Rabbi Moti Rieber has been on a journey — a life journey — that has now taken him to Kansas City, the home town of his wife, Suzy Siegler Rieber, daughter of Merna and the late Sylvan Siegler.
His journey started in New Jew Jersey where he grew up and studied at Rutger’s University. In 1995 he moved to Israel, one of a group of young, enthusiastic Americans encouraged to make aliyah and become English teachers. He spent four years in Israel, where he met Suzy. Married in 1997 at Kansas City’s Congregation Beth Shalom, they returned to Israel where they both taught English.
Eventually he and Suzy decided that they wanted to be closer to family. So the physical journey brought them back to this country, but he also made a spiritual/emotional journey. He decided to become a rabbi. After graduating in 2004 from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa. (a 30-minute train ride from downtown Philadelphia), he became a pulpit rabbi in Illinois for three years.
But Rabbi Rieber’s journey was not over yet. While he lived in Pennsylvania he worked in Jewish communal work, and he discovered he really enjoyed it.
So another journey began. Rabbi Rieber, Suzy and their three children, moved to Wichita where he became the director of the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation. While there he served on the board of the Kansas Interfaith Power and Light, the local branch of a national organization that encourages local congregations to ‘green’ their worship spaces and teach about the environment and stewardship of the earth from a religious prospective.
This led to his revelation that he wanted to continue working in non-profit work that relates to tikkun olum, repair of the world. Issues that interest him are environmental issues, sustainable food for local distribution, urban organizations and activism. Currently he serves on the board of the Overland Park Community Gardens.
The Rieber family journeyed one more time this summer when they moved to the Kansas City area to be closer to family and friends. Suzy was able to find a job with the Shawnee Mission School District.
Rabbi Rieber is teaching at a variety of places in the area: The TAG Program, confirmation class at Beth Torah, Adult Education at the Jewish Community Center, and substitute teaching as needed at Congregation Beth Shalom for teens.
“Rabbi Rieber is very passionate about the topics he teaches and very knowledgeable,” said Jeff Goldenberg, the director of Adult Jewish Learning at the Jewish Community Center. “He connects well with the students.
Currently Rabbi Rieber is teaching a three-part program: “How We Saw Ourselves: Art, Literature and Music in Early 20th Century Jewish Communities.” These nine sessions were divided into three individual units, Immigrant America, Yiddish World, and Pre-State Israel.” The final part, Pre-State Israel, began this week.
“We need to offer more of the secular Jewish learning information: art, literature, music,” Goldenberg said. “Rabbi Rieber is teaching not your every day topics.”
As he makes his place in the Kansas City community, Rabbi Rieber has joined both BIAV and Beth Shalom. He is hoping to find a full-time position that fulfills his desires to repair the world. But he also hopes to continue teaching both adults and teens.
“What I’m really looking for is sustaining parnassah in Kansas City,” he said. “Some combination of non-profit work (Jewish or secular), teaching, B’nai Mitzvah tutoring and freelancing as a rabbi that would lead me to be able to stay here and support my family.”
And, he and Suzy hope, their journeys end here in Kansas City.
