Erez Safar - Founder and CEO

Erez Safar a.k.a. Diwon is the founder and director of Shemspeed, Modular Mood Records (an independent record label), Hip Hop Sulha, and The Sephardic Music Festival. As a multicultural maestro, he produces a mix of Yemenite and Sephardic music blended with electro hip hop beats. Influenced heavily by his family that migrated from Yemen to Ethiopia and finally settled in Israel, his music reflects the multicultural tapestry that is Israel. London Radio's 104.4 FM called him, "One of New York's hottest Jewish musicians;" The Village Voice stated that his work "as producer and DJ is among the most adventurous and banging on the new Jewish music scene;" the Jerusalem Post dubbed him, "Jewish music's multimedia mogul;" Forward listed him as one of the Top 50 "most influential Jews of 2007;", The Jewish Week listed him amongst their "36 under 36", and Heeb Magazine listed him in their "Heeb Hundred." Erez resides and maintains his many companies, within the auditory heart of Brooklyn.

Nina Safar - Director of Programming and Marketing

Working in both the AM and PM, Nina Safar takes seeds and busts out trees, arranging programming and events for the artists listed on the site with organizations and clubs worldwide. To check out some of the insanely entertaining and wild parties and shows that Nina Safar and the Shemspeed crew throw, click here! When not crazed with the clubs, Nina devotes her time to Shemspeed Tikkun by running "Project one C" which produces inter-faith, inter-generational, and inter-racial events and concerts to bring together communities by promoting dialogue and co-existence through the arts. Nina also runs the Shemspeed Open Mic night and is wearing a Shemspeed T shirt right now.

Maaryasha Rubinstein - Israeli Shemspeedette

Maaryasha Rubinstein is a party planner who puts the 'funk' in the func-c-c-tion. She has a special interest in set design and themes-of-the-moment. She has just moved to Israel from her home country Australia and lately spends her time still looking for the party...Maaryasha's handles the Shemspeed Israel gig guide (see our events page) and of course the Israel parties. If you are a band in Israel looking for promotion, publicity, a record label or want to help out in Israel then get in touch with us!

Dov Rosenblatt - Director of Business Development & Programming

Dov started his first band, The Maniacs, in 2nd grade! Although the band shortly parted ways due to "artistic differences," the stage was set for Dov's performing career. In 2001, he and 3 friends from YU accidentally formed a band, Blue Fringe, which went on to record 3 albums, selling thousands worldwide. He now splits his time with BF and his other band, Fools For April which has had their music placed on 'quality' MTV shows like "The Real World". Passionate about music and Judaism, Dov has taught many a young children at Jewish day schools and summer camps, and will be leading SHEMSPEED's Songwriter's Workshop in the fall for budding Jewish songwriters as well as many other top secret programs soon to be announced...

Yishai Mizrahi - Associate Marketing Director

Yishai is a hip-hop aficionado who is the newest addition to the Shemspeed marketing team. Born and raised in Seattle, Yishai brings a west-coast ear for music and flavor to the indie record label. His favorite type of music is early-mid 90's classic hip-hop and artists such as A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots are some of his favorites. Of course, since Yishai does hail from the Emerald City, he does have quite a fascination with Sir Mix A-Lot.

Guy Emanuel - Review Publisher/Sonic Scribe

Guy Emanuel, the foremost ethnomusicologist in Belize, has been a huge fan of Modular Moods for decades, in fact he was the person responsible for resurecting the Juez opus from near sonic extinction. Years later Guy found Elsewhere, John Cusack and K. Ross inside a huge loft in the city of Belmopan. Emanuel was never able to make it inside, but with the help of his trusty pair of gold-plated binoculars (passed down to him by his mentor, the late Dr. Reggie Quartz), he saw through a window that the loft was empty, save the two DJs and Cusack. With a Solaris microphone and a styrofoam cup to the door, Guy recorded and released "Play Anything" which became one of the most influental genre defeying mixtapes of the past century. Following his love of diversity and discovery, Guy took on the important role of Shemspeed's sonic scribe.

Andrea Rosen - Writer extraordinaire

Andrea is a hip hop fanatic and Philly enthusiast. She spends her days working as an assistant/project coordinator/researcher/slave at the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. She is honored to be helping Shemspeed blog on what's hot in the arts instead of the ongoing fire in the Middle East. She's studied at Temple University in Philadelphia and Rome, as well as Tel Aviv University. Have something new that needs a bit of press? Send it over.