Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a veteran senator and songwriter, has written a special Hanukkah song, in time for the Jewish holiday, which begins Friday night.
Jeffrey Goldberg writes about the song in Tablet Magazine, a journal of Jewish life.
"And so it was a very American day in a recording studio on West 54th Street in Manhattan when we gathered to hear Rasheeda (Azar) sing. In one small room were (song producer Peter) Bliss; Madeline Stone, a Jewish songwriter who writes contemporary Christian music in Nashville; a crew of downtown Jews from Tablet Magazine; Hatch’s chief of staff, Jace Johnson, who didn’t seem to know exactly what he was doing there, but was very nice about the whole episode; and Hatch himself, who sang background vocals and even showed us the mezuzah he wears under his shirt.
"Hatch, like many Mormons, is something of a philo-Semite, and though he is under no illusions about Jewish political leanings in America—he told me that though he likes Barbra Streisand very much, he’s fairly sure she doesn’t like him—he possesses a heartfelt desire to reach out to Jews.
"Hatch said he hoped his song would be understood not only as a gift to the Jewish people but that it would help bring secular Jews to a better understanding of their own holiday. “I know a lot of Jewish people that don’t know what Hanukkah means,” he said. Jewish people, he said, should “take a look at it and realize the miracle that’s being commemorated here. It’s more than a miracle; it’s the solidification of the Jewish people.”
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