Village Interviews: Dr. Aaron Moss

Dear Friends,

The following can be viewed on any high-speed computer anywhere or on TV in Manhattan:

Today, Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 PM, on my shoestring cable show Famousx2, on channel 67, I am re-airing the first of two 29-minute programs of interviews I did with Dr. Aaron Moss- Socialist, hippie, hypnotist and founder of dental hypno-anesthesiology- in 2001, when he was 92 years old on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Dr. Moss was a fixture at political meetings and demonstrations for decades, so you may recognize him if you don't know him already.

Aaron died last month at the age of 98! See our mutual friend Rick Hill's notice about him below. Aaron will be missed by many of all ages.

Dr. Moss, who was raised in Newark New Jersey, talks about how that town was a center of progressivism and radicalism in the first half of the 20th century. He talks about coming from a very dysfunctional Polish-Jewish immigrant family and how he discovered Communism. He details the kind of primitive equipment used in dentistry in the 1930s, when he began his practice, from which he retired almost 40 years ago. He discusses the techniques he developed to introduce hypnosis into the field of dental anesthesiology. He discusses some of his philosophy of life, which kept him physically and emotionally healthy into his late 90s.

If you are in Manhattan and have access to Time Warner, you can see it today, Wednesday, at 7:30 PM (EST-that's NYC Eastern Standard Time) on channel 67. On the RCN system, that should be channel 85.

If you are outside of Manhattan, anywhere in the world, and you have a decent
high-speed connection on your computer, you can go to mmn.org and click on
channel 67 to see it at the same time.

Sometimes MNN does screw up broadcasts, but usually they air things without too many problems.....Be patient if it screws up for a while.

Best,
Jason Howard


AARON MOSS, 98, died 8:30 PM Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007, in hospice at Cabrini Hospital on 19th and 3d Ave following declining health. Born in Newark, he was a dentist and oral surgeon and leader in dental hypnotism writing a book on the subject and lecturing about it. He also recently authored a self-published book SELF ANALYSIS. He leaves his son Jerry, a NYC social worker. Aaron got a PhD in psychology in Spain and was a supporter of the Hemlock Society and an avid Marxist and activist traveling in recent years to Vieques, Puerto Rico to protest the shelling by US Navy, to Cuba and to Philadelphia to support Mumia Jamal. He'll be remembered for his loyalty, compassion, determination, idealism, generosity, objectivity, organizational skills and candor. He played the violin. He could be a fierce combatant in intellectual exchanges yet always tried to maintain the deeper harmony on a personal level. Locals may recall him in the 90's power walking on the sidewalk around the perimeter of Washington Square Park. In recent years he soldiered on heroically despite, as he said, spending 95% of his time just trying to stay alive with the help of medications and supplements, an Oxygen tank, visits to doctors and hospitals, and the help of a team of rotating live-in care givers.
Best, Rick Hill

Dr. Moss' obituary here.