Listen To Lin-Manuel Miranda Singing In A Jewish A Capella Group
Lin-Manuel Miranda of ‘Hamilton’ performs onstage during the 70th Annual Tony Awards at The Beacon Theatre on June 12, 2016 in New York City. Image by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
By Aiden Pink February 25, 2018
Look around, look around — how lucky we are to be alive right now: Lin-Manuel Miranda, the literal genius behind “Hamilton,” just promoted an old recording of the Jewish a capella group he sang with in college, the Mazel Tones.
And you don’t have to wait for it to listen — here’s a snippet:
Hey @Lin_Manuel, the new Mazel Tones need a rockin soloist! You interested? @wesleyan_u pic.twitter.com/4SxTKiJNy6
— Lisa Stein (@singingcellist) February 25, 2018
Miranda sang tenor in the Mazel Tones at Wesleyan University, from which he graduated in 2002. He had a solo in the song “Hine Ba Hashalom,” which he shared with his Twitter audience of over two million followers after current Mazel Tones member Lisa Stein tagged him in a video.
Although Miranda is not Jewish, he has expressed affinity for Jewish culture in the past: He attended Hunter College Elementary School in New York, where, as he told The New Yorker, “All my friends were Jewish.” (He even sang the Hanukkah song “Sevivon Sov Sov Sov” in the school chorus, though that part consisted of “sing[ing] ‘Sov’ about 6,000 times in a row.”
In 8th grade, Miranda wrote a musical about the book “The Chosen” for a teacher who inspired him more than any other. At his wedding, he and his family sang the song “To Life (L’Chaim)” from “Fiddler on the Roof” to his bride. And in 2016, he appeared in a fundraising video for Yeshiva University, which is based in his home neighborhood of Washington Heights, New York.
And although it isn’t addressed in the plot of Miranda’s award-winning smash hit musical “Hamilton” (which was based on a biography by Jewish historian Ron Chernow), the show’s protagonist, former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, may have had Jewish ancestry.
When it comes to Miranda, history has its eyes on Jews.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
