In 2006 Rabbi Sue Silberberg director of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center at Indiana University got a call from International Hillel. President Bush wanted a group from the heartland to sing at Hanukkah at the White House.
A cappella singing was sweeping the nation's campuses. There were a number of Jewish groups and the White House representative assumed there would be such a group in Bloomington.
The problem was, that there wasn't one at IU. Rabbi Silberberg enlisted the help of Judah Cohen, a new faculty member. Auditions, rehearsals, the group and a six song set were put together and as Hoo Shir,Hoo for Hoosier, Shir a word for song in Hebrew they made their debut at a Washington D.C. synagogue and at the White House itself.