Woven Bridges
January 14th, 2012 was a milestone for me. On this day, I was presented with a
full set of shiny keys, kept busy hauling a seemingly endless number of boxes
to our fourth floor apartment,
feverishly unpacked belongings, and frantically arranged, and then
rearranged and rearranged again, all our eclectic furniture. And so it was that Moishe House DUMBO
was founded. The culmination of
over a year of dreaming and planning was consumated in the New York way: 2 pies
of pizza on paper plates. In the
week that followed we held our inaugural Shabbat dinner. As the familiar kiddush faded into the
background, I gazed upon the 25 guests sourrounding my shabbat table, some of
whom were strangers, some of whom were dear friends. I took a sip of my first glass of wine in my new home and
asked myself this question. What
is this Moishe House project anyway?
Amidst the hussle and bussle that is New York City, I often
seek refuge in Brooklyn Bridge Park, conveniently located around the corner from
our Moishe House. The park is
nestled on the banks of a windy stretch of the East River, hemmed in by the
colossal shadows of two New York iconic bridges, the sturdy Brooklyn, and her
less-heralded, but equally striking Manhattan. I come out to the jagged rocks and frozen grass to clear my
head and think. In a strange way
that perhaps only a cosmopolitan city dweller can understand, I find something
soothing in the combined elements present in this park—the temperamental
currents of the East River relentlessly engaging in battle with each other, the
ebb and flow of meandering park strollers and tourists, the defeaning roar of
the subways racing overhead. There is something static in the indefatigable
dynamisms of the movement—water, wind, passersby, scurrying trains—that lends
itself to an inner calm.
In this setting I contemplate; the to-do list of the day and
coming weeks, insights gleened from a text sitting unfinished on my
night-stand, strange occurences on the subway, and of course, the goals behind
this Moishe House project to which I dedicate many waking hours. One day, as the cool breeze kissed my
cheek and the water lapped up against the rocks, I had an epiphany. A response to this last curiosity was
literally staring me in the face, right in front of my eyes.
Moishe House DUMBO is about building bridges. We sit together at a shabbat table,
conduct a tu b’shevat seder, participate in the DUMBO gallery walk, listen to a
lecture about Dewey’s pragmatist “Great Community,” because we yearn to foster
connections. We seek dialogue
between our secular selves and our Jewish identity. We want to join together in our love for art and modern
culture, exploring the ways these forces speak to where we are from and who we
are becoming. We encourage all colors
and flavors of Jews to visit us and we even wish to reach out to people of
different faiths. We welcome the
the artsy and creative along side the suited and well-primmed. We hope to integrate the right-brained
among us with our left-brained counterparts. We want to bring Manhattan to Brooklyn, and Brooklyn to
Manhattan.
Of course Moishe House DUMBO will never boast an imposing
shadow like those of the edifices that loom over my head. But if the vision is clear, the
leadership strong, and the community willing, I believe the sum of all the
little connections fostered here will weave a mighty bridge, albeit an
invisible one.
-PCG
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