Rachel Moses Works her Marketing Magic

Rachel Moses describes herself as a “Marketing Magician.”

The Pikesville resident, who recently celebrated her 49th birthday, works her magic on several local Jewish community organizations and synagogues. Her frequent clients include the Baltimore Jewish Council and Adamah, and she previously worked at Pearlstone as its director of marketing.

After years of doing marketing work at Pearlstone, The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation, though, Moses is now self-employed and takes on jobs from a variety of different clients.

“The reason I call myself a magician versus anything else is because of the intuition I use based on all of my experience,” Moses explained. “When someone’s like, ‘Hey, can you do this for me?’ I’m like, boom, boom, boom. I will get it done magically. It’s the ‘…and more’ that I can’t put on a resume. That’s what makes me a magician.”

But marketing was not always in the cards for Moses, who belongs to Beth El Congregation and lives with her husband, Marc, and daughter, Lyla. Originally, she wanted to be an actress. While attending the University of Pittsburgh and majoring in film studies and theater, she began to enter the world of marketing through several internships and odd jobs that she balanced with her schoolwork.

“I started like every poor college grad that wanted to be an actress,” she recalled. “I was a Captain Morgan girl and a Crown Royal cheerleader because I was doing liquor promotions. The person in charge of the promotions told me I spoke pretty well and asked if I wanted to be their assistant. So I became an assistant casting director for a few months, and then a casting director in Baltimore.”

Much of Moses’ early job experience involved working with local radio stations — she interned at WDVE-FM, the #1 heritage rock radio station in Pittsburgh, and was an on-air talent for a Baltimore station’s morning show. Here, she wrote and voiced many advertisements.

Following the cancellation of the morning show she worked on, she entered the marketing and advertising industry full time, which is what eventually landed her at The Associated as a marketing manager.

“During that time, Pearlstone was one of my clients,” Moses said. “The Macks Center for Jewish Connections was my client. CHAI was my client. I did so much marketing and advertising.”

Pearlstone later left The Associated’s marketing department, and Moses followed due to their need for a full-time director of marketing.

Then, the COVID pandemic hit.

“During those first 90 days of COVID, we didn’t know what we were doing, and it was low-key like the end of the world,” Moses recalled. “We turned Pearlstone’s program department into a television station, and I produced 80 videos during those 90 days.”

Moses said she especially enjoyed doing marketing work for Jewish organizations, because it makes her feel more involved in her religious community.

“Leaving my morals at the door when marketing didn’t feel good at all,” she said. “Marketing for people in my community is a way in which I can give back. It’s not like nonprofit marketers make a lot of money, so what I do is that I donate my time and I sit on boards and committees to offer my marketing expertise and video work.”

Moses spent a year chairing the Pikesville Schools Coalition, during which she put these skills to work by creating a pen pal program for students at different schools.

When not working, Moses loves to travel and shop. She and her sister are currently working on writing a book about her sister’s cancer journey. Moses notes that she is a “big proponent” of Jewish summer camps, as she attended Habonim Dror Camp Moshava as a child, and her daughter currently goes to Camp Louise over the summer. Both she and her daughter first learned to swim at Beth Tfiloh Camps.

“Being Jewish and being in and around Jewish Baltimore is in my gut,” she said.