The Maccabeats (front row) with Or Shalom’s education director Barbara Shevis and spiritual leader Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus.

It took only six days for Congregation Or Shalom in Orange to sell out all 400 tickets to the shul’s Dec. 18 concert featuring the popular Yeshiva University a capella group, The Maccabeats – and then another 400 showed up the next night at West Hartford Town Hall to enjoy the group’s performance at the annual community-wide Chanukah Celebration hosted by Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford (SSDS).
The Maccabeats released the group’s first album, “Voices from the Heights,” in March 2010. Their Chanukah-themed single “Candlelight,” released in Nov. 2010, received more than 6 million hits on YouTube. On May 17 of this year, the Maccabeats performed for the President at a White House reception marking Jewish American Heritage Month.

The Maccabeats (front row) with from L to R (back row): Sara Steiner/SSDS admissions director, Moira Leshem, Jannine Leshem, Roberta Singer, Bruce Singer, Anja Rosenberg, Pia Toro, Jayne Rotter/SSDS director of development.

“The holiday of Chanukah is a time to celebrate joy” said Rabbi Elliot Goldberg, SSDS head of school. “Schechter is proud to be able to create a space in which the community can come together to sing, dance and enjoy the holiday spirit.”