Reb Moshe Waldoks

Rabbi Emeritus

“I’m a real advocate for joy,” says Rabbi Moshe Waldoks – and TBZ’s joyful congregants agree.

The child of Holocaust survivors, raised with a sense of memory and hope, Reb Moshe was educated in a Yiddish-language yeshiva in New York City. After completing an undergraduate degree focusing on the history of Jewish thought at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he earned a doctorate in Jewish intellectual history at Brandeis University, landing him in Boston.

Reb Moshe, with his infectious laugh and soulful voice, has never veered from his goal: To preserve the past and at the same time ensure the future and continuity of the Jewish people. He has spent a lifetime searching for personal and spiritual meaning within our ancient religion and exploring the best way to make every Jewish member of our congregation enthusiastic about our inheritance. “I want to wake people up to the beauty, depth, and source of vitality of Judaism today. Our shul members and leaders are non-judgmental, open, inviting. TBZ is a place to find yourself.”

After 12 years as a vagabond teacher, storyteller, and comedian; after having co-edited, with William Novak, The Big Book of Jewish Humor; and after having produced 200 episodes of Aleph, the first Jewish cable television series in the Boston pre-internet era, Reb Moshe came to TBZ in 1998. From the outset he experimented with music and created new styles of worship, revitalize the community by implementing a tone of serious irreverence. “I don’t think that the words ‘human’ and ‘humor’ are related etymologically, but without humor we are less human,” he says.

Three mentors, Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l, Arthur Green, and Everett Gendler, ordained Reb Moshe in a post-denominational ceremony. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, also a mentor, taught him to celebrate pluralism. “We at TBZ are seekers; we don’t separate ourselves by background and are not affiliated with any traditional branch of Judaism. I believe our community is a living organism that can flourish through commitment and love. We must reach out to others with love. We accept each other unconditionally, understanding that what you do is as authentic as what I do.”

TBZ’s Rabbi Emeritus believes community extends beyond our synagogue’s walls, as attested by his 50 years of interfaith activism and bridge-building. He participated in the Polish Bishops Conference in Tinietz in 1988, sponsored by the ADL to assess the situation of Jewish-Catholic relations in Poland. In 1989 and 1990, Reb Moshe was instrumental in helping to convene the first Jewish-Tibetan Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, first in the New York area then at the seat of the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India. In 1999, he was one of the Jewish leaders on a Catholic-Jewish pilgrimage to Israel and Rome. Reb Moshe’s understanding of the importance of social action encouraged him to bring TBZ into the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization as a founding participant. Today he is active in Jewish-Muslim affairs.

After meeting the Dalai Lama, Reb Moshe began to meditate and his meditation teacher, Sylvia Boorstein, influenced his spiritual practices. To help integrate meditation practices and Jewish prayer, in 2005 Reb Moshe founded Nishmat Hayyim: The Breath of Life Jewish Meditation Community. His successful spiritual approach, social activism, and interfaith leadership led Newsweek magazine to choose him as one of the top 25 pulpit rabbis in the United States in 2008.

Reb Moshe and his wife Anne Pomerantz Waldoks, a clinical psychologist, are the parents of three daughters and have two grandchildren.