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36 Under 36: MUSIC ENTREPRENEURS & THE ARTS 
Jackie Miller, 28 by Jewish Week special report Promoting Jewish artist communities on campus Jackie Miller remembers all too well being a Jewish actress on campus. “I didn’t feel there were opportunities available for me,” she says. Not that she didn’t have appropriate venues; New York University, where she graduated from in 2002, had plenty. Nor was there a shortage of Jewish organizations. There just weren’t any that combined the two. Miller has changed that. This year alone, she organized nearly 30 programs for artistic Jewish students at six colleges in New York, in her role as program manager for “Arts on the Move,” a new initiative under the umbrella of Avoda Arts (avodaarts.org), a non-profit that integrates the arts into Jewish education. At Columbia, Miller brought 
Before leading “Arts on the Move,” Miller had been organizing a fair share of Jewish-themed events at NYU. Shortly after graduation, she was put in charge of the campus’ arts programming by the Avoda Arts organization. They tested her wares by putting her in charge of the campus’ arts programming. She beefed up the New York Student Film Festival as the program’s chair for three years, added student art exhibitions and organized several speaking panels, film screenings and theater and music programs. Having proved herself, she was asked by Avoda Arts to do much the same for six more campuses — as manager of “Arts on the Move.” Favorite play: Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well” Playing on her iPod the day she was interviewed: Stevie Wonder — Eric Herschthal Naomi Less, “35 going on 24, maybe going on 13” Jewish rocker chick Naomi Less could sit still no longer. Having spent three years working for the National Ramah Commission and seven years for the Foundation for Jewish Camping, she saw firsthand the problems modern Jewish girls face growing up: the cattiness, the unrealistic expectations. Less is known for her blend of Judaism and performance through outlets such as Storahtelling, which combines Jewish text study and interpretation with ritual theater and storytelling. Her new endeavor, Jewish Chicks Rock, uses music to guide Jewish teen and ‘tween girls through the rough patches of adolescence. While working in the field of Jewish camping, Less observed girls’ destructive behavior toward themselves and others, from bullying and peer pressure to obsessive dieting — issues reflected in the songs she’s currently creating for an album due out late summer. “I’m not sure how girls are supposed to grow up resilient with so many mixed messages,” Less says. “Media surrounds our boys and girls with Girls Gone Wild, while pharmacists are allowed to deny birth control... All this had been hitting me in the face and I was standing on the sidelines watching.” Not anymore. As the lyrics to her song “Responsibility,” now available through Oysongs.com and her MySpace page, say, “If I don’t speak then I’m to blame.” Offering herself up as a positive role model for Jewish girls, she hopes to counteract the negative. When the album is finished, she hopes to expand the focus of Jewish Chicks Rock to include a Jewish Chick Rock tour and a “youth group meets School of Rock meets self-esteem development program” to teach teen girls about the music industry from creating music to production. “If one Jewish girl can answer the question why she rocks, I’ve done my job.” Favorite food: Pizza or anything with melted cheese. “A vat of Velveeta, just give me a spoon.” Secret passion: “I always wanted to be a second baseman,” she says. “I can name the entire starting lineup for the 1984 Chicago Cubs.” —Randi Sherman Erez Safar, 28 Musician (aka Diwon / d.j. handler), music entrepreneur pushing the crossover envelope He has had his hand in so many Jewish music events in the city, each done under different names, that — nooo! — it can’t be all one person. Indeed, it is: Erez Safar, the 28-year-old budding music mogul sometimes known as d.j. handler, sometimes Diwon, is the man behind the Sephardic Music Festival, the indie label Modular Mood Records, and, his latest venture, Shemspeed.com, a Web site devoted to Jewish music. And ain’t that a surprise too: he grew-up in a military family (his father, now retired, was an officer in the United States Navy), living on bases across the country and abroad. His first tape cassette was by Motley Crue. He didn’t get into any kind of Jewish music until college, having grown up on hip-hop and rock. But a little higher education was all it took. As a deejay for the University of Maryland’s radio station, he was given an album by Yuri Lane, a vocalist who mixes chasidic chants and hip-hop beats, and began putting Lane on his playlist. Then he looked into klezmer music, even adding a few riffs into his rock band’s repertoire. But Safar is a Yemenite Jew, on his mother’s side. So in a short while he delved into that lesser-known musical heritage, and has been exploring it ever since. The first big event devoted to Yemenite heritage was the Sephardic Music Festival — in its fourth year this coming December — but he’s also been involved with Sephardic music as the multi-instrumental act known as Diwon, the name for traditional Yemenite prayer songs. Safar says that his true passion remains performing Yemenite sounds with his own distinctly American ones, from hip-hop to jazz. The label, the new music website, the festival—“it’s just the front end of what I do,” Safar says. “It’s just the business.” Music role model: John Zorn Favorite hip-hop act: Beastie Boys Craves: Jachun, a Yemenite Sabbath bread loaded with butter and oil, and cooked for hours. —Eric Herschthal |
 
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