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The Maccabeats Have a New Song About Israel

It’s called ‘Home,’ and its release is extremely well-timed

by
Stephanie Butnick
August 28, 2014
(Shutterstock)
(Shutterstock)

The Maccabeats are back with their latest video, “Home,” a mash-up of 12 songs about… home. The home they are referring to, of course, is Israel—the video begins in New York, and crescendos with Skylar Grey’s “I’m Coming Home,” which they sing as they arrive in Jerusalem.

It gives Grey’s song, which has used to score events as diverse as Carmelo Anthony returning to New York and LeBron James returning to Cleveland, a bit of music video gravitas: the group sings the line “I know my kingdom awaits” as the Western Wall comes into view.

The video was released yesterday, in the wake of a newly agreed-upon ceasefire that brought the summer-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to a close. While the timing may have been unintentional, it certainly seems auspicious. You know what they say: it ain’t over until the yeshiva a cappella group sings.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.