Mose J. Gingerich is an Amish-born documentary-maker. Gingerich was born in an Old Order Amish community in Greenwood, Wisconsin, the 9th of 13 children.
Early years
Gingerich was raised on a 255-acre farm and at a very young age worked in the fields and sawmill. He developed a love for reading as an escape from reality. Books such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Little Men, Little Women, Big Smoke Mountain, and Heidi had an influence in his early childhood years. In his early teens, Gingerich became restless with his life among the Amish. He began to envision a life on the outside, where he could freely make choices without constant pressures from church and religion. During these years, while searching for answers to another way of life that brought the freedom he desired, Mose lived in six different Amish communities in the midwest. Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. Gingerich taught all eight grades in a one-room schoolhouse for four years. He made several attempts to leave the Amish community, but the transition proved too difficult.
Excommunication by the Amish
On July 3, 2002, after Gingerich finished his fourth year of teaching, he left the Amish for good. Making a decision to leave the Amish community after Believer's baptism is rare and frowned upon within the community, often resulting in excommunication. Gingerich was banned from further contact with his family and community.
Television
''Amish in the City''
In 2004, 1 1/2 years after Gingerich left the Amish, he got an opportunity to be on the reality showAmish in the City, televised on UPN. The show featured six city kids and five ex-Amish kids trying to co-exist in a mansion in the middle of the Hollywood Hills. The season consisted of ten episodes. It was the first major television project done with Amish people. Mose made appearances on several late night shows to help promote Amish in the City, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kelly, Good Day Live, and radio shows.
''Amish at the Altar'' and ''Amish Out of Order''
In 2009 and 2010, Gingerich shot and produced two documentaries with Stick Figure Productions. Both aired by the National Geographic Channel: Amish at the Altar and Amish Out of the Order. Amish at the Altar featured Eli and Mary Gingerich, a couple who had been married Amish but chose to leave, renewing their wedding vows in the outside world. Amish Out of the Order featured Mose, a group of his close ex-Amish friends, and the life they are now leading in Columbia, Missouri. The focus of the film was Mose's place as a leader within the ex-Amish community; he often helped the kids with housing, cars, driver's licenses, and jobs.
Current status
Gingerich has lived in the Columbia, Missouri area ever since. For the first eight years after leaving the community, he worked in construction, and for the last six of those years, owned his own construction company, often employing newly escaped ex-Amish youth who were looking to acclimate into the outside world. In 2010, because of health reasons, Gingerich left construction and moved to sales. He sold cars in Columbia, Missouri for the next six years. When the dealership sold in 2016, Gingerich left his job in sales, and started driving truck over the road. He runs coast to coast, sometimes being out on the road for two weeks at a time. Today Mose Gingerich is married and him and his wife are raising a family of three. In a recent blog Gingerich wrote; while auto sales and trucking aren't exactly the dream life I envisioned when I left the community, both have served a purpose. Car sales: nothing toughens one to the ways of the world like trying to sell a product to a reluctant customer, and trucking: the solitude of trucking has allowed me to re-visit my passion of reading and writing. In my three years as a trucker, I have listened to an average of over one-hundred audiobooks a year. Gingerich enjoys blogging, and dabbling in the writing world. You can find his most recent blog on his website at
