Mustache you say?!

I am someone who loves to watch those around me be taken from the comfort zone, if only for an evening, and watch how they react. As a former Sociology major, the only thing better is watching a group of people forced from their comfort zone together. Sometimes all it takes is a little hair (fake or real) hanging above you upper lip.

On one Friday evening in June we embarked upon our first ever MHSF Mustache Shabbat. Initially, in the planning stages I was a bit hesitant to get on board with this facial hair theme. My inability to grow a "legitimate" mustache myself, along with my uneasiness about our guests willingness to participate left me a bit skeptical.

Boy was I wrong. When our guests began to roll in men and woman alike were already outfitted with some fabulous lip coverings. Those that came unprepared were more than willing to have hair or ink cover what was once a normal, or at least semi-normal, looking face.

Throughout the evening I found myself staring at the woman I was talking to unable to divert my gaze from her prominant stache. They, having forgotten about the everpresent Don Juan, would occasionally pause noticing my distracted expression.

On the whole, it was a silly occasion, with people meeting others for the first time in a context that allowed everyone to let their guard down a bit, not take themselves too seriously, and partake in yet another blessed day of rest (and mustaches).

Worst Month For Me AT The Moishe House

Thankfully we have moishe house. You never really know how great your community is until you rely on them and they come through in amny forms. It has been a troubling month with death and family issues. A great support system has been built here in LA. we lost a moishe community member this month to a freak accidental death while indoor rock climbing in China. Mike B. will sadly be missed by all.

On a lighter note, we will be having a lot more fun here at the moishe house since summer has come and jobs are more loose. Good bye Mr. Zones I can't say enough about the joy of change life brings to a young man. Good luck with the folk career.

Im out peace

lee
LA Moishe

It's pronounced "Mo-eesha"

It's been an exciting time. Even without everyone moved into MHSS yet, we still pulled together a massive first month of events, with even bigger plans to come. The was a big shabbat dinner, a barbecue, a house-concert-turned-jam session, and some mystical & meditative moments. We polled the community for input, started what I think was the very first Moishe House group on Facebook (now up to 61 members!) for publicity, and started reaching out to the neighbors, the frummies, the hippies, the do-gooders, the gamers, the loudmouths and the wallflowers -- everyone cool we know and everyone cool they know! (and that's a lot of cool).

My favorite moments of the last month: our first meeting with Isaac. Looking around the room Friday night watching all the new different people get to know each other. The feeling of "wow this is really happening" when I got blog access.

I'm looking forward to this month: Our themed shabbat dinners (Friday the Thirteenth, and Jewish-Valentines-Day LUUUUUV), the open mic night, and the big Eicha experiment: can we turn a fast day's evening chant of ancient Lamentations into something edgy, meaningful, and empowering?

For the long haul: Get these suburbanites (including me) off their tuchusses and onto the rocks. Moishe House Silver Spring Maryland goes rock climbing along the Potomac, or a bike adventure -- something outdoorsy. Have community workshops with friend ___ who knows all about ____. Skillshare for twenty-somethings? And a big party.

New Beginnings

Hi there greater Moishe House community. This is Noam Reisner from the Silver Spring Moishe house. This is my first month in a new house and my first month as a Moishe House member, so lots of memorable stuff has been going on this month. We started off our events with an open house/meet and greet and that went pretty well, a bunch of people from the community came and being new to the community myself I got a real feel for how welcoming and lively the Silver Spring community really is. I was very impressed by the response we got, I expected us to start small with very few turnouts, but to the contrary we started off with a bang, and I only hope we grow from here. For just starting out and not having much experience everything turned out well. There was only a small hitch in one of our events when the Vulgar Bulgars' van broke down and they couldn't make it, but even then people weren't put off and we ended up having a lovely evening anyway, and we look forward to the night when we invite the Vulgar Bulgars back and have a wonderful concert. What I'm really looking forward to in the upcoming months is a sense of regularity, this month every event was a first, our first shabbat meal, our first barbecue, our first rosh chodesh event, and while firsts are nice I am waiting for the regularity of our monthly events, because I feel it is with regular events that communities really grow. Well, that's all I have on my mind for this month, I can't wait to get to July's events, especially the event most dear to my heart: Moishe House's "Tangentially Jewish Movie Night" where we watch movies with themes that are pertinent to the Jewish calendar, but are not "Jewish movies." So be sure to check in next month when I talk about that.

Giitar Hiiro

We have a new attraction to the LA Moishe House, and it has nothing to do with our promiscuous pet. On Monday Dave bought guitar hero for our Playstation 2, and we have all been hooked ever since. It's like junk, fuhreal. I have been rocking out to some of the sweatiest, ass-kicking songs of the last few decades. My Top 5:
"War Pigs" by Black Sabbath - one of my favorite songs ever
"Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" by the Stones - This is my favorite Keith Richards lick of all time. I get pumped just hearing it and now I can [try to] jam to it!
"Jessica" by Allman Brothers Band - the guitar is so catchy that the song don't need lyrics.
"Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns n Roses - for all the years of my childhood I dreamed of emanating Slash, I now can.
"Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd - are you kidding? I get goosebumps every time. It's intense.

I would write more about it but I am gonna go play instead.

Peas,
Nate Dogg

Fear of Balls

Remember in middle school gym class, when they picked teams for ball sports, and it was humiliating to be picked last? Well that was me, or almost me, since my friends would pick me out of sympathy. They knew I was more likely to duck than catch any round objects flying my way, but I was a good cheerleader, and that counted for a little.

Aside from one ultimate frisbee game when I was 23 , after those embarrassing experiences I've literally never played an athletic team-sport since I was thirteen. I rocked out in dance, did headstands in yoga, even kicked butt with capoera, but no ball sports. Until today. Why?

Enter Evan and Katie, our new Moishe House Ministers of Fun. They proposed that we have a non-competitive game of kick-ball, to get us all to use our bodies and get to know each other. While Moishe House Boston has lots of events that bring folks together for meaningful ritual, artistic expression, or political action, we haven't had as many opportunities to kick back and have fun. In support of Evan and Katie's creativity, I warily conceded to play, secretly dreading that I would be outed as athletically-challenged.

But, in a total shock to myself, I honestly wasn't that bad. I mean, kickball may be the easiest sport possible, but part of me wonders whether before I stayed away from sports because I was just too traumatized to keep trying.

This makes me think about how much easier it is to take risks when in a community where everyone's contribution matters and everyone is welcome. For me, kickball is a big challenge. For other people, it might be leading a shabbat service, or sharing their poetry at one of our arts workshops, or talking to someone who looks and sounds different from them through our social justice work. Whatever the risk, our community is giving me and others courage to go beyond our comfort zones, to experiment with who we can be, because we know those around us believe in us as we are, and will share a beer afterwards even if we couldn't catch the ball to save our lives.

A little politics, a little fun

That's how we try to roll here in Boston. For example, a group of us have been working to build Jewish solidarity with the Islamic Society of Boston in their fight to build a new mosque in Roxbury. This week they had a community celebration, and our little group of young Jewish activists got mentioned in the Boston Globe coverage of the event:

"Two who started the website JewsSupportTheMosque.org presented the society with a check for $2,000 they raised online."

(Those two were both activists who are part of a House-supported group! The whole story is online here.)

And now, today, we're getting together to play kickball, and a bunch of friends from the Muslim community are coming to join us. Talk about interfaith approaches to community-building...what could be better than kickball?

Anyhow, enjoy July 4th, everyone (especially the houses in Nigeria and South Africa and South America!!!). Till next month, I'm out.