Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads

What a month in suburban Maryland...

We got skeery at "Friday the 13th Shabbat", with plush bats, graveyard pies, guests from super-frightening Baltimore, fake snakes, and one hell of a scary story reading by me: "One Foot Underwater" from Joey Comeau's It's Too Late Too Say I'm Sorry.

We got our share on and some hot publicity when Dan "Mobius" of Jewschool was among the beautiful souls and cunning linguists who came out for the Rosh Chodesh Poetry Open Mic and Klezmer Jam. Check out his write-up here. Many thanks go out to Anna, our aMAZing friend who organized and MC'ed -- and who made aliyah literally two days ago and is learning medicine and how to save the world in Be'er Sheva *as we speak!*

We got totally popular with the temporary addition to the house of Subletter Elad, who is charming and quite possibly the most popular Moishenik in Silver Spring! He's helped whole-heartedly with all our events and I just wanted to make sure he got the public acclaim he deserves. He's subletting from Rachael while she's off farming New England....again.

We got emo and tragic for Tisha-B'av, and learned that (just like in high school) it still doesn't make people like you. Nobody wanted to see a movie about two orphans trying to desperately survive in post-nuclear Hiroshima, Japan! Am I just a weirdo? Was I the only one pulling for Harry Potter to get killed all through the last book? There were some great community members who came to eat the pre-fast meal with us, however, and I learned that some people have a custom of eating a hard-boild egg dipped in ashes before the fast. Mmm... charcoal.

Mmm..... spicy chocolate.... Aztec truffles were just one of the delicacies whipped up by honorary MHSS-Moishenik Julie! "the exclamation point is part of my name" Z. as food for the Shabbat of Luv Dinner, timed to fall out a few days before Jewish Valentine's Day on the 15th of Av. I was up in Boston at the time of this event but based on the leftovers I'd say it was awesome.

August is here and I'm stoked. I'll be away for a week at the National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute but by the end of the month our long-sundered house will be united as planned since the beginning. And then who knows what we'll do! (I vote for trips to the beach).

Much love,
Silver Spring Alan (that's me there... except for the hair)

back to "studying"

Hello all

So it's back to varsity time after an extremely fun, and much needed holiday! It's strange though, because no matter how long the vacation is, it always seems way too short when you realise that it ends in less than a week. But up until that last depressing week my holiday was absolutely amazing!

I went to a national arts festival which is held every year in the beautiful, but rather isolated city of Grahamstown, and saw some really incredible shows and performances! Seeing that sort of thing always inspires me to become an actress or follow some path involving the arts. I also went to Durban for a week, a city in South Africa that I'd never been to before, and it was also really fun, especially since Durban has great weather throughout the year. So even though it was the middle of winter, and I had just arrived from what felt like negative degree temperatures, the beach and sea was amazingly warm and perfect for swimming! It was also nice to take a bit of a break from the guys, although I found that our time apart really made me realise just how much I missed them and their little quirks, and it was so great to see them all again when we returned from our respective holidays.

And so now it's four days into the new varsity term, and I'm still trying to decide on my last course to take. It might sound a bit strange, but I'm looking for a course that's early in the morning, say about 9am, because otherwise I start at 10am every day, and for some reason I have this mentality that if i start that late I'm wasting my day. Even though the chances are I probably wouldn't go to most of my 9am lectures, just knowing that I have a lecture at 9am makes me feel a bit better :)

So what else can I tell you? The house is looking pretty good, with a few minor changes taking place, such as kev and barnett switching rooms, and also apparently an increasing number of people using my bathroom. It really is great to be back though, and I can't wait till Friday night, when we're having a fun, chilled event here, so I'll hopefully get to see a lot of friends and other people that I haven't seen for a while. Also, it should be a nice break after our first week back at varsity, though with my schedule being as easy as it is, I can't see myself being too stressed just yet.

But having said that, I probably should start doing some work. I actually just bought two of my textbooks, one of which I needed for the first semester six months ago... aren't you proud? :)

Ok, well my stomach's starting to grumble, so I think it's time to raid the kitchen for something to eat. I hope all other Moishe Houseniks are having a great start to the second half of the year, and I'll keep you updated on how it's going here in sunny(ish) South Africa :)

Byeee

July Update

Hello all,

It's hard to believe that it is August already, it doesn't seem like there was enough time. Still, the month had a lot of great events and it certainly kept all of us busy. This month had the first installment of my "Tangentially Jewish" Movie Night, which was, to tell the truth, something less than a resounding success. With only one non-Moishe House resident showing up, it didn't really have the feel I was going for. To be fair, it was a hard sell for a first movie: a depressing Japanese anime film that few people have ever heard of (Grave of the Fireflies, by the way). Still and all I really enjoyed the movie and I hope that with more mainstream picks coming in the future, and with more heads up time and advertising before the event, our next movie night will be more of a success. Other than that all of our other events this month went off very well and with large turnouts, so on the whole I have nothing to complain about and look forward to next month. Until next time.

--Noam

Hello Moishe Peeps

Hey hey hey

So it's been a crazy July for us here in the Cape Town Moishe House.
Many of us split up for parts of our July break, with the Dragon (Daniel Barnett) heading to Grahamstown, a small student village with a massive festival of arts and culture once a year and Kev heading to Israel.

Strauss, Emma and I met up with the Dragon for a while in Durban, then were back in Cape Town for a bit, and then headed inland to Johannesburg, the business capital of our beautiful African paradise.

It's also been a hectic time for Cape Town, with massive floods leaving 10 000 impoverished people homeless. However, apart from all the madness, the Moishe House life moves on. It's been great being home and getting back into the swing of working hard and solidly.

Moishe House Cape Town has truly become an institution in this community, and we have a massive Friday Night after dinner gathering planned.

Till then, you and I can both wait to hear how awesome it inevtabely was.

The Captain

Half way through

Hey Comrades,

Ilan here from Cape Town.
Cape Town has experienced intense flooding recently, our house survived ( as we are rich and are located on a high lying region) , but some 10 000 shacks (tiny tin squares) got destroyed leaving many homeless. So besides for the global warming the 2nd 6 months will be heating up for other reasons too. CT may be cold and I may only be doing 2 courses at Uni for the next 6 months (yay!) but our house is buzzing like a 24 hr quicky mart (Simpson fever does exist in CT too...).
After my travels to Durban (to run a Jew camp) and then to Swaziland ( to make fun of poor black people..that was a joke, dont stress I am not racist), Swaziland is beautiful and a very illuminating insight into our culture, Our House is happily back together and , like any other semi-functional body, had a much needed break from each other. Changes are happening too:
* Emma has declared her undying love for a girl in her class
* Daniel B is swopping rooms with Kev Sack
* Daanie has become fat ( not "ph" fat i.e. "phat")
* Kevin hair growth has increased.

We have some unbelievable things coming up. The 2 that spring to my mind immediately are
1. The upcoming massive Chill at our House this Fri with nargilah, coffee etc
and
2. The upcoming Limmud next weekend.
- Limmud is a branded concept imported from Britain. it is a massive pluralistic Jewish learning environment where people from all different walks come together to learn, socialise , debate and engage. The Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Dr Rabbi (Orthodoxy is the way) Warren Goldstein, has condemned the event on the basis that it accords equal status to Reform and Orthodox peoples. This is a tragedy, and does not bode well for the future of the Jewish Community in South Africa which is increasingly becoming more and more polarised between the close-minded "Orthodoxy" and the more liberal and engaging entangled alternatives.

Otherwise I wish all Moishe Housniks a fulfilling 2nd 6 months and a challenging one.

Salaam Aleikum,

Strauss
Moishe House Cape Town

back at moishe... another month, another group of jews

hello young fellow moishes

wow, its great to be back. we've all been on our seperate ways, and finally, we're back at the best place of all - our cape town moishe house.

me and a bunch of (jewish) mates went up to Durban, this rather large city on the other side of south africa. it's about 3000 kms away (sorry, dont know miles!)

we ran a camp for a bunch of jewish kids there, but before, we travelled through the country, stopping at all these different places. its amazing, cause jews used to dominate these small towns - they acted as peddlers and shopsellers and the like. in most of the towns, there are memorials to them, and sometimes, even synagoges - even though there are very few, if any, jews left in these places.

now we're back at home, and back at university. hopefully we'll have as many events as last 6 months, something i frankly cant wait for.

moishe!

DB

Testament

I was going to blog something about my time in Israel but it appears that quite a few of you have already done that (well not about my time but your time). I think it is a testament to what an amazing community Moishe House is that so many of us have so very recently spent time in Israel. MHDC is doing well and we're looking forward to August. We're getting really amped for the high holidays which is actually quite nice as I haven't been excited about them in some years. I look forward to the next couple of months.

best,

C. Silva