Rabbi Ted Falcon founded meditative synagogues in Los Angeles and Seattle. He was ordained a Reform rabbi 1968 at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and received a doctorate in psychology in 1975 from California School of Professional Psychology. He became a rabbi, writer, and spiritual therapist and is known as one of the pioneer rabbis in the 1960s and 1970s who rediscovered and made available the mystical teachings embedded in Judaism, and especially its many forms of Jewish meditation.
The model for the meditative synagogue began in Los Angeles in 1976, after Falcon and a small group gathered for High Holyday meditations. He shared both meditative practices and teaching with that group, and in 1978 officially formed Makom Ohr Shalom, a Synagogue for Jewish Spirituality. When he moved to Seattle in 1993, Falcon and his wife, Ruth Neuwald Falcon, founded Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue. He completed his final year as Bet Alef's senior rabbi at the end of 2009 and devoted time to writing, teaching, spiritual counseling, and interfaith work. He earned the unique distinction of having been Scholar-in-Residence for two years at a Unity Church, Unity of Bellevue.
Falcon’s interfaith work began after 9/11, a time when anti-Muslim prejudice was rising in the United States. He is one of three clergymen who formed the eclectic and funny “Interfaith Amigos.” Along with Iman Jamal Rahman, and Pastor Don Mackenzie, Falcon has traveled the world since 9/11 preaching from the Torah, Gospel and Koran. Together they wrote Getting to the Heart of Interfaith (2009) and Religion Gone Astray (2011) and Finding Peach Through Spiritual Practice (2016).
In 2020, Falcon became part of the Anokhi Institute, working with Tovah Zev, a spiritual teacher ordained in the Essene Tradition. He is also the author of A Journey of Awakening: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tree of Life and co-author, with David Blatner, of Judaism for Dummies.
Sources: Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, Seattle website, Accessed May 2024. Makom Ohr Shalom, Los Angeles, website. Accessed May 2024 Temple Emanuel, Newton, Massachusetts website “Jewish Boston: By Judy Bolton-Fasman.” Accessed May 2024. Anokhi Institute website. Accessed May 2024
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Speeches, writings, correspondence, synagogue publications, photographs, sound cassettes, MiniDVs, videocassettes, and a reel-to-reel cassette related to the career of Rabbi Ted Falcon.
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Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD and Ruth Neuwald Falcon, June 2018