Reb Moshe Waldoks is one of North America’s leading teachers of Jewish cultural, spiritual and ritual renewal. He is well known as a Jewish humorist and raconteur, lecturing widely on Jewish cultural renewal, Jewish popular culture, and issues of the Jewish spirit. As co-editor of The Big Book of Jewish Humor, he lectures and entertains audiences throughout the Jewish world. Dr. Waldoks is one of the founders of the Jewish-Buddhist dialogue in the U.S. Born July 17, 1949 in Toledo, Ohio, a child of Holocaust survivors, Reb Moshe was exposed to a traditional Yeshiva education in New York and to higher education at NYU and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he lived for close to 5 years. He is married to Anne Pomerantz Waldoks, a clinical psychologist, and is the father of three daughters: Shula, Brina and Risa. Dr. Waldoks was ordained as a post-denominational Rabbi in the fall of 1996 by his mentors, Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Arthur Green and Everett Gendler. Since January, 1998 Reb Moshe has been involved in the rejuvenation of Temple Beth Zion, a dying congregation on Beacon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. Upon his arrival the congregation was comprised of 52 elderly members including 12 activists. By January of 2000 there are 400 individual members of all ages and still growing (currently over 500). Temple Beth Zion is an independent inclusive post denominational congregation dedicated to spiritual seekers from all backgrounds. Dedicated to building bridges, Reb Moshe participated in the first Jewish-Tibetan Buddhist encounter with the Dalai Lama and his community in Dharamsala, India (October,1990). This initiative is the subject of Rodger Kamenetz’s The Jew in the Lotus (Harper San Francisco, 1994). In the fall of 1999, he co-led a historic Jewish-Catholic Pilgrimage to Israel and Rome with Rabbi Samuel Chiel, Lenny Zakim Z”l, and Cardinal Bernard Law. Reb Moshe participates in many international conferences on topics of Jewish media, Jewish Studies, Jewish Education, Children of Holocaust Survivors, Israel-Diaspora relations, Jewish-Catholic relations, Jewish-Buddhist dialogue, as well as conferences on Jewish and general humor. He was a member of the North American Jewish Forum of the UJA. Reb Moshe currently lectures in the Me’ah program, the Adult Education initiative of Boston Hebrew College. He also lectures at Northeastern and Tufts Universities. He completed his doctorate in Eastern European Jewish intellectual history at Brandeis University (1984). He has served on the faculties of Clark University (1979-86), Wellesley College, the College of the Holy Cross, Brandeis University (1990-92), and the Boston Hebrew College. He has also taught at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem (1973-74) and was the Director of the Hillel Foundation at Tufts University (1974-77). He has been an Associate of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University. Reb Moshe completed his BA at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1968-1971). He is the co-editor (with William Novak) of The Big Book of Jewish Humor (now in its 24th printing) and The Big Book of New American Humor (Harper Collins, 1990). He edited The Best American Humor (Simon &Schuster, 1994). He is also editor of the forthcoming The Gantse Megillah, Parodies for Purim and the Whole Year. Reb Moshe has been a frequent contributor to Hadassah Magazine. He has also contributed to The Second Jewish Catalog, Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, The Hadassah Magazine Jewish Parenting Book, and God Loves Stories, Reb Moshe was a subject of Parabola Magazine and Kerem Magazine interviews. Reb Moshe was a consultant and on-air expert for the PBS/BBC internationally broadcast documentary The World of Jewish Humor (1990). He also consulted and appeared in the PBS broadcast documentary Breaking the Silence, about children of Holocaust survivors. He also co-wrote the nationally broadcast PBS specials A Taste of Hannukah and A Taste of Passover. He consulted to and acted in a feature film The Imported Bridegroom (1990), based on a story by Abraham Cahan. He is recently featured in a documentary ANGST (Australian Broadcasting Company – 1994) about children of Holocaust survivors involved in humor. ANGST was featured in November, 1994 at the Boston and Washington Jewish Film Festivals. He also appears in the documentary film Jewish Soul, American Beat featured at the Washington D.C. Jewish Film Festival in 1997. He also appears in the 1998 documentary The Jew in the Lotus. As a communal activist, Reb Moshe sits on the Executive Board of the Jewish Community Relations Council and was a member of the Strategic Planning Committee of Combined Jewish Philanthropies. He serves as a JCRC delegate to the GBIO (Greater Boston Interfaith Organization), a grass roots organizing project around social and economic issues. Reb Moshe is on the honorary board of the Zamir Chorale of Boston and is on the outreach committee of Ohalah, a renewal Rabbinic association. Reb Moshe also leads weekend retreats for leadership development for Synagogues, Federations and other adult learners.