By Masada Siegel, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Following your dreams can be the key to opening the right doors. In the case of The Maccabeats, the doors to The White House welcomed this Jewish a cappella singing group to sing at the president’s May 2011 Jewish Heritage Month reception.

From the White House to millions of views on YouTube, The Maccabeats will now bring their pop sounds and tight harmonies to a family-friendly event on Sunday, Nov. 4 at the Boonshoft CJCE. Sponsored by the DJCC’s Cultural Arts and Book Festival, the concert is the opening event for the 2013 United Jewish Campaign.

In 2007, Michael Greenberg, a psychology major at Yeshiva University, came up with the idea for The Maccabeats. Meir Shapiro, from Passaic, N.J. was among those who showed up for auditions.

“When I began my studies in Yeshiva University in the fall of 2008, I was hoping there would be a good extracurricular outlet through which I could express my musical side,” Shapiro said.

Soon after Shapiro’s acceptance, the group named themselves The Maccabeats as a play on YU’s mascot, the Maccabee. They recorded their first song, Lecha Dodi, and eventually delved into video. The Maccabeats are all former YU students (the last few graduated in May 2011). The same 14 singers have been with the ensemble since it began.

One of their aspirations with music is to educate and inspire people, Jewish and gentile, affiliated and not, about the stories and traditions that define the Jewish people.

At first they sang in front of a camera; those videos garnered a few thousand hits online.  Then they recruited a fellow student, Uri Westrich, who took their videos up several notches. The Maccabeats recorded an a cappella cover of Matisyahu’s One Day and once it hit the Internet in 2010, they became a sensation. To date, that Westrich video has garnered more than 835,000 views.

With their song, Candlelight, the Jewish a cappella version of Taio Cruz’s Dynamite, they aimed to create a video to reach a diverse audience and bring them name recognition, “but more importantly, our message is that Judaism is fun and everyone can appreciate its values,” Shapiro said. That video has been seen on YouTube by more than 7.6 million viewers.

With the videos that followed — The Purim Song (1.7 million views) and Miracle (1.2 million views) — they have continued to spread their music and entertain and educate audiences worldwide.

Having an enormous reach was always a goal, explained Joel Nachum, another member of the group.

“Realistically, I expected and hoped we would reach 100,000 hits on YouTube,” Nachum said. “Imagine: 100,000 people seeing your video, your message. And we got there fast. Extremely fast. Next thing I know we are at one million hits and news channels are requesting we perform on their station! We currently have over 11 million hits between our videos.”

A week after Candlelight was posted online in December 2010, the group went viral. They were featured on television in New York, on CNN, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. As the video went the rounds, the group started to receive requests for concerts and private events all over the country.

Life started to change for the group. Nachum explained: “Wow, this gift God has given to us has brought experiences we will never forget. We as a group have performed in over 30 states and five countries. We have met all kinds of people including the president of the United States.”

“It was an indescribably incredible experience of a lifetime,” Shapiro added. “It’s been a dream of mine to go to the White House but I never could have imagined it turning out the way it did. We had a blast, and President Obama loved us. It was very cool.”

Nachum said The Maccabeats met with the president in a separate room before he addressed the other guests. “As we performed, I couldn’t help but look around and think about how lucky I was to be on that stage in the White House,” Nachum said. “But, I think my father put it best when he said his grandfather was a locksmith in Poland and now here I am standing in front of the president of the United States.”

The DJCC Cultural Arts & Book Festival presents United Jewish Campaign’s opening event, The Maccabeats, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2:30 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. $18 adults, free for 18 and under. R.S.V.P. to Alisa Thomas, 853-0372, or purchase tickets at jewishdayton.org.