A gifted speaker, teacher and community builder he founded Temple Adat Shalom in Rancho Bernardo California in 1977. He served as Rabbi there until 1989 after which he went on to lead the Human Rights negotiation between East and West during Perestroika. He was selected for this by former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachov.

His first thesis on the synagogue Chavurah movement, the decentralization of large synagogues into surrogate extended families, is used throughout the United States and Canada. His Doctoral research in Psychology showed that the use of humor for bonding in successful marriages is relationship skill that can be learned by couples seeking marital enhancement.

Rabbi Moss founded the San Diego North County Interfaith Council and Crisis Center in 1978. Today that organization has grown from the original five members to more than four hundred member congregations of all faiths. He now serves on the board of the Interfaith Community Care of the Sun Cities.

In 1979 Rabbi Moss and Dr. Johanna Lessner created Shalom Paraprofessionals. This organization elicited the help of mental health professionals in a two-year training program that enabled many congregants to in turn serve the community. He was also instrumental in forming the Elizabeth Hospice and served as president of the San Diego Rabbinical Association from 1985-1987.

Rabbi Moss was involved in writing the American and Soviet joint treaty for Ecological Security, which helped to liberalize the soviet Union's emigration policies allowing Russian Jews to immigrate to Israel.

In 1990 Rabbi Moss returned to San Diego to direct the Hillel Center at the University of California. With the help of his wife, Barbara, Rabbi Moss also founded Sunburst in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado, the only Rabbinic retreat center in North America. For more than nine years Sunburst operated as a Jewish think tank for Rabbis to come together to share their thoughts and ideas. During this same period Rabbi Moss also served Congregation Beth Israel, a one-hundred-year-old congregation comprised largely of academics from the University of Northern Colorado.

Rabbi Moss has been Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom since 2005. He has inspired a new zest within our Temple Family! Rabbi Shelly Moss, D.D. and Ph.D. was ordained by the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion in 1977 where he was awarded a Doctorate in Divinity in 2003. He earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Union Institute and University in 2005.