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

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)

The Maccabeats Channel Les Mis for Passover

I don't usually include Passover videos on this blog because, well, there usually aren't any worthy of watching. Until this Pesach that is!

The Maccabeats, Yeshiva University's acclaimed a capella group, do a wonderful job using the songs of Les Miserables to tell the Passover story. This video has much more acting than their previous Jewish holiday fare and the college boys do a nice job with it. No doubt this Pesach parody video will hit the million view mark on YouTube just as the Maccabeats' previous creations did.

Enjoy and Chag Sameach!