Kippah-Clad Beatboxing Duo Rocks the Crowd on ‘America’s Got Talent’

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A kippah-clad, tzitzit-wearing beatboxing duo has advanced on “America’s Got Talent.”
Ilan Swartz-Brownstein and Josh Leviton of Manhattan performed to Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” on the NBC reality show Tuesday night for the final episode of the season’s auditions.
Their performance was rewarded with a resounding yes from all four judges, moving them to the next round of the competition.
Swartz-Brownstein, a student at Yeshiva University, and Leviton, a consultant, met three years ago at the Western Wall when they were yeshiva students in Israel, they told the judges.
Leviton, who goes by the moniker “The Orthobox,” has performed with the popular Jewish a cappella group The Maccabeats. Swartz-Brownstein is known as “The Aleph Bass.”
In their audition video submitted last year, they were beatboxing to “Hava Nagila.”
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
