as Jewish parents can announce the birth of their son the doctor, I guess aspiring Purim video creators can announce the launch of their viral video.

So, here's my annual list of the Best Purim Videos of the year... (some might even go viral!):


SHUSHAN FUNK - Ronn "Markson" featuring Jewno Mars (Erez Cohen)



(This video isn't technically a Purim video, but I think it's funny and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu made the connection between Iran (Persia) and the Purim story in his speech to Congress the other day.)

STAND! DOWN! IRAN (BIBI TECHNO DANCE SPEECH) - Noy Alooshe Remix





PURIM 2015 IN THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (IDF)




VASHTI'S SONG (Meghan Trainor) - Felicia Sloin




SHUSHAN FUNK - Rosenblum Shaloch-E-Manos (Lyrics: Crazy Daddy)




SHOSHANAS YAAKOV - Lev Aryeh - Catwalk




JEWBELLISH PURIM DANCE MIX




V'NAHAFOCH HU - NY Boys Choir




CHAG PURIM 2015 - Ross M. Levy

Attention Seinfeld Fans: Read This Book by Peter Mehlman

Peter Mehlman's new book was recommended to me by several people before I finally picked it up and read it over the course of a rainy weekend. You may have never heard of Peter Mehlman, but like me you probably were a fan of Seinfeld. And Peter Mehlman, like Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, is one of the guys we have to thank for the wit, wisdom and shear brilliance that was the Seinfeld TV experience of the 1990s.

I must say that I was hooked on Mehlman's book, It Won't Always Be This Great (Bancroft Press, 2014), from the opening few lines. He writes:

When did being me become a full-time job? I know, it sounds unseemly to imply that you never considered yourself self-absorbed but, before the events I'm about to describe, I'd never given it any thought. So there you go, right? Maybe not. Either way, everything changed last December and it's important for you to know right off -- I haven't told this story to anyone, not even God.

Mehlman, a sports writer who used to write for the Washington Post, was a writer and producer for Seinfeld. After meeting Larry David in L.A. back in 1989, Mehlman gave him a sample script which ultimately became the Seinfeld episode "The Apartment." Over the next eight years of the Seinfeld show, Mehlman would coin such famous pop-culture phrases as "Yada Yada" and "shrinkage."

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)

Best Hanukkah Videos of 2012

Hanukkah, Hanukah or Chanukkah... no matter how you spell it there's one thing you can be certain of when Hanukkah arrives and that is that there will be no shortage of fun Hanukkah videos on YouTube. Since posting my list of the top Hanukkah videos the past couple years I now receive dozens of videos to include in my list. I'm sure I'm leaving out some great ones, but these are what I consider to be the best Hanukkah videos of 2012.

Oh, and special thanks to the indie band "fun." for releasing the song "Some Nights" this year. As you can see from several of the videos below, it was an obvious song to parody y.for Hanukkah. And yes, the band's guitarist/vocalist Jack Antonoff is Jewish and attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, New Jersey (he also dated Scarlett Johansson in high school). Enjoy!

Stand Four - 8 Nights




Pella Productions - 8 Nights Of Hanukkah A Capella Mashup




Maccabeats - Shine




Matisyahu Sings "Happy Hanukkah" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno




The Best Dreidel Songs (Including a Version by Jimmy Fallon and Rashida Jones)


Shirat Machar (Marom) - Eight Nights the Miracle of Light




Technion - Rube Goldberg Machine Lights Menorah




Aish - Racing Home: A Hanukkah Surprise




Michelle Citrin - Hanukkah Lovin'




Bubala Please - Making Latkes (Warning: Strong Language)




(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To DREIDEL)

Monday Morning Caption Contest

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Monday Morning Caption Contest

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