The Bible Raps Project

Matt Bar, Executive Director


Matt’s music has been featured on MTV's "The Real World" and NBC's “Hip Hop Nation Notes from the Underground.” He has opened for Grammy winning group Outkast as well as Jurassic 5 and Matisyahu.  He has released 3 albums selling over 5,000 units. The Bible Raps Project is an outgrowth of the success and excitement he discovered when he introduced Bible Raps into his classroom teaching Hebrew School in Iowa City, IA and Greenwich CT.  Matt was a Presentense fellow (2007) and a Pardes fellow (2009). In the upcoming year Matt will be learning, producing and gigging in the United States of America.


Ori Salzberg, Creative Director & Musical Producer


Ori is the founder of a local Jerusalem Music Studio which produces and records Hip Hop and Indie artists. After several years of studying in Yeshiva, he studied at the Rimon School of Modern Music and Jazz and studies Musicology and Philosophy at Hebrew University. He performs in diverse settings as a guitarist, percussionist, vocalist and DJ and is also a sought after Chazan and often travels to Europe to lead services, musical activities and to run programming for teenagers. Ori accompanies  Matt on tour and produces beats with the participants of the Bible Raps Workshop.


Yael Krieger, Education Director

In 2004 Yael graduated with a BA in Religion from Columbia University and a BA in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary. From 2005-2007, Yael taught a fourth grade class in the Bronx while obtaining an MS in Urban Education. In her studies she explored unit planning and long-term curriculum planning, while developing a repertoire of effective methods in her own classroom. In 2007 Yael entered the Pardes Educators Program in Jerusalem, and intends to return to the states in 2009 to teach at a Jewish Day School.


James "Jamo" Mims, Producer

James has been a hip-hop producer for a decade. He has contributed to the success of artists such as Badfathers and Matt Bar who both have received attention on national levels, including MTV. He works with predominantly underprivileged African-American youth in his community’s neighborhood center using his music to initiate positive educational experiences, and keep up to date with what’s “hot on the street.”