Matt Bar sees dead people. He doesn’t hold séances or visit graveyards — not literal graveyards, anyway. Instead, he takes revisits key moments in Jewish history from the Torah and Tanakh, and breathes new life into them...
Incorporating passages of Torah, commentary, and Midrashim, Bar should get the prize for developing a curriculum that reverses the flow of students, who generally can be found clamoring to get out of Hebrew school doors...
Rapper and educator Matt Bar infects his students with Torah. He’ll take a lesson plan, spin it on its head, and bust out rap lyrics that get kids crazy about learning. These lyrics from his song “Rabbi Akiva and Raquel: Learn Torah” not only teaches the story of Akiva’s struggle to study, but also teaches students they can learn anything if they try, bit by bit...
The Forward: "Holy Hip-Hop." By Bari Weiss
It’s Saturday night in Jerusalem’s Talbieh neighborhood, and a crowd of 50 is gathered to hear Matt Bar rap about the Bible. The lanky Iowa City native has achieved a kind of celebrity among young Anglos in Jerusalem with his Bible Raps project, a phenomenon he’s hoping to repeat this summer when he travels to Jewish summer camps across America....
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HaAretz: "Bible rapper infuses Jewish education with his rhymes." By, Daphna Berman
...he's spearheading a movement based on his raps to fuse popular music with Jewish education...
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Shiur Times: Rising Star - Matt Bar's Bible Raps Project
Using narratives from Tanach and Midrash in a new art form helps Jewish students appreciate their heritage...
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MyJewishLearning.com: The Bible Raps Project
Matt Bar, formerly known as the Ramblin’ MC, is working on a fantastic project...
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World On the Web: God Big Wheel and Ceiling Cat, By Alisa Harris
Bible Rapper Matt Bar used rap to hold the attention of his middle school Hebrew class and then attempted to spur a Bible Rap Movement...
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Discussing Bible Raps on the Radio: 2008
Hear Matt Discuss his project in depth on Iowa's Public Radio "The Exchange"
The Bible Raps Project on Iowa Public Radio (2007):
MASA Profile:
Matt Bar and Bible Raps. By, Erin Kopelow