# Hannukah goes viral! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 3, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740 "2010-12-03T01:09:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![trapezoidal\_jellyfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6f9a4e/32.png) [@trapezoidal\_jellyfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trapezoidal_jellyfish)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/1 "2010-12-03T01:09:52Z")
An appropriately-named a cappella group from Yeshiva University called the Maccabeats released a music video of their song “Candlelight,” a [Hannukah themed parody](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJCSR4MuhU) of the Mike Tompkins a cappella cover of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite.” With over half a million views so far on Youtube, it is the [number six viral video](http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/youtube/Candlelight_-_The_Maccabeats?id=qSJCSR4MuhU) in the world. They had a segment on [CBS news](http://newyork.cbslocal.com/top-lists/celebrate-chanukah-in-new-york-city/) and a “breaking news video” on [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/showbiz/2010/12/02/maccabeats.candlelight.video.maccabeats.html). Happy Hannukah! ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/2 "2010-12-03T01:52:58Z")
Oooh, the Maccabeats are playing at my shul this week! ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/3 "2010-12-03T02:22:18Z")
Good for them, Hannukah lingers in obscurity for 2000 years, and a viral YouTube video brings the holiday the recognition it deserves! It’s a Hannukah miracle! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/4 "2010-12-03T07:51:36Z")
Did they sing Tom Lehrer’s “I’m spending Hannukah in Santa Monica”? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/5 "2010-12-03T09:16:27Z")
Judaism is contagious? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/6 "2010-12-03T10:04:02Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Judaism is contagious? You can get meds for it nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/7 "2010-12-07T15:17:21Z")
Loved it! I had never heard the original… then yesterday while waiting at Subway, Dynamite started playing and I kept expecting to hear “dreidel” and “Greeks were gone” :). ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hannukah-goes-viral/562740/8 "2010-12-07T15:23:55Z")
Thanks for posting this - I kind of noticed it on the news earlier but wasn’t paying attention at the time. I followed this link, and found it so catchy that I reposted it on another board. A friend of mine who posts there is Jewish, and thanked me for bringing it to his attention; his young son had been feeling down about this time of year, being Jewish and thus not really included in a lot of the holiday stuff. He showed the video to his son, and the kid adored it - he plays the song often, sings it, and was fired up to show it to his grandparents at the next get-together. So you helped brighten a kid’s Hannukah!