Orrin Hatch's Hanukkah tune is his gift to Jewish people

WASHINGTON — The canon of Hanukkah songs written by Mormon senators from Utah just got a little bigger.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a solemn-faced Republican with a soft spot for Jews and a love of Barbra Streisand, has penned a catchy holiday tune, "Eight Days of Hanukkah."

The video was posted Tuesday night on Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish lifestyle and culture, just in time for Hanukkah.

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Known around the Senate as a prolific writer of Christian hymns and patriotic melodies, Hatch, 75, said this was his first venture into Jewish music. It will not be his last.

"Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do," Hatch said in an interview before heading to the Senate floor to debate an abortion amendment. "Mormons believe the Jewish people are the chosen people, just like the Old Testament says."

In short, he loves the Jews. And based on an early sampling of listeners, the feeling could be mutual.

"Watching Orrin Hatch in the studio, I said to myself that nothing this great will ever happen to me again," said Alana Newhouse, the editor-in-chief of Tablet.

Set against a bouncy synthesizer beat, the song begins:

"Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah,

The festival of light/

In Jerusalem,

The oil burned bright."

Adding to the project's only-in-America mishmash is that the song is performed by Rasheeda Azar, a Syrian-American vocalist from Indiana. But Hatch is the song's unquestioned prime mover, or macher. He is featured in the video, sitting stoic in the studio, head bobbing slightly, donning earphones and contributing backup vocals.

The song's contagious refrain goes:

"Eight days of Hanukkah,

Come let's celebrate.

Eight days of Hanukkah,

Let's celebrate tonight, Hey!"

At one point, Hatch unbuttons his white dress shirt to expose the golden mezuzah necklace he wears every day. Mezuzahs also adorn the doorways of his homes in Washington and Utah. Hatch keeps a Torah in his Senate office.

"Not a real Torah, but sort of a mock Torah," he said. "I feel sorry I'm not Jewish sometimes."