WHAT'S IN A NAME
Moishe House Boston has a dual affiliation - we are also known as Kavod Jewish Social Justice House, which was our name before we joined forces with Moishe. Kavod means honor, and comes from a line in the Mishna: “Who receives honor/kavod? The one who treats all beings with kavod.” Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Ancestors) 4:1. At the Moishe/Kavod House, we seek to treat all with honor, recognizing the unique talents each person has to share. Through this kavod, young people are empowered to strengthen both the Jewish community and local social activism.
EMPOWERMENT
At Moishe House Boston, the key to the housemates' work is empowering others. Our housemates work as organizers and "weavers," connecting our participants (called "members") to people and projects we think they will like. Much of the actual leadership of our programming and structural work is done by members, who work together with the housemates on various programmatic and structural teams.
HOUSEMATES AS ORGANIZERS AND CONNECTORS
The job of the housemates is to coordinate the work of our members, develop their leadership, and make sure our overall work is meeting the goals we set out for ourselves. Each of the housemates is responsible for working with one or more program teams, such as Shabbat or social justice, and one or more structure teams, such as membership or communications. To coordinate and enhance our work, we hold weekly house meetings in which we do check-ins about how we are doing, set goals and check in on our work, and sometimes brainstorm about how to grow in certain areas or tackle a particular challenge.
THE BOARD
We are currently setting up a volunteer board to make sure that members are also at the center of our high level decision making. The board will be composed of the four housemates and five members who will make broader strategic decisions together and facilitate our various management teams (like membership and communications). We are holding elections in September, and are excited to see how this part of our work develops.
WHY WE LIKE OUR MODEL
We like our model because it allows us to empower young people to help create our community, which is part of the larger Moishe House mission. Our model also allows us to do a great deal more than we could on our own as housemates, since there are just so many more people helping out. Finally, we have found that when members participate in planning events and organizing our community, they are more invested in the community as a whole.
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