Local Teens “Flip” Over Chanukah Song Parody

Chanukah is the Festival of Lights, but it is also the holiday commemorating the Jewish people standing up to an oppressive bully - for themselves, each other and what they believe in.

This is exactly the message that San Diego's Jewish teens want the world to see this Chanukah, so they created an amazingly entertaining Music Video to accompany their Chanukah parody of the song "Drive By" by Train. The song is called "Am Yisrael Chai" (The Jewish People Live On) and tells the story of the Maccabees standing up to their oppressors.

Steven Wechsler, a Junior at San Diego's SCY High School, is on vocals along with NCSY Advisor, Natan Winkler - who also recorded the instrumental track and helped master the song.

When student Directors, Adina Cohen and Sivan Zuzan (both Juniors at Torah High School of San Diego) started story-boarding the music video, they knew that they wanted to tell the Chanukah story in a relatable and fun way. From there they worked together to come up with the incredibly creative flip-book animations featured in the video (drawn by Channa Loebenstein, a Torah High Junior as well) as well as the playful, modern story-line with it's anti-bullying message. "We just wanted to show everyone the lesson of Chanukah and standing up for each other..." said Adina Cohen, when asked about her motivations for making the video.

This inspiring, teen created, project will have you humming along and leave the song stuck in your head all (8) day(s)...just as the teens intended.

Check it out below!