Shlomo Bar

Shlomo Bar was born in 1943 in Rabat

Shlomo Bar was born in Rabat, Morocco, under the name Yosef Ben-Guzi. In 1949 he immigrated to Israel with his family and grew up in the Be'er Ya'akov transit camp. He was drawn to music at a young age and taught himself.

He learned the darbuka and other ethnic percussion instruments and played as a backing musician for artists such as Matti Caspi. In 1976 he joined the Haifa Theater production that led to the protest musical Kriza. He composed and performed songs by Yehoshua Sobol, including Yeladim Ze Simcha.

Bar then formed the band Habrera Hativeet with bassist Yisrael Borochov. Its first album, Elei Shorashim, came out in 1979 and mixed Moroccan, Yiddish and Indian music with poems by Israeli poets. His songs also carried protest against discrimination of Mizrahi Jews in Israel.

Since the 1980s the band has played at festivals around the world and represented Israel for the Foreign Ministry. Bar released the album Ananim Nemuchim in 2006, Besod Tfilat Arar in 2010 and Ad Klot Nefesh Ve'ahareha in 2018. He received honorary doctorates from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2014 and from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2015.