Blog Prompt:
House Goals - Please take some time to discuss the vision for your Moishe House. Where do you see the house in 1 year? 3 years? 5 years? How will the community take shape, and what impact will you have on your Jewish young adult community?
Recently at Moishe House Great Neck our focus has been trying to establish a strong community. We started by taking note of which particpinats form the core groupl of people at our events. We then tried to get this core group more involved in our events, i.e. asking them for ideas, and we even had one of them host our Yom Kippur Discussion Program.
Throughout the life of Moishe House Great Neck, the residents believed that the key to establishing a Jewish Community is to have Jewish Events. We pride ourselves in the amount of Jewish cultural and learning events we have at Moishe House Great Neck! These events not only helped in creating our communtiy, but most importantly has a profound impact on the lives of our participants and members of our community, with respect to their connection to Judaism.
Wishing you all a great week, and a Chag Succot Sameach,
Moishe House Great Neck
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Learning lessons from a year in Portland Moishe House
Before I write these blogs, I make a list, and I figure I may as well just leave it like this for organization:
Moishe House learning experience:
* Serious responsibility
* To manage responsibility, it's worth educating the community on the model and encouraging participation
* Aggressive recruiting and idea-brainstorming, it's a constant process
* Thought goes into the most advantageous strategies. Ie: recruiting aggressively vs. going too hard and weirding people out, recruiting participant involvement vs. delegating too much work for a given person's personality/responsibilities, offering free events vs. asking for monetary contributions for events
These are the main things I've taken away from my experience at Moishe House and I hope they are helpful.
First off, I've found that Moishe House is a serious responsibility. It seems a little like stating the obvious, but it's true! Moishe House events, meetings, and other commitments such as cleaning or planning, hold just as much weight as any other time commitment in my life. It's like a job, or being in school, or any serious time commitment. You can't just drop it, move it around so it's more convenient for you, etc. It's not really about you anyway, it's about serving the community, right? I've found that it's worth it for me in the long run to try really hard not to reschedule Moishe House events for any reason. I've found that it's worth it in the long run for me to weigh new time commitments that may interfere with Moishe House, and choose Moishe House. For example, this month I was going to take a week-long overnight babysitting job. Those can be quite lucrative. But it was the week of a Friday night Shabbat dinner inbetween high holidays, and I really wanted a lot of people to come. 30 people came, and I cooked for about 30 hours total...not to mention shopping and clean-up. It's really worth it to me, in addition to the overall Moishe House community and the mission behind it, to make sure I have enough time to prepare, do, and clean up after events. And I feel a sense of diligence and peace of mind about this prioritization.
It's kind of annoying that your rent status can become knowledge in the community, which is why we try not to advertise it broadly here. It becomes a joke, like you're getting off easy. While it is a great deal for someone interested in peer programming, I think the rent subsidy is a very important incentive and compensation. Grassroots activism that characterizes Jewish community-building is always full of passion, but we really do need the resources to put those passions into action. That's what Moishe House provides for us. Therefore, it's important to educate people about Moishe House. Not necessarily just for this reason, but for people who've never heard of it before, or really do want to know more. Recently someone asked me about Moishe House and I said, "It's great, I love it, it's a lot of work, but it's really rewarding. There are 4 people living in our house, we do about 8 programs per month." One time, at Yom Kippur break fast this year, I was asked. "Really? What kind of work does it involve?" I was entirely honest with him about it. "Well, we have house meetings, we coordinate our schedules of events, we manage budgets, we maintain the house, put together recruiting and big-picture goals..."
Our events for the community are in the spirit of generosity. We're building a community and we're building a home. Yet, it's important to be truthful with people in order to keep our programs sustainable. When people hear how much work we do, they really respect it and say, "Oh, wow, that's cool. Sounds fun." Sometimes even, "How can I help?" Being truthful opens the door for respect and mutual understanding. It can go on to build mutually helpful and supportive relationships. I think we can honest about ourselves and our needs and also be incredibly generous.
More notes--the recruiting and event brainstorming is a constant process. I feel like I dream about Moishe House events. I recruit people I meet at the gym for Moishe House. Because creating events every month is a constant cycle, the thinking and the connecting never stop. So it's good to be on it all the time. But I've also discovered it's important to sometimes be "off." For this one and also for the balance reasons I'll address later. For example today I was at a cafe and the boy behind me was wearing a shirt with a Jewish logo and I was feeling shleppy today, didn't do so well on my grad school homework, etc, and I just decided not to take the opportunity to recruit. I think this is important as well. To feel like you don't *always* have to be on. It can still be a top priority.
Finally, I think it's important to put a lot of thought into approaches. How many times a month do we want to email/call our audience? How should we approach this participant about a sticky situation? How can I maximize the effects of our programs without burning myself or others out? The "how" is critical. I've found it's about striking a balance. I want to invite as many people I can to events without coming off a little creepy or weird haha. I want to enlist as many people to help us with events without over-burdening others, or offering jobs to "too many cooks." I want to encourage donations to Moishe House, but not in a way that discourages people. It's one of our long-term goals we talked about tonight: we hope to take the Portland Jewish community to a place where there is more participant involvement in Moishe House events. We think it's important to have the main responsibilities in the hands of the few residents but to also encourage more of a voluntary and ownership model.
Moishe House learning experience:
* Serious responsibility
* To manage responsibility, it's worth educating the community on the model and encouraging participation
* Aggressive recruiting and idea-brainstorming, it's a constant process
* Thought goes into the most advantageous strategies. Ie: recruiting aggressively vs. going too hard and weirding people out, recruiting participant involvement vs. delegating too much work for a given person's personality/responsibilities, offering free events vs. asking for monetary contributions for events
These are the main things I've taken away from my experience at Moishe House and I hope they are helpful.
First off, I've found that Moishe House is a serious responsibility. It seems a little like stating the obvious, but it's true! Moishe House events, meetings, and other commitments such as cleaning or planning, hold just as much weight as any other time commitment in my life. It's like a job, or being in school, or any serious time commitment. You can't just drop it, move it around so it's more convenient for you, etc. It's not really about you anyway, it's about serving the community, right? I've found that it's worth it for me in the long run to try really hard not to reschedule Moishe House events for any reason. I've found that it's worth it in the long run for me to weigh new time commitments that may interfere with Moishe House, and choose Moishe House. For example, this month I was going to take a week-long overnight babysitting job. Those can be quite lucrative. But it was the week of a Friday night Shabbat dinner inbetween high holidays, and I really wanted a lot of people to come. 30 people came, and I cooked for about 30 hours total...not to mention shopping and clean-up. It's really worth it to me, in addition to the overall Moishe House community and the mission behind it, to make sure I have enough time to prepare, do, and clean up after events. And I feel a sense of diligence and peace of mind about this prioritization.
It's kind of annoying that your rent status can become knowledge in the community, which is why we try not to advertise it broadly here. It becomes a joke, like you're getting off easy. While it is a great deal for someone interested in peer programming, I think the rent subsidy is a very important incentive and compensation. Grassroots activism that characterizes Jewish community-building is always full of passion, but we really do need the resources to put those passions into action. That's what Moishe House provides for us. Therefore, it's important to educate people about Moishe House. Not necessarily just for this reason, but for people who've never heard of it before, or really do want to know more. Recently someone asked me about Moishe House and I said, "It's great, I love it, it's a lot of work, but it's really rewarding. There are 4 people living in our house, we do about 8 programs per month." One time, at Yom Kippur break fast this year, I was asked. "Really? What kind of work does it involve?" I was entirely honest with him about it. "Well, we have house meetings, we coordinate our schedules of events, we manage budgets, we maintain the house, put together recruiting and big-picture goals..."
Our events for the community are in the spirit of generosity. We're building a community and we're building a home. Yet, it's important to be truthful with people in order to keep our programs sustainable. When people hear how much work we do, they really respect it and say, "Oh, wow, that's cool. Sounds fun." Sometimes even, "How can I help?" Being truthful opens the door for respect and mutual understanding. It can go on to build mutually helpful and supportive relationships. I think we can honest about ourselves and our needs and also be incredibly generous.
More notes--the recruiting and event brainstorming is a constant process. I feel like I dream about Moishe House events. I recruit people I meet at the gym for Moishe House. Because creating events every month is a constant cycle, the thinking and the connecting never stop. So it's good to be on it all the time. But I've also discovered it's important to sometimes be "off." For this one and also for the balance reasons I'll address later. For example today I was at a cafe and the boy behind me was wearing a shirt with a Jewish logo and I was feeling shleppy today, didn't do so well on my grad school homework, etc, and I just decided not to take the opportunity to recruit. I think this is important as well. To feel like you don't *always* have to be on. It can still be a top priority.
Finally, I think it's important to put a lot of thought into approaches. How many times a month do we want to email/call our audience? How should we approach this participant about a sticky situation? How can I maximize the effects of our programs without burning myself or others out? The "how" is critical. I've found it's about striking a balance. I want to invite as many people I can to events without coming off a little creepy or weird haha. I want to enlist as many people to help us with events without over-burdening others, or offering jobs to "too many cooks." I want to encourage donations to Moishe House, but not in a way that discourages people. It's one of our long-term goals we talked about tonight: we hope to take the Portland Jewish community to a place where there is more participant involvement in Moishe House events. We think it's important to have the main responsibilities in the hands of the few residents but to also encourage more of a voluntary and ownership model.
Quarterly Blog
This summer flew by, but it was filled with great events. We had an amazing multi moishe house leadership retreat at the beach with some great programming, shabbat dinners, barbecues, spiritual salons, and tikkun olam events. We partnered up with Birthright Next and this past week we had a shabbat dinner that was co-hosted by Shabbat Next. We had a lot of birthrighters who had never been to Moishe House and are anxious to come back again. It was a huge success and we can't wait to co-host another shabbat dinner with them.
On a much sadder note we recently learned of the untimely death last week of Rafi Lehmann, who was last years rabbi in residence from the local Hoboken synagogue, and somebody I also went to college with. I still remember meeting him when I went to go visit the school, before I decided to go there, how welcoming he was and how comfortable he made me feel even though I was only a prospective student. Even though we were never able to coordinate a time for him to do lead a Moishe House event (we tried but unfortunately he wasn't able to come to the planned event due to an illness) we still had the opportunity to briefly get to know him. When we hosted a shabbat dinner at the synagogue in April he was there to support us. He was a great person who I know would have made a great rabbi. May his memory be a blessing.
Artivism, Thanks to the Moishe House
One year ago, my mentor asked what the Jewish community could do to support young Jewish artists. Today, we have created an answer: Moishe House LA. As a filmmaker, I am thirsty to be around other creative, passionate people. By living in the Moishe House LA, I live with people I admire and who can envision a Jewish community that is diverse, welcoming, inclusive, and fun. And, because of the subsidized rent, I am able to devote real time to my filmmaking. For example, last month I was asked to produce a video art installation - my first! Only because of my living situation, I was able to come up with a concept, interview people in the Mo House community, and spend time and energy editing without worrying about how I was going to pay next month's rent. We seek to reach out and support local artists and activists (we also had our first art gallery opening), including ourselves!
Here's the video piece, a look at 4 laws that limited marriage. I could only have produced this in such a short amount of time because of living in a Moishe House, so let me know your thoughts!
Here's the video piece, a look at 4 laws that limited marriage. I could only have produced this in such a short amount of time because of living in a Moishe House, so let me know your thoughts!
Moishe House Warsaw Future
I think In one year our Moishe house is still going to be a vivid center o Jewish young adults in Warsaw. We are getting better in organizing diffrent events so in one year I guess thinks will be still getting better I hope we will be cooperating with even more diffrent people and organizations to give young people more opotunieties to do something jewish in their lives.
In three years our Moishe house will be located somewhere else probably, in a biger apartament with more space. We will be still active members of Jewish comunity in Warsaw so probably todays tennagers will be old enough to visit our events and have fun with us
I cant tell if we will be still running our Moishe House in five years maybe there will be some younger people taking it over from us when some of us will be to old to be a Moishe house resident. 5 years is really long time but Im sure that even if Im not going to be a resident anymore for sure there is going to be a cool Moishe House in Warsaw.
In three years our Moishe house will be located somewhere else probably, in a biger apartament with more space. We will be still active members of Jewish comunity in Warsaw so probably todays tennagers will be old enough to visit our events and have fun with us
I cant tell if we will be still running our Moishe House in five years maybe there will be some younger people taking it over from us when some of us will be to old to be a Moishe house resident. 5 years is really long time but Im sure that even if Im not going to be a resident anymore for sure there is going to be a cool Moishe House in Warsaw.
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Future of MH STL
It is hard to say what Moishe House St. Louis will look like next year, much like in five or ten. Why is it so hard? Why can't I even postulate on what it will look like? Because we aren't static. New people are constantly coming to events with new ideas about what they want to see. New house members come with new life realities and new ideas about programs. The only constant is that we as house members and as a community are constantly striving to meet the balance of serving our community and leading our own lives. While I can't tell you what Moishe House St. Louis will look like in five years, I can tell you that as long as it is dynamic and continues to listen to the community it will still be here.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Neal, MHSeattle, 10/1/09 (personal blog post)
Change is in the air -- literally. As if on cue, the weather here in Seattle recently changed from summery to chilly, windy, and wet. Fall started Sept. 23, and already it's off to an ambitious start. I've apparently lost my beloved red North Face jacket, which means I need to buy another one. The Moishe House Seattle sukkah is well on its way to completion in the backyard, and I hope our scheduled mini-golf trip in late October isn't rained out, especially because I'm leading it.
Zara is, as expected, a great addition to the house. Her enthusiasm and sensitivity are wonderful to have around, and she made our living room look as though civilized people actually inhabit the house. I'm not a neatnik, and she likes things reasonably clean, but we're working on a compromise that we'll both be pleased with. Also, she's leading an ingenious program wherein we'll build sukkot out of cookies (like gingerbread houses). I can't wait!
I'm 30, so I'll be leaving Moishe House soon. No organization is perfect, just as no person or house is, but MH has helped me find my way back to Jewish life, and for that I'll always be grateful. I'm also glad to know that as a Moishe House alum, I'll likely have somewhere to stay across the country, and even around the world. I want to also mention the efforts of Summer Shapiro, who has done her best to work with MH Seattle's unconventional approaches to various matters. I wish the MH Seattle of the future, whatever shape it may take, a great deal of luck. And of course I'll always be around as a resource, in case my wisdom is needed or desired. Shana tova, everyone, and happy Sukkot!
Zara is, as expected, a great addition to the house. Her enthusiasm and sensitivity are wonderful to have around, and she made our living room look as though civilized people actually inhabit the house. I'm not a neatnik, and she likes things reasonably clean, but we're working on a compromise that we'll both be pleased with. Also, she's leading an ingenious program wherein we'll build sukkot out of cookies (like gingerbread houses). I can't wait!
I'm 30, so I'll be leaving Moishe House soon. No organization is perfect, just as no person or house is, but MH has helped me find my way back to Jewish life, and for that I'll always be grateful. I'm also glad to know that as a Moishe House alum, I'll likely have somewhere to stay across the country, and even around the world. I want to also mention the efforts of Summer Shapiro, who has done her best to work with MH Seattle's unconventional approaches to various matters. I wish the MH Seattle of the future, whatever shape it may take, a great deal of luck. And of course I'll always be around as a resource, in case my wisdom is needed or desired. Shana tova, everyone, and happy Sukkot!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)