Jonathan was Born in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1962. All through the 1980’s he played jazz and wrote music-related articles for the local press.
In 1990 he staged a one-man satirical show I'd be delighted to meet you after the plague, which he wrote, composed and performed (Director: Shlomo Vazana). A secondary character in that show, Michel Clayderlast, became successful as the star of the Live Elevator Music. A performance-art show debuted at the 1990 Israel Festival, featuring Clayderlast playing 20-second bits of popular music live inside an elevator (20 seconds being the average time elevator users spend inside).
1991 brought Erua Mochi, a rock spectacle presenting a new musical style: Live Acid. The band, led by Bar Giora, played looped music live, in an attempt to reduce fears among live musicians, in a time when increasingly popular electronic and sampled music threatened to wipe all their job opportunities.
1992 was dedicated to Jesse's Carnival, a gloomy cabaret show with singer-songwriter Jonathan Licht.
In 1993, Bar Giora co wrote with Etgar Keret and composed Entebbe - The Musical. The musical won first prize at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre.
The rest of the 90s were dedicated to theater music, TV work (Musical Director of Ad Eser, a weekly talk show with Merav Michaeli, music for Meni Peer's TV show, and many others).
In 1999 he wrote the music for Pgisha Leiyn Kets (Endless Meeting), a special CD dedicated to the poetry of Nathan Alterman, read by one Israel's leading performers Yossi Banai.
That same year he composed Joseph Cedar's feature film Time of Favor. It was a first in a series of more than 130 movie scores (TV dramas and documentaries included) he composed from 2000 on.
In August 2018 the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem & Haifa Cinematheques held a special tribute to his musical work for films and television.
In August 2018 Helicon Music released the album Themes (in Hebrew: "תֵּמוֹת"), the first anthology of music composed by Bar Giora for films. It was the first in a series of soundtrack albums of Jonathan’s work released by Helicon Music.
Early in 2020 the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra dedicated a concert to Bar Giora's works titled Soundtrack of the Heart.