A cappella Hanukkah parodies of songs from the Netflix hit “KPop Demon Hunters” were some of the most widely shared new music videos this holiday. But perhaps the most noticeable trend on YouTube this year was just how many were created using AI.

As tradition requires, Jewish a cappella groups such as the Maccabeats, Six13 and Y-Studs all put out new holiday parodies of pop hits. Both the Maccabeats and Six13 did mashups of songs from “KPop,” the uber-popular Netflix kids musical that became the streamer’s most successful original movie ever, while Y-Studs came out with a tribute to legendary pop-rock band The Jonas Brothers.

Branching out, if you search YouTube for Hanukkah (or Chanukah — or any other of the myriad of English spellings of the holiday), you may be surprised by how many of the latest releases are generated in whole or part by artificial intelligence.

The YouTube channel Inspire Beats, for example, has been cranking out new videos at a rate of about one per day in recent weeks, garnering tens of thousands of views on a variety of songs sung in different voices and musical styles, all created by a Jewish mother who has never played an instrument in her life.

“I’ve seen how powerful music can be to inspire people, and I dreamed of making good, soulful Jewish music with Torah messages to lift our spirits and make people happy,” explained Leah Bar Shalom, a graphic designer and illustrator living in a West Bank settlement in Israel. “I started writing songs, and I use a bunch of different programs to create the music and the videos.”

Bar Shalom, a mother of two who immigrated to Israel 18 years ago from California, told The Times of Israel she’d never made music before she launched her YouTube channel in June 2025. But now, she’s able to put together a complete music video from start to finish in an average of four to five hours.

“It’s not just pasting my lyrics into a chatbot,” Bar Shalom said. “I use a few........

© The Times of Israel