One of the hallmarks of Reb Moshe’s career has been his activities as a bridge-builder across cultures and faiths. Participating in a groundbreaking encounter with Polish Catholicism in 1988 as a guest of Krakow’s Cardinal Macharski, Reb Moshe and his colleagues confronted the age-old anti-Semitic teachings of the pre-Vatican II Polish Church. This encounter was especially poignant, as Reb Moshe and his group from the anti-defamation league, led by Lenny Zakim, toured Auschwitz with the Cardinal. Almost all of Reb Moshe’s maternal relatives were murdered at Auschwitz, and it seemed virtually impossible that a grandson of a Polish Jew murdered by the Germans would be accompanying a Catholic cardinal to the place of their destruction. This trip led to Reb Moshe’s active, ongoing Jewish-Catholic and Jewish-Christian Dialogue in the Boston area.

In 1989, Reb Moshe was instrumental in arranging the first meeting between the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama (which means, literally, Ocean of Wisdom) in a Buddhist monastery here in the United States. This encounter led to the historic "Jew in the Lotus" trip to Dharamsala, India in the fall of 1990 and Reb Moshe’s continued involvement in Jewish-Buddhist Dialogue.

In recent years, Reb Moshe has been active in creating a center for Jewish-Muslim Relations in Boston and has initiated and supported TBZ’s affiliation with the Greater Boston Inferfaith Organization. In addition, Reb Moshe is an active member of the Brookline Clergy Association.


MORE INFORMATION

Jewish-Buddhist Dialogue

Jewish-Christian Dialogue

Jewish-Muslim Dialogue

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