Listen To Lin-Manuel Miranda Singing In A Jewish A Capella Group
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
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30