Talk:Robert Moog

Moog was a Jew

He was Jewish and is buried in a Jewish cemetery. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=11592850&page=gr

Even if he was buried in a Jewish cemetery (and Find a Grave is reader-edited, so not considered a reliable source), this would not establish that Moog was a Jew. Such a positive statement can only be added with the backing of a reliable source whgich notes that he was Jewish. RolandR (talk) 22:41, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

Added a source from an engineer at Moog confirming Moog was a member of the Jewish community in Asheville North Carolina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAJagbeykds&t=1652s. While not as perfect as, say, a NYTimes article, it does conform to WP:Interviews, specifically "if an interview happens to be the clearest available source for where a person who is already properly established as notable was born, or for where they attended university, or for the fact that they identify as LGBTQ, then the interview can be used to source a statement of that fact."

There are other sources as well, and while they aren't great for Wikipedia, they do solidify his being Jewish. For example: https://archive.org/stream/americanjewishti1994unse/americanjewishti1994unse_djvu.txt "The American Jewish times outlook", where Robert Moog is named as a new member of Beth Israel synagogue in Asheville NC. There is also this book, which is a reliable source, confirming Bob Moog is buried in a Lou Pollack Memorial Park (which is a Jewish cemetery). Additionally, there is this funeral message that went out at the time of his death. https://www.matrixsynth.com/2005/08/bob-has-left-us-august-21-2005.html "Robert Moog took his last breath today, August 21, at 2 pm. We will be paying tribute to his life with a Jewish funeral on Tuesday August 23rd at 4 PM and a Memorial Celebration on Wednesday, August 24th at 12 PM." Not a good source for Wikipedia, but useful in establishing his religion. Drsmoo (talk) 01:11, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Yes a little bit confusing because the Name Robert and Moog are typical German Origin. 2003:D1:DF09:F400:8CEE:6CA6:AB45:34E5 (talk) 08:51, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

The Glinsky book, Switched On potentially serves as a worthwhile reference for this topic: Moog's mother was Jewish, and his father converted to Judaism before marrying her (page 5). Bob Moog was raised Jewish, was a Boy Scout in Jewish Boy Scout Troop 159 (page 13), but his wedding to Shirleigh was intentionally an Ethical culture ceremony, as neither of them wanted any part of organized religion at that time (page 42). As his relationship with Iliana (who is Jewish) developed, Bob said he'd be happy practicing conservative Judaism with her (page 352), and they were married in a Jewish ceremony (page 356). Finally, he was put to rest via a traditional Jewish burial (page 392-393). However, I'm not sure which, if any, of these details are appropriate for the article, nor how to properly include them, and would welcome other input. synthfiend (talk) 20:23, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

I have found this here, translate in English:

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/zum-zehnten-todestag-von-robert-moog-sein-instrument-setzte-100.html

„My great-grandfather came from Marburg, Germany. He was the illegitimate son of an illegitimate mother named Becker. He was able to track down his father, a certain Moog. When he emigrated to the USA, he boarded a ship in Bremen as Konrad Becker. During the crossing, he decided to begin his new life in the New World with a new name. He disembarked as Conrad Moog. That was my father's grandfather. 2003:D1:DF4C:C000:6D1F:D53D:8084:9789 (talk) 16:46, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

we need a better photo for such an influential man!

The current image we have is in low-quality black and white. to be quite honest, he looks like a character in a cheap analog horror, which is quite a shame for a really important inventor who's often overlooked in the history of music. more than that, the shot of a man in a suit staring into your soul, next to a giant electronic box, doesn't exactly give a good impression of him or the instrument that he innovated..

The modular synthesizer, and synthesizers in general, have been mocked(if not villainized) over and over in history; first as a ridiculous novelty good only for cheesy song covers(country moog et cetera), then as an enormous, existential threat to all "real" music, and nowadays as an indecipherable monolith of cables and knobs operated by annoying Sheldonesque geeks with no self-awareness. top comment on Sweetwater's demo of the system 55 reissue? "it also makes long-distance telephone calls overseas". the image we have at the moment may denote this long-standing bias that the synth user, and the synthesizer in general, is utterly deranged.

there are many more images of Bob that are simply better than what we have at the moment, like this one down from the top of this website article:. can someone upload one, so we can move past the analog horror?

Arthur Deetoo (talk) 23:44, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

First commercial synthesizer

One of the first given facts is that his invention, the Moog Synthesizer, was the first commercial synthesizer. That fact is contrary to facts listed later on this same page (the RCA Mark II and it's 10 year lead and much larger price tag) and on others (Harald Bode is not the only one, I'm sure). Would it not be more appropriate to say "*one of* the first..." or include some other qualifier (eg "first commercially successful")?

I didn't just make the edit as I wouldn't be surprsied if I'm missing something obvious here, re:Wikipedia rules or otherwise, but please forgive me if that's the case. Nmarmot (talk) 20:38, 12 June 2026 (UTC)