Unorthodox: Building Communities of Ideas

with Reb Moshe Waldoks

I credit Reb Moshe Waldoks for helping me find a practice of Judaism that spoke to my soul. Through his scholarship and humor, I became a devoted Torah study participant and went on to take the 100-hour Meah class. I became a regular member of his independent shul, which grew into a vibrant community at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts. I was raised in a Conservative home that kept kosher, and Shabbat candles were lit. However, after my years as a Moonie and deprogramming, I could never find a spiritual home where could fit until I found Moshe and the many wonderful people I came to know and learn from.

Waldoks is now retired, and Rav Claudia Kreiman is the rabbi. I wanted to acknowledge and share Moshe’s wisdom and perspective. I also wanted to let more people know about his one-person play that he wrote and performs in. In this interview, we discuss modern-day Judaism and how it can work to provide an example of the opposite of a cult: a community in which people belong and can be themselves without threats of non-conformity. 

Reb Moshe is the son of Holocaust survivors and an “advocate for joy.” Reb Moshe attended a Yiddish-language yeshiva in New York City, completed an undergraduate degree focusing on the history of Jewish thought at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and earned a doctorate in Jewish intellectual history at Brandeis University. 

Reb Moshe spent 12 years as a teacher, storyteller, and comedian. He co-edited The Big Book of Jewish Humor with William Novak and produced 200 episodes of Aleph, Boston’s first Jewish cable television series. Reb Moshe now lives in Boston and is the Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Beth Zion.