The people behind the music, Torah and learning.
Executive Director: Matt Bar
Matt Bar is founder and Executive Director of Bible Raps, a non-profit born from Matt's desire to engage his Hebrew School classes on a deeper and more contemporary level than the way they were being taught at the time. Bible Raps launched out of Bar's participation in the PresenTense Institute during the summer of 2007. He continued to further his Jewish education during his 2008 year of study at The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Since its inception, Bible Raps has reached tens of thousands of young Jews with Torah-rich performances in schools, Hillels, conferences and camps across the US and abroad. Their teaching materials are being used in countless classrooms and teachers are currently being trained to be certified "Bible Raps educators".
In 2011, Bar was also named to The NY Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" list, a prestigious list "highlighting the dedicated lay leaders who are reordering our legacy organizations alongside community activists and social justice crusaders whose startups are chock-full of innovation,".
Before his current role as Executive Director of Bible Raps, Bar was also featured on MTV and NBC, has opened for Grammy winning group Outkast and performed at numerous clubs and venues as a folk rapper. Matt currently resides in Philadelphia and is finishing up the Bible Raps Album #2 and hoping to put out Hip Hop Lullabies, within the (Jewish) calendar year.
In 2011, Bar was also named to The NY Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" list, a prestigious list "highlighting the dedicated lay leaders who are reordering our legacy organizations alongside community activists and social justice crusaders whose startups are chock-full of innovation,".
Before his current role as Executive Director of Bible Raps, Bar was also featured on MTV and NBC, has opened for Grammy winning group Outkast and performed at numerous clubs and venues as a folk rapper. Matt currently resides in Philadelphia and is finishing up the Bible Raps Album #2 and hoping to put out Hip Hop Lullabies, within the (Jewish) calendar year.
Associate Director/Producer: Ori Salzberg
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.
