Thanks for all the good times and memories, Moishe House Cleveland! House closing/ Raychel's (October) exit blog

My Moishe House experience was unforgettable, in so many ways. It began when Moishe House Cleveland opened in September 2008, as a place I'd go to spend time with my friends and make new ones. It grew to be and include the majority of my social circle and a place I'd spend time at, even when there wasn't an event going on. It was a place that brought me naches. Eventually, in January of this year it became my residence.

Over the summer we realized that we’d need at least two new housemates for September as three of the housemates were moving on. I would be the only constant in the house, and would continue to hold down the fort. This search began in late June and ended in mid-October, when it became clear that the house would have to close after attracting only one new housemate. The house was full of upheaval in September and it was distressingly difficult to be the only one staying put! By the end of October we had to say goodbye to our dearly beloved community house.

In memory of Moishe House Cleveland I’d like to share some of my favorite memories and most memorable events. Seeing Matisyahu in concert- we did this twice and both times I managed to meet him and get a picture with him. One time I prayed with him. He is so humble and low key, it was really nice to be in his presence. Election watch party 2008- completely unforgettable, in part due to the fact that we were watching The Daily Show/Colbert Report Indecision Special on Comedy Central at the time the election was called and we weren't sure whether to believe the results or not until we had checked some other stations. Post confirmation the rejoicing commenced! Jewish Christmas- We would gather around the projector in the living room and put on 12-hour movie marathons, complete with Chinese take-out ordered twice throughout the day. My favorite Jewish Christmas celebration was the year we had a Tarantino marathon. The clothing swap- there was an over abundance of clothes at that event, and from just a handful of participants to boot! Everyone got to take some “new” stuff home and we donated bags upon bags to the needy. The now infamous wine and painting socials- so much beautiful art came out of those and turned our house into a communal art gallery. Some took their art home or gave it away. Most painted, even if they didn’t see themselves as talented in that way and there was just enough wine to inspire them. Magnet Making Party- another event in which some surprising talents shined and everyone got to take home a mini work of art, with many being left behind to decorate our refrigerator. Multi-Moishe House camping trip- there are few better times than camping with good friends! I really just wish that Hoboken, Silver Spring and Cleveland were geographically closer to each other so we could have done more joint events.

Honorable mentions include: the article about our house in The Plain Dealer (http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/kibbutz-style_living_fills_a_v.html); hamantaschen baking nights; a plethora of karaoke sessions; multiple Rock Band nights; Shabbat dinners, especially those cooked by Shiah, those in the back yard or on the back deck, those that were themed and those that were sponsored by Birthright NEXT; card nights, specifically Spades; regional director Jeremy’s visits; game nights, especially Blokus; Ti's vegan water challah; meteor shower watching, or at least trying; painting Talya & Jeremy’s new apartment; volunteering at The Cleveland Food Bank; chalk related events; various seders; Moishe House Cleveland’s kitchen at the National Rainbow Gathering in Pennsylvania; and my Mexican birthday celebration Shabbat dinner. I can’t forget, the National Moishe House Retreat this past Spring and the Eastern Regional Moishe House Retreat this Fall.

I am quite saddened over the closing of our house, but am really excited to begin this new chapter in my life and see what lies ahead! I am so incredibly grateful for the community that I was able to build and participate in and all the things that I learned along the way! L’hit raot, Moishe House Cleveland. You will live on in all of our memories and hopefully be restored through the need and will of Cleveland’s young Jewish community. To the rest of the Moishe House communities globally, chazak, chazak, v'nit chazek!

MH Chicago's Outreach Efforts

We have been surprised by the number of new people that show up to our Shabbat dinners every time. It seems that people hear about them through our email list, and we have gotten many newcomers to our Shabbats that way. Those are the events where we have the most turnout, probably because Friday nights are when young Jews most want to celebrate their faith, but do not have another space to practice. For events that we hold during the week, like happy hours, we get fewer people. We have discussed why that is, and we believe that people are shyer about coming to smaller events and are also busier in the middle of the week. However, we are developing a solid group of repeat attendees—people who came to one event, such as Shabbat, and have come to lots of other events after. We have found that these people are often new to the city or had been actively looking for a Jewish community, so that when we reached out to them, they felt welcomed and excited to come back again.

While our email list, our Facebook events, and other technological forms of communication have brought us new people, we have found that word of mouth is the most powerful tool for getting people to become a part of Moishe House. People have repeatedly told us that a friend told them about the last house, and they decided to check it out. And the people who we draw in come back with friends who in turn come to another event. Our friends from around Chicago, coworkers, and acquaintances make up a big part of all our events, too, which just reinforces to us how our chatting about our positive experience with the Moishe House can lead to new participants. We are going to try in the coming months to mimic some of the other houses’ expansive Facebook groups, but we will continue to rely on good, old-fashioned people-to-people networks that have, so far, produced the best results.

Stl MH Aug Blog Prompt

BLOG PROMPT:
"Lesson Learned" - Please describe an instant where your house has had an issue (e.g. trouble with events, house dynamics, logistics etc.) and discuss how the house resolved the issue, and what was learned.

We seem to go through different themes with events, we either have way way way too much help or way way way too little help. We never hit the median. Shabbat Dinners are our stand in event so we end up having lots of clean up and preparation to make sure everyone gets fed, our attendance ranges from about 20 - 30, sometimes over. We have events where people will start to clear their own plates and even wipe down our tables and then we have events where people seem to leave anything and everything. In the past what we have tried to do is make distinct times where things occur. As in there is a distinct time in which we cook everything, then we eat, then there is a clean up time after that we encourage everyone to help with. We try and kind of guilt people into doing it saying that they are at Moishe House but it is also our house, and after everyone leaves we have to clean up whatever is left only to have to do it again next week. Its our version of the Never-ending Story except no flying dogs, rock monsters, and princesses. In the end, though we have some clean up work to do after every event, we just try to make sure to share it between all of us and sometimes if someone in particular made a mess last night, we ask them specifically to come over and clean it. On a higher level, we try and let everyone know that even though our house may feel like a college party some nights, it is still our house and should be kept clean. We are also trying to have more events outside of our house either at other venues, other houses, or just even outside our house where we can just hose everything down to clean it off. All these items together have definitely helped keep our place much cleaner and each of out of each other's hair about how dirty our house is sometimes.

What makes a succesful Moishe House event?

A four-part recipe for successful events from the Portland Moishe House.

1) Events must be interesting, fun or both.

Think about whether you would attend the event. If the answer is no, you probably shouldn't expect others to come.

Different people are looking for different things but nobody wants to waste their time on something that is stupid, boring, or at worse both. For your more intellectual crowd, offer them meaningful conversations and opportunities to learn. For the crowd that just wants to kick back, give them an easy opportunity to unwind. Or, as we do, mix the two. For example, we've had a lot of success with our "Torah on Tap" series. We've found that people come because 1) The topic is interesting and the discussion leader is appealing. 2) The "on tap" makes what could be an intimidating topic (Torah) and makes it fun and accessible.

2) Ratio is important.

If you don't have a good ratio of men to women at events, your numbers will fall off over time. Opportunities for mingling with people of the opposite sex is as critical as anything to sustained success. Go out of your way to "engineer" a good ratio.

3) Set goals and evaluate your events

Measure the success of your events on both qualitative and quantitative measures. Ask people what they liked and didn't like and store the information in your brain. Get a good sense of how many people are necessary for different kinds of events and make sure you reach your numbers. Also set goals for the number of new people, because its easy to fall back on your regulars but that won't help grow your community.

4) Use both mass and targeted communications

Since both the quality of a individuals experience and the number of people who come are important measures of success, conduct your recruitment and marketing accordingly. If you don't build a big list of people to tell about your events, you won't consistently get large numbers of people to come out for them. Equally important, however, is reaching out to people on an individual level. Mass emailing gets you a good distance, but there is nothing like a direct conversation to encourage someone to participate and build a relationship.

We hope that this post was instructive for other houses as they consider the ingredients for a successful event. If you you have questions or concerns, send us an email!

Moishe House Seattle, July 2009

One factor that seems to make an event work well is choosing some activity that the local Jewish twentysomething community already wants to do, like outdoor activities (this varies seasonally, of course) and eating together. When we discussed the July prompt, it seemed pretty clear to us that while it's wonderful to attract a lot of people to an event, including new people, the number of attendees alone is hardly the reason an event is successful.

Our May and June kayaking trips are good examples of fun, seasonal events that got people out into the city, kept them active, and included a strong social element. (People went out in two-seater kayaks, which allowed for one-on-one bonding, and then we all had dinner together at Agua Verde, the Mexican restaurant that rents out the kayaks.) We had one kayak participant from Orange County who made it clear that we were successful. She was visiting Seattle and wanted to hang out with young Jewish adults, and she said that she wasn't really religious. She thought that kayaking was a great way to be with the community without the “how observant are you?” element.

Some people came just for the dinner, but most of the participants kayaked, and we got a range of people, from the naturally outdoorsy (Nicole) to the stubbornly indoorsy (Neal). While there wasn't anything specifically Jewish about the activity, any event that helps our community bond in such a fun, easy way can only enhance those times, such as the two Moishe House Shabbat dinners each month, when we DO gather Jewishly.