Rabbi Moshe Ulmer, J.D., D.Div.h.c., passed away on Shabbat, Jan. 30, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis, although having survived the Coronavirus. He was 75.

Rabbi Ulmer was the son of Hungarian immigrants who came to the U.S. before the Great Depression. He was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Van Nuys, a section of L.A. He earned a BA in history at UCLA, graduated from UCLA Law School, and was a member of the bar of New York, Massachusetts, and California.

Initially working in New York as a lawyer representing indigents under the VISTA program, he eventually opened his own practice in Newport Beach, California. Having an abiding devotion to Judaism, and encouraged by Elie Wiesel to become a rabbi, Rabbi Ulmer closed his practice and obtained ordination, eventually serving congregations in Newton Center, Mass., Buffalo, N.Y., Vancouver, B.C., and Palm Springs, Calif. He wrote and published a book on tsedakah (righteous giving), and taught classes at the Bucknell Institute of Lifelong Learning in Lewisburg, Pa., inspiring many others with his passion and devotion for learning. Most important by far, he was a kind man, a good man, a charitable man, ever concerned with others, engaged with others, interested in others.

He is survived by his devoted wife, Dr. Rivka Ulmer, of Lewisburg, his stepson Miki, and family in California and Germany.  May his memory be a blessing.