Schools

Fairfax Station Kids Hip Hop To Hanukkah

Hanukkah begins today at sundown

It’s time for Hanukkah, which means it’s time for the latest video from the B-Boyz, three Fairfax Station kids who put up a holiday-themed parody music video on YouTube each year. 

 “We get to teach a lot of our friends about Hanukkah and it’s fun,” said eight-year-old Max Borenstein, a student at .  “We come up with some really creative ideas and we love doing it.”

Max and his two brothers, Ben, 13 and Jake, 11, have shot a video for the last four years. The brothers rewrite lyrics of popular songs into Hanukkah-themed music. Hanukkah, which begins today at sundown, is the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights.

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This year, the B-Boyz wrote up a parody of “Stereo Hearts” by Adam Levine and Gym Class Heroes.

For the chorus, the boys sing: “My hearts a Menorah…eight days of miracles, the little light was burning bold, God gave it for us to hold, just like the Menorah.”

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The brothers work together to choose a song and write the lyrics.

“We don’t have an exact process to choose the songs,” said Ben, an eighth-grade student at . “We like to do songs that are popular and that people know.”

They show the video to their teachers and friends at in Fairfax Station. The videos have also become a YouTube hit—their video last year that parodied Taio Cruz's "Dynamite” had more than 140,000 views.

“There aren’t many Jewish groups out there. It’s nice to be one of the groups,” said Jake, a sixth grader at Silverbrook Elmentary School, who said some of his favorite rappers are Jay Z, Kanye West, and B.O.B.

The boys started filming the videos because of their gravitation to the stage, said their father, Gal Borenstein.

“They all have this natural love of acting and singing and they all have a great sense of humor,” Gal Borenstein said. “They realized they don’t have any good Hanukkah songs that are modern. They said what about Adam Sandler's song? And they said, well that’s old. I realized that Adam Sandler is 20 years behind their generation.”

The boys save up money each year to have a videographer shoot and edit the video. This year, a George Mason University film student named Kwanza Gooden.

“It was a match made in heaven,” Gal Borenstein said.

The boys hope to reach 400,000 views on YouTube this year.

“It shows how kids can make a difference it’s not about anything religious its just about having fun,” Gal Borenstein said. “That’s the message that they are carrying for all their friends and all religions.”  


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