IN MEMORIAM

Moshe Hauer

Rabbi

The voice of American Orthodoxy fell silent on October 14, 2025, when Rabbi Moshe Hauer passed away at 60 after suffering a heart attack. As executive vice president of the Orthodox Union since 2020, Rabbi Hauer shepherded the largest Orthodox Jewish organization in North America through some of its most turbulent years. Born in Montreal, Canada and raised in Baltimore, he studied at Ner Israel Rabbinical College before leading Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion in Baltimore for two decades. But it was his leadership after October 7 that defined his final chapter. Rabbi Hauer guided the OU's response to the Nova music festival massacre with moral clarity, speaking truth when others equivocated. He championed Jewish day school education, understanding it as the bedrock of Jewish continuity in an increasingly hostile world. In 2024, as antisemitism surged on college campuses, he worked tirelessly to ensure Orthodox voices weren't drowned out by those who would compromise Jewish values for acceptance. His colleagues remembered him as someone who brought "wisdom, warmth, and unwavering dedication" to every challenge. Rabbi Hauer's legacy lives in the thousands of families he counseled, the communities he strengthened.