grow, Grow, GROW...

When I decided to join the Russian Moishe House project, my biggest goal was to build a more tight-knit Russian-speaking Jewish community in Chicago. Despite the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of us here, I hear time and time again that it's hard to find Russian-Jewish friends. I know for me it was definitely hard. When I moved to the United States twelve years ago, we lived in a neighborhood where there were no Russian speakers at all and going through my adolescence I did not have any Russian friends at all. Granted, of course that some areas are more densely populated by Russian-speakers and Russian Jews, I still think it's not always easy to make new friends. Especially, once people get out of school and college, and get out in the "real world", being part of your ethnic/religious community becomes harder. So at the Moishe House, my personal aspiration is creating that space for people to come together, meet each other, and building lasting relationships, while participating in something greater than themselves. Of course for that to happen, it is important to continually recruit new members because otherwise the community becomes stale and people eventually lose interest if they see the same faces all the time. There has to be some element of newness, some fresh energy that keeps the community ever-growing and vibrant. However, recruiting new members is not always easy because eventually if you only promote among your friends, the social circle depletes itself. Something I try to do on a regular basis is go to social events of other organizations that have a similar target market as us and I meet as many people as I can. Once I meet them, I try to build a personal relationship with each and every one of these people no matter how brief our interaction is because I believe that only if I have a personal relationship with someone will I be able to attract them to our events. Something you have to understand is that people are busy with their lives and often have a lot of choices. People are also passive and lazy and it takes some effort for them to actually attend an event. Also people need to feel comfortable about where they are going. It is often difficult for us to go somewhere where we don't know anyone and feel comfortable. So when I meet someone and we get to know each other a little bit, it immediately puts them more at ease and makes them more likely to come. Another thing you can do is ask the people that already come to your events to promote for you and bring their friends and friends of friends. That way, you are not only making your job easier, you are allowing the members of your community to feel like they are contributing. I want to also point out the importance of proactive promotion of each individual event. Again people are on one hand passive and the other, have many options, so it's enough to just send out a facebook invite. Call them, text them, make it more personal, make them feel like they are an important part of your event and you genuinely want to see them there. It's all about making it personal - from the first interaction, to the invitation, to being a good host when they get there. So I hope some of this is helpful to you guys and girls out there and I wish all of you luck in building and growing your local communities.

Love,
Rostik