In a video I predict will become required Passover viewing, actor and voice legend Hank Azaria channels his inner Bruce Springsteen to deliver the “Dayenu” we didn’t know we needed—gravelly vocals, Hebrew lyrics and a klezmer-rock beat included.
Azaria, best known as the voice of Moe Szyslak and Chief Wiggum on “The Simpsons,” isn’t just doing impressions for fun. He fronts a Springsteen tribute group called “Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band,” which tours to raise money for the “Four Through Nine Foundation.” The tribute band even has Springsteen’s personal stamp of approval.
In the video, Azaria leans into the drama of the classic Passover song, channeling The Boss while singing, “ilu hotzianu mi’Mitzrayim”—“if He had only brought us out of Egypt.” It’s spot-on to make you understand why Azaria has a Springsteen cover band.
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“Springsteen sounds like it’s Jewish, but it isn’t,” Azaria jokes in the video, “But I am!” Cue the guitars and a rousing Springsteen-style “Dayenu” that somehow feels both reverent and rock-and-roll.
Azaria’s family hails from Saloniki, Greece and he grew up in a Ladino-speaking home in Queens. As he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a 2017 interview, his parents were Sephardic Jews whose roots trace back to the historic Jewish community of Thessaloniki, once known as “the Jerusalem of the Balkans.”
Happy Passover, Hank. This one goes to 11.
