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